Strange New Foods

Suddenly, our child eats nearly anything, and more of it than I would have thought possible. I don’t understand what changed, just about two weeks ago–growth spurt? tapeworm?–but we have actually had to alter our shopping habits to keep more food in the house, and very little of that is what you might think of as baby food. He consumes everything, as long as it’s cut up smallish. Sharp cheeses. Strongly flavored sauces. Vegetables even his parents don’t enjoy very much. Olives. (Who ever heard of a baby who likes olives? Okay, my side is entirely Greek, and his mother’s half Italian, but still. He doesn’t know that.) All topped off with so much fruit that he’s the only one in our household conforming to those servings-per-day guidelines the FDA puts out.

What’s peculiar is that any given one of those foods is fine most of the time. And then, periodically, one of them suddenly just … isn’t. He will react with revulsion, spit it out, ptooey, and paw at his tongue as if we’ve given him something no human should eat. The next day, it’s perfectly fine again.

Anyone else had this weird experience? Would love to hear about it in the comments.

Published by Christopher

Christopher Bonanos is a senior editor at New York magazine, where he works on arts and urban-affairs coverage (and a few other things). He and his wife live smack in the middle of midtown Manhattan, where their son was born in March 2009. Both parents are very happy, and very tired.

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3 Comments

  1. We’re no more Greek than Ataturk, but Dalia was practically raised on olives. And pickles. But don’t try to get her to eat a piece of beef, most days. It’s extremely random, but always surprising and a good argument for never prejudging what a kid will or won’t eat… –Nathan

  2. each of my kids eat well, eat a variety, eat differently than the others. Lately I have been laughing (silently, mostly) at the parents who hide veggies in the food … My kids just don’t get seconds of the pasta, meat, whatever till they eat some veggie or another. It’s easy cuz they like the rest of the stuff so much. Two of my three LOVE olives, one the nicoise, the other the big, fat green ones, but will eat any. The third, you guessed it, spits ’em out into his hands, and then DROPS THE CRAP on my plate. Sigh.

    My brats, after finding out that one mom at school gives her son smoothies with veggies hidden in ’em for b’fast, lunch and dinner, regularly ask what veggie we can hide in OUR smoothie (as in MOM, can we have a SMOOTHIE today?!)

    You got it. That mom hoodwinks her kid, so my kids hoodwink me. Hmm …

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