March 2

On Saturday I was making a salad, and R came over and said she wanted to try some spinach. This is the girl who will pick out tiny pieces of anything green from her food before she will eat it, and asks for any trace of herbs to be washed off. She ate four pieces and then went to get "something heavy" so she could test if she was getting stronger. She lifted a paint can and carried it around, and then came back and ate some more spinach. She said, "Can you put some of this spinach in my lunch?"

So, we'll see how it goes. Since she was a toddler, I have been calling broccoli "fairy trees" and telling her "you like the way that grass smells, so you will love the fresh taste of these greens." I have tried, "I know! let's pretend that you are a rabbit, and I am the rabbit's mommy and this is a dish of your favorite fresh leafy food from Mr. McGregor's garden." But no dice. ("this rabbit only likes sandwiches.") She does like to eat carrots and then run into a closet with the light off to see if they are making her see better. So maybe "spinach will make you strong" finally intrigued her.

There was an article in the NYT a few days ago about kids developing eating disorders because their parents are focused too obsessively on avoiding "bad" foods. http://tinyurl.com/nytkids . There might be a valid point buried in there somewhere, but it didn't strike me as very good journalism. After the attention-getting headline, there were some lightweight anecdotes before the story kind of petered out. It does seem like there are things in processed food now that weren't there even a generation ago, and we don't know their long-term effect on health. It doesn't seem like a bad idea to feed your kids a wide variety of whole foods with minimal processing, that are organic, and hormone and pesticide-free whenever possible.

As far as making kids so alarmed about their food that they are afraid to eat anything and developing eating disorders--I don't know. Maybe that's possible. It doesn't seem likely in a family with a basic level of common sense. And who knows what kids are actually absorbing from what you say. Yesterday R saw someone smoking in the car next to us and said, "You should never smoke in your car or sit in a car with someone who is smoking. We learned that in Staying Healthy class." Then she added, "You should only smoke when you are walking around."