Have you ever heard this protest before? It’s hard to know when kids mean it since they tend to say that they “don’t like” many varied (and often healthy) foods.

Personally, I also hear “That’s yucky!” a little too often for my taste.

So where do kids get these ideas that they don’t like food that they’ve never tried or aren’t hungry for? Can it be… from the adults in their lives? Have you ever asked a kid if she didn’t like something on her plate because she wasn’t eating it?

Once upon a time, I witnessed just such a display. I was having dinner with some family members and my cousin and her husband were there with their young son (you know who are if you’re reading this :). Their little boy wasn’t really in the mood for eating for whatever reason. So his dad asked him if he didn’t like what we were having for dinner. His mom stepped in immediately and said that of course he liked it and that they shouldn’t ask that question of him. That breakdown has made me wary of those simple words, “Don’t you like it?”

Just yesterday I offered a taste of my salad to a young man who I watch. It had sweet dressing on it that I thought he would really enjoy (since just yesterday he also said that his tummy was “Candy hungry”). He replied very calmly that he didn’t like salad. I asked him what he meant and he said that he didn’t like any type of salad. In my logical brain, I guess that means that he’s tried every kind of salad there is. Quite a feat for such a little man. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t put this all together on his own, but now he’s pretty resistant to trying salad (or other foods) if his mind has been up that he doesn’t like it.

So while we can’t avoid the food monster making things unacceptable for our children to eat, perhaps we can avoid enabling their censorship of said foods.

Don’t you like it?