Birdy Birdy Num Nums!

A few days ago, Giovanna and I took LHG out at lunch time, holing up at a
department store café. He was quite happy in a high chair all the time he was eating,
but on this occasion he’d got through his jar of food very quickly, and once he’d
finished, he was done. Trouble was, we hadn’t finished. How to keep him occupied?
His interest in the piece of rice cake only lasted so long. Then I remembered, I’d just
bought him one of those pull back toy vehicles, in this case a VW camper van. Since
he was sitting at the end, Giovanna and I took turns to set it off across the width of
the table, provoking giggles from him with each lap. It gave us time to finish our
sandwiches and coffee before he was once more moaning to be set free.

So far, LHG’s meal-time problems have been those of boredom when he’s
finished, rather than the food presented to him. With one exception.
On Saturday, Pa and I were in charge for the day as usual. LHG had eaten
earlier, but we hadn’t had time until we sat down to watch Wimbledon. LHG, seeing I
had something interesting, climbed onto the settee and crawled over to me,
eyeballing my sandwich of cheese and lamb’s lettuce. There was a piece of the
lettuce hanging over so I lifted it up and offered it to him. He knelt up, took it, gave it
a look of disgust and shook it onto the floor. I offered him another bit. Same
reaction. Next thing I knew, he’d lifted the top layer of bread off one of my
sandwiches and it was heading for his mouth! Retrieving it from him, I offered him a bit of
crust, and he seemed content with that.

I guess all children have some foodstuff they’re not going to be fond of. My own
children were pretty good at eating most things, but they all had their bête noirs.
Aunty C couldn’t stand baked beans and, although she liked banana flavour, didn’t
like the texture. Giovanna, on the other hand, was known as ‘Giovanna the banana
queen’. However, she couldn’t abide even one single pea on her plate. Uncle Peter
never had much time for cheese, unless it was melted or mozzarella. Uncle Jack
disliked eggs. When they were tiny, both their grandpa TC and their grandpa Gwil
spent mealtimes trying to coax them all to eat the things they disliked. Grandpa TC’s
approach was to eat the offending food and say, ‘Mmm, birdy birdy num nums!’
Grandpa Gwil’s, a similar approach, was to proclaim ‘Yummers!’ each time they
said, ‘Yuck!’

Time will tell if LHG’s food hangups will be any more serious than lamb’s lettuce.
If so, a different tack may be needed from that taken by his great-grandfathers,
since, despite their efforts, all their grandchildren’s food dislikes are pretty much
intact!

Mmm, think I fancy a cheese and pea omelette with baked beans. Yummers!