Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was (and still am) a picky eater. I was diagnosed late in life with a genetic disorder, which is the reason I'm a picky eater. I was often criticized for being so picky, but I was never told to clean my plate. It wasn't uncommon for my father to eat what was left on my plate rather than throw it out, but my right to decide what to put in my body was always respected. I think that -- respecting a person's right to c…
> I think that -- respecting a person's right to control what goes in their body -- is an excellent policy. This sounds great but breaks down at implementation. My 5 y/o is not yet equipped with the mental discipline to have this autonomy. We force him to try everything we put on his plate. New foods are introduced in small quantities to prevent wastage, but we fully expect him to try all the weird things he is quite…
As long as a child is receiving adequate nutrition, is it necessary to force him to expand his culinary horizons? Natural curiosity tends to balance out temporary fixation in the absence of such abnormal thinking that might arise from feeling a lack of control.
> If we gave him autonomy, he’d choose candy and soda.
Whether or not this is the case, there's a difference between allowing choice and allowing all choices, and there's a difference between imposing quality and imposing quantity. But, I don't think the stereotype of a kid binging on junk-food without boundary is accurate outside families that build such foods into a rare, prized(!) and denied commodity. It's just unfortunate that that attitude is so pervasive.