Have a child who won’t take even a tiny taste of something you’ve made?

Can’t understand why? Here’s my story about trying fried crickets last summer in a piece I wrote for Portland Family. Hopefully, it will shed some light on your situation.

(Leave a comment about the scariest food you’ve ever tasted!)

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever tasted?

Do you remember how you felt as you put it into your mouth? Hold onto that feeling. Chances are, that’s exactly how your reluctant taster feels each and every time you ask him or her to sample something new.

The scariest thing I’ve ever tasted is a fried cricket.

I was exploring an African food market last summer with my husband and 12-year-old daughter when we noticed a basketful of fried crickets. “Try one?” the vendor asked, offering up his bounty. The three of us looked at each other and said, “Sure.” Only I wasn’t thinking, “Sure.” I was thinking: Really? Eat crickets? Are you nuts?

One reason the idea of tasting crickets left me shaking in my boots is that I had absolutely no idea what they would taste like.

It’s not like I could steel my shaky nerves by thinking back to the time I’d eaten locusts or grasshoppers … because that had never happened. In fact, nothing in my eating life had prepared me for this moment. So I had to wonder: Would the crickets taste pleasant? Would they have a strong and overpowering taste? Would they make me gag? (And if that happened, would I completely embarrass myself by losing my lunch in the middle of the market?)

My husband was the first to select his specimen.

“Not bad,” he reported. And with that, I took a deep breath, screwed up my courage—“When are you going to get another chance like this?” I asked myself—and then, before I could back out, I popped that little pest into my mouth. It was crunchy and a little salty. Most importantly, though, that cricket was swallowed. It was gone. Down the gullet. And I’d never have to conquer a cricket again.

I know, you’ve never asked your child to taste anything as out there as fried crickets. But roasted chicken? Asparagus? To you, these foods probably seem like a walk in the park. To a reluctant taster, though, roasted chicken might as well be a cricket. They’re both unfamiliar, intimidating and potentially lethal.

Read the rest of the article at Portland Family.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~