Okay…the title of this post really looks bad, doesn’t it.  Eeesh.

First off, my son isn’t starving and I’m not looking for any hand-outs.  No, my issue is my inability to make my way around the kitchen.  I’m a nearly 40-year-old man who somehow finds a way to burn water, so my cooking skills are not the greatest in the world.

To make things more fun, my son has inherited my palette…meaning he’s fussier than I am when it comes to food. He’s only five and yet hasn’t tried a ton of things because he refuses to try them.

Yes…I know…it sounds very familiar.

So I end up having to cook hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, fries, chicken breasts, bacon, and the occasional pork chop as primary meals. On one hand, that’s not such a bad thing for a single dad to cook up…easy, quick, and fairly tasty. On the other hand, those are certainly not the most healthy choices in the world and I don’t want him to grow up like me…addicted to junk, overweight, and unhappy.

On the plus side of things, he loves a few healthy choices that even I won’t touch like strawberries and grapes. He also likes potatoes, carrots, and peas…so I suppose that’s better than nothing and opens up a few options for me.

But where he won’t try new things, it makes it even more difficult to come up with options for him to eat.  And that brings me to wondering what I can do on a go-forward basis.

I should be happy, though, that he won’t eat JUNK junk food. For example, not only does he never want to drink soda (although his grandfather tries to get him to taste it every time he visits), but he doesn’t eat candy. The only chocolate he likes is plain chocolate either in a bar or in an egg shape. He eats plain potato chips occasionally but won’t eat cake. He enjoys popcorn but hates licorice. He’ll eat vanilla ice cream, but don’t you dare give him ice cream with a flavour attached to it.

He’s an usual kid. His aversion to even trying pizza has me wondering where I went wrong, actually. So I guess this brings me back to wondering what I can do to feed my son.

Is having a fussy child normal? Can I expect his taste buds to change with time? If so, how do I help that progression along?

Sigh…