Jen wrote:

> Exactly they're not going to eat good food if they're full! And they're not
> going to eat good, but not as exciting food if they're offered junk later
> because they're hungry. They won't starve if good food is available, but
> they might get malnourished if they're given nothing but junk.


Allow me to giggle. Before rfc, I was a regular for many years on
rec.pets.dogs.behavior. Every so often, someone would post saying that
their dog would only eat abc or refused to eat xyz. It happened so
often that it became a sort of in-joke. The advice was always the same:
If you don't want your dog to eat abc, STOP FEEDING IT TO HIM. And, HE
WON'T STARVE. There were a few caveats about being sure that your dog
doesn't have a health condition that precludes eating. (For example, a
dog might not know how to tell you about a sore tooth.) I finally saved
a post on how to get your dog to eat so I could repost it as necessary.
At the end, I always asked people to try my advice and tell me how it
worked. In only one case did the original poster ever post again.


Now I'm wondering if we need to do the same thing for parents worried
about their kids fussy habits. Some new person gets on, and we all jump
to give the same advice. We even have the same arguments. (Uh, er,
disagreements.)


Granted, toddlers aren't dogs. There are some important differences
(though the similarities are remarkable). The bottom line comes down to
making sure the kid has a few nourishing choices at each meal, not
becoming emotional or involved in a power struggle, stop making a big
deal out of what the kid eats, and stop giving the kid food that the
parent doesn't want the kid to eat.


--Lia