Is string cheese and hot dogs all you got?

I've decided to dedicate this blog entry to food. No, not for all the food I love or the great dishes that are out there for everyone to try. This is for all the food my son won't eat. I've read articles and seen books on how to get your picky kid to try new things, but I'm almost certain that they haven't met Evan. Anytime I give him anything new. And by new I mean anything that isn't a hot dog, string cheese, peanut butter toast, grapes or chicken. So, as you can see that leaves a lot of things out there that Evan doesn't like.

At first I thought I could be tricky and sneak things onto his plate without him noticing. WRONG! When I do that he kind of gives me this who-are-you-trying-to-kid look and promptly throws the food on the floor. Fun!

I've tried combining foods so it has a familiar taste but different ingredients. For example, the one I was most proud of was cauliflower that I steamed and made like mashed potatoes with cheese. Who would turn that down? Um, that would be Evan! He acted like I gave him poison and dug the cauliflower concoction out of his mouth and threw it on the floor. More fun!

What gets me is he doesn't even try the entire bite of food. He judges by the first second it hits his tongue, and if he doesn't like it (which is 99.9% of the time) he will take it out of his mouth and banish it to the floor. I almost picture him doing an Italian accent when he does it while saying "get outta here" in his best mafia voice. That is then followed by the who-are-you-trying-to-kid look. How am I supposed to get him to try new things when he won't even give it a try?

I worry with his limited palate he isn't getting the nutrition he needs and that he is going to grow up and become the Oscar Myer spokesman. To over compensate I feed him fruit (the only thing he loves completely) and milk like it's going out of style, which I'm sure if I look hard enough I can find something that is wrong with that. Sigh!

The only thing I can hope for is that he will grow out of this stage and come to love normal kid food, like pizza and mac and cheese. Until then, you'll find me in the grocery isle stocking up on hotdogs and string cheese.