Maria, somehow I missed this thread! I'm so happy for you & I think Mr. Pickey Eater is pretty lucky too! I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day! Nothing wrong with being a pickey eater...instead, refer to him as a discrimminating eater. LOL /tricia

I am a picky eater. DH is not. My kids -- well, two out of three of them -- eat a wide range of foods. But because I am picky and I am Head Chef, my family only gets adventurous foods (my term) when they eat elsewhere! It's become a joke with people who know us. "Can we go to this restaurant? Can you find anything on the menu that you'll eat?" I'm not THAT bad but I am a baby and won't try ethnic foods like Indian, Moroccan, etc... I do eat Chinese food and Thai and Mexican. I can't stand dishes that mix meat and fruit. It just makes me want to gag. I won't eat hummus. I don't get it. Blecch. But it's always in the fridge because my family likes it. I balk at eating casseroles when I can't identify the ingredients. I don't like certain foods to "run together" on the plate -- I got that one from my father. Certain things are okay, but OMG, if I have a cold salad on a plate and it's running into something hot on the plate? IWWWW. Raw oysters or clams? Grosss. But I love lobster and shrimp. I am fully aware that I am a baby and perhaps a little bit crazy in this regard!

Annie, I actually don't have a problem with Sebastian choosing to socialize rather then eat, well not with Sebastian anyway. I feel that part of why he is going to school is for the social part. I hate the way the schools devalue eating and socialization. The other problem is the cafeteria, actually it is a cafe-gym-atorium and it is loud and awful. All the kids prefer it when they have lunch in their classroom, at least according to my informal poll. lol, I have often had much with them in the cafeteria and once in the classroom. They were much better at eating while socializing in the classroom. The problem is lunch is when the teachers get a break. I would like teachers to eat with them and have their break during recess. My felling about food is make sure to feel good about everything you serve so it does not matter what they make a meal of. I told a friend of mine when we had 1 year olds, serve them good food and don't pay attention to what is on the floor or still on the tray. So long as you served it it counts. I don't even make my kids take a bite. I tried that once and the gaging etc was not worth it. Plus he had built up that he would not like it. I have told them if it is on their plate and they don't want it, don't talk about it. If they say something is disgusting I will require a bite, ignore it and I am fine. I just hate to have my food insulted ;-) Also they will need these manners for other peoples homes. My kids can have problems in the house of some peers as they are used to a certain level of food. They will not eat frozen pizza, super market rotisserie chicken ... We have friends who eat frozen pizza, when we go over to their house for pizza we bring dough, sauce etc. -Robin

Giving in to his pickiness only reinforces it. Pretty soon all he'll want is venison and potatoes, and I don't mean the doggie food version! Keep him away from the cat food somehow, and he'll eventually get hungry enough to eat his own food. Unless of course he really is sick- my Husky Aleksander got really picky before he died of gastric adenocarcinoma.