Kids Say I Don't Want to Try Anything New, Sam I Am

Kids are often reluctant to try anything new or different than what they're used to. They will definitely let you know when they don't want to try something new. It is better to let them know who is in charge. That way when they refuse to try something new they know there are repercussions for their behavior.

"I do not like those things with my food. I do not like them Mommy I am. I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere." In reality his vocabulary was very limited at that point. It didn't actually come out like that when our son didn't want to eat his vegetables. It was more like a clamped shut mouth held so tightly that a crowbar could not have gotten his mouth open and hands over his face. He turned and bowed his head against his chest and a stubborn angry look would settle on his face. I wanted him to try something new, and get him to eat healthy foods.

When I was holding him on my lap feeding him his dinner, he finally got mad and decided he was going get out of eating those vegetables, no matter what it took. He didn't want to try something new. He didn't want his vegetables. He was hungry and he wanted to eat junk. I was serving a healthy balanced meal. But that was something new that he didn't want to try. He wasn't always with us, so when he was we wanted to make sure that he ate right. We also wanted to expand his horizons and food tastes and let him experience foods other than his primary diet of prepackaged high fat, high calorie fast foods. But again that was something new.

As he sat on my lap he decided he was going to get out of eating those vegetables by peeing all over my lap. I think he figured that if he did that, we would have to get him cleaned up, put fresh clothes on and that would be the end of having to try those new vegetables. What he didn't count on was how persistent we are. He could not out stubborn these two very stubborn parents.

I took him in the bathroom, cleaned him up, put new fresh clothes on him, and took him right back out where the food sat on his plate. He hadn't counted on that. He had tried whatever he could to get out of eating something new. It hadn't worked. He reluctantly opened his mouth just a crack when I calmly and firmly told him that he would be trying something new.

Now I won't say that he instantly ended up loving what he tried, like the character in "Green Eggs and Ham." Sometimes it was still a battle to get him to try anything new or to eat vegetables back then. But he realized that we were serious. He still doesn't like all vegetables but there are some now he actually will eat. Getting him to try something new was and is a challenge, since we don't always have him with us. But at least now he knows he has to give it a try. We don't make a big deal out of it. After that initial challenge he found out that with us trying something new, even of it was those nasty vegetables, was part of growing up and part of being our son. He also learned that he would get things he really liked if he tried the things he wasn't too sure about. We always praise him when he does.