I recently read that if you let your children cook with you they are more likely to not only eat more but also more likely to try new things. Since, my skinny little N needed some fatting up I thought I would give this a try.
Now, the issue with N is not that he won't try things...when forced or faced with missing out on ice cream the boy will put anything in his mouth, but that was all he was doing...tasting. Then ten, twenty minutes later, "Mom hungry, hungry." We have started wrapping up his food, for the fridge and then when hunger strikes, warming it back up again for him to eat. Sometimes it works sometimes not. But really I could live without the drama of forcing him to try it and then storing it and then bringing it back out again. I really just want him to eat when we eat and enjoy it.
So, N and I have been cooking together, and he HAS become more open and more excited about some food. But this is not a one change fix kind of thing (I asked him today if he wanted to try some of my tomato and he turned me down without a second thought). N is still my skinny little guy (which I'm starting to blame on how much he runs rather than how much he consumes), and he is still picky. But something that I didn't think about when I took on this experiment was the learning possibilities.
N loves to watch me crack eggs, make coffee (or hot cocoa in his case), make muffins, or anything that I might be throwing together. He likes to stir, and is my designated taste tester for all things that he thinks would be yummy. My favorite thing is letting him watch the ice cream in the machine. He's impatient, excited and won't leave his post till the ice cream is done. So, even though this experiment didn't solve my dinner drama issue it did open up a new cooking era for N and myself; of which I'm really excited about.
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