Just Try It

Andrew is about the pickiest, most finicky eater ever. By the time he was 2, he had us trained to cheer and congratulate him for eating even a cookie or some ice cream. A little progress has been made since then, mainly due to friends and peer pressure.

We got a book from the library about a kid who refused to eat his vegetables - even try them. It's called, "Just Try It". We had read it a few times and discussed how trying new things is good and you often find new foods that you like, when one night for dinner I made something that Andrew refused to try (no surprise). So, I asked him what he was willing to eat. He said, "you tell me". This is when I get to start naming things off in hopes of him saying yes to something. The difficulty is that if you name too many things that he doesn't want to eat, he gets upset and then the whole idea of eating is out the window.

Anyway, I mentioned a waffle (frozen) and he said yes. I asked if he wanted jam and he said grape, then he said he wanted ketchup. "What? You want ketchup instead of grape jam?" I asked.
"No," he said. "I want grape jam and ketchup on the side."
"Ooh." I said, trying to sound enthusiastic and hoping I, at least, didn't sound too disgusted.
So, I served it to him. I cut the waffle and poured some ketchup on the side of the plate, expecting that I was just wasting a bunch of ketchup.

Nope, Andrew dipped every bite of his grape jam waffle into the ketchup and ate the entire thing. To top it off, he wanted another one the next day, but this time with strawberry jam. I asked him if it tasted good and he said, "Just try it, mommy. It's good, you'll like it." Thankfully, I used the allergy-diet for Lizzie as my excuse to get out of trying it. But, I did get to eat my own words - they sure were tasty!