At the denitist's office the other day, L. peeked over my shoulder at the magazine I was reading and caught sight of the photo accompanying a recipe for spoonbread.
"Yuck!" he exclaimed very loudly. "I wouldn't eat THAT in a million years, so don't even think about it!"
"That never stopped me before," I replied jokingly.
I spend a lot of time trying to get inside L.'s head so I can imagine what he sees and smells when he looks at food. T. will page through cooking magazines and cookbooks with me and she'll stop at recipe photographs and exclaim over how delicious they look. She's been dabbling at creating some of her own recipes lately, and has recently discovered how to use the microwave. She'll make "apple toast" and adjust the cinnamon and honey until it tastes just right. She can often tell what I'm making for dinner just by the smells coming from the pans, and she responds accordingly. But L. seems unable to do this. His chief concern, most nights when he smells dinner on the stove, is whether or not we're having veggie burgers--veggie burgers make him gag and fall apart. He likes the smell of garlic cooking, but he can't seem to connect it with a food that appeals to him--like spaghetti sauce, which he won't eat, or cooked greens, which he also never eats, or any other delicious garlicky recipe. The only food smells that fill him with hunger and interest are baking bread and the smell of Chinese food cooking--lo mein, preferably. If we're at a shopping center and there happens to be a carry-out place nearby he'll anounce "Chinese food detected! Chinese food detected!" and beg for a carton of lo mein, no matter what time of day. He's eleven now, and his eating habits haven't improved one bit. I think back to pediatricians who told us, when he was three, or four, or six, or seven, that he'd get "less picky" or grow out of his rigid food preferences. That hasn't happened--if anything, his preferences have narrowed over the years.
As we gear up for middle school, I am focusing again on the food issue, and wondering what we can do to help him learn to eat at school--even if it's just an energy bar, or a bagel. When he's at home, we can keep him fed and healthy on the limited foods he does eat, but once he starts school again he'll be going 6 1/2 hours/day without a bite. At least, that's what he used to do. Will things change now? Will the middle school cafeteria somehow be a better environment? Will peer pressure help the cause? Are there strategies we haven't exhausted yet, or ones we should pull out again?
Except for the school piece of this, I don't worry about the food thing as much as I did three years ago. While it saddens me that he misses out on so many taste experiences, I try and remember that this is a loss I feel, not necessarily a loss that affects him in the same way. Maybe as he gets older some miracles will happen--there is still room for those. Scott often jokes that if we can just make sure L. lives within walking distance to a Chinese take-away and a pizza-by-the-slice shop then he'll be all set.