Yep, must have because I know how to get kids to eat everything on their plates. Tucked away in either The Globe or The Herald was a little article about how some researchers somewhere are trying to figure out how to solve the problem of the "picky eater". Their "solution" was to give the kid three spoonfuls of something they liked and then three empty spoonfuls. The theory was that because they ate the three they liked, they would simply be conditioned to chow down on the empty bites that followed in quick succession.
How stupid is that.
Any kid I have ever fed knows in a nano-second if he/she doesn't like what he/she just tasted. I used to make all my baby food and as long as I mixed in a sweet potato (yam), that kid ate anything I gave it. And I'm talkin' onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, liver, kidneys, fish, brussel sprouts, broccoli, spinach -- anything.
As a kid got older, if it didn't like what was on offer for dinner, he/she was served it for breakfast. Cold. "Can you please heat this up," was requested once. "No, this is not supposed to be pleasant." That only had to happen once with each kid and subsequent plates of.....whatever.....were cleaned with rapidity.
I have actually heard mothers lamenting the fact that they have to make three and four meals at dinner because this one didn't like this and that one didn't like that....blah, blah, blah. What is wrong with these women?! As I kid, I can remember sitting in front of a plate of liver until 11 o'clock at night. But I ate it because any such test of wills was always won by my mother.
As to eating disorders? All these spoiled brats need to think of are the billions around the world who are starving. That would do it, in my view.
So, that's my PhD thesis, done and dusted.
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