Rejection turned into preference – a cheesy issue

There was a time in ‘Timan’s life when he rejected everything that looked, smelled or tasted slightly of cheese. Not quite understandable for me because I just love it, I think there is not a single cheese on the planet that I don’t like.

But no, there is one exception, and that is goat cheese.  Maybe because the taste is too strong or because of the animal, I don’t like to eat goat meat neither. Or maybe it’s the name, nothing goaty is my liking and if Hubs will grow one, I’m going to cut it off

I already wrote about ‘Timan’s distaste of dairy-products before, but I think now the time of change has come. It started subtile about two month ago when he asked all of a sudden for more milk to go with his ‘Weetabix’, even though he did not ask for milk but for water. I poured more milk and he started to spoon the milk out. I thought ‘wow, that’s almost like drinking the milk’ and offered him a cup instead. But he refused. ‘Well, that’s ok with me, he shall spoon the milk, no problem, as long as it ends up in his mouth’ I thought. And being a real toddler, he insisted on having his ‘Weetabix’ with lots of milk’ every morning,  until now.

His next step into the diary world was rather surprising. Out of the blue, one day shortly before bedtime, he asked for cheese. I thought he’s going to turn away when I’m handing him some (mild cheddar) but this time it was different. He popped it in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and asked for more. And he asks for it every day.

This is opening a whole new horizon concerning his meal variety. Now, finally, I can start to prepare gratin. I know it will take a while until he is going to accept these new meals,  he has to see it on the table for a while, nibble on it and eventually he might like it (the 10-times rule), but it’s the first step into the right direction. At this point he’s still refusing the all-time-children-favorites like ice-cream and yoghurt.

Sometimes in the past I was asking myself, is this diary aversion related to breastfeeding? I was nursing ‘Timan’ fulltime until he was 6 month old and from then on gradually less often per day until he was 22 month old. He was never drinking formula.  And breast milk does taste very different to formula or regular milk. Might this be a reason for it? Or is he just being the unpredictable toddler? Did you experience something similar with your kids? Do you think as well that breastfeeding was one of the reasons for his milk rejection? Please tell me about it.

‘O take the nasty soup away! I won’t have any soup today’

Maybe  you remember the  ‘Story of Augustus who would not have any soup’ (‘Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar’  by Heinrich Hoffmann)  from your own childhood, by being told the story or from your own experience. Well, I certainly do. And I’m sure my mom does as well 😉

But now the same old thing is happening with my son.  I thought I was doing everything right.  Maybe I did, but maybe I should have introduced different foods, maybe I should have involved him earlier in  family dinners, maybe … , I don’t know. Having meals without lots of spices is a bit difficult here in paradise. Everybody loves the chilli and uses it in abundance. Anyhow, ‘Timan’ was never an adventurous eater, is still refusing plain cows-milk, cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream!!, chocolate!!, cereals without or with added sugar!! among many other things. All the stuff kids normally go for are a sure ‘no, no, don’t like’ for ‘Timan’. But he likes peanut-butter and bread, not combined however, each one by itself (a spoon full of peanut-butter next to a plain slice of bread, no jam of course!). He loves apples and mangos, the later he started to eat only three month ago. Any other tropical fruits such as bananas, papaya, guava, you name it, he categorically refuses.

But I have my tricks, I mix milk powder (a lot) in his apple-porridge in the morning (without added sugar of course)  and very often he’s eating his rice cooked in milk (again with lots of milk powder added).  Sometimes he likes veggi stew, sometimes he’s refusing it, sometimes he likes fish, sometimes not. He eats sausages (processed food – ‘Timan’s favorite, not mine however) prepared with onions, garlic and ginger but no pieces of chicken, beef or pork or the minced version thereof. And he loves Ginger-Cookies, the ‘spicier’ they are the better!

So this leads me to the question: Is he just being a normal Toddler? A picky eater? Or maybe both?

I know about the 10-times-rule and try to follow  it as best as I can, but the outcome still stays the same. He ends up being stuck with the same old same old for months.

Or maybe I should try something completely different and let him go hungry? As in an old saying I remember from my childhood. It goes like  ‘When the devil is hungry he’s eating fly’ when I translate it. But this would break my heart.

I don’t know anymore. I guess time will show and eventually ‘Timan’ is growing out of this developmental stage and his taste buds are going to take a turn for the better (and healthier), so I hope.

Maybe you have any experience with this issue? Please feel free to leave your comment, your support and your ideas are most welcome. Thank you so much.