The Culture of Picky Eating

Recently, I came across an article about the origins of the children's menu. I was intrigued, probably because I'd never really thought of this as being a thing that "started", more like it was always there.

Naturally, I started thinking about my own dining experiences, in particular the children's menus. From what I understand about them (which is very little), there are certain universal truths about the children's menu, at least here in the US. 

1) They come with activities. Usually a few crayons, a word find, maybe coloring pictures. Sometimes these activities are food centered, though I would venture to say usually they are not.
2) They are kid friendly foods, meaning typically there's not much cutlery required, and I don't recall having ever seen an octagon-style cage fight over peas between parents and kid at a restaurant.*
3) The menu includes hamburger, chicken fingers, hot dog and/or macaroni and cheese, even in restaurants that do not serve these items for adults. Or, even more interesting, that serve a gourmet mac-and-cheese for adults and the powdered box variety for kids.

All kid's menus are not created equal. That's not to say that there aren't ever any options available for the 12-and-under with a more refined palate. Certainly, there are Italian places that offer spaghetti, seafood restaurants with a fish finger or shrimp of some kind and steak places that... you get the picture. However, I will tell you I have never, in all my years of menu perusing come across vichyssois or steamed mussels over arugula on a kid's menu.

My point is this - there seems to be a universal understanding that kids eat different foods, and people tend to go along with it (even if, in my earlier research, I learned this was not a customary practice until the early 1900s). At the same time, we recognize there is a growing need to introduce foods to fruits and veggies at a young age, to incorporate healthy, balanced eating practices regularly. There's also a bounty of cookbooks and recipes available about everything from hiding veggies in sauces and pasta, to featuring veggies in a way that your kid might actually like to try.

Still in other ways, we've moved beyond the idea of "kid-friendly" to the idea that children can participate in the more mature culinary experiences of their parents. We are merging these ideas to send conflicting expectations -- you must eat your peas at home, but as soon as you walk through the door...all bets are off.

That's not to say some kids won't be picky, or that loading asparagus onto a kid's plate is a sure-fire way to get the kid to love asparagus (it doesn't work, by the way), but there are ways to make fruits and veggies approachable without side-stepping the issue all together by providing baby carrots at every meal. Kids will meet your expectations. If you expect for a child to love chicken fingers and hamburgers, he will probably eat a lot of chicken fingers and hamburgers. If you expect your child to try new things (even just once), he probably will -- provided you give him the opportunity.

*There is never any need for an octagon-style cage fight over veggies. There are much more civil ways to engage a child in balanced eating.

For an actual historical account of the origins of the children's menu, check this out.

-- Les, MS RD LD