Well, my son Alex pretty much never liked eggs, much less egg yolks.  And it didn’t matter how I prepared them.  So I pretty much became the food police and would insist that at least he ate one yolk per day in some form or the other; the whites were optional, but he had to eat the yolk.  Most mornings he did put up some resistance, and often I caved in (weak Paleo mom I was – pun intended).  My daughter Laura (this blog owner) was never particularly happy about the arguments that would ensue when I placed a plate of two eggs in front of Alex, of course knowing he would only eat one if any at all.  I also accompanied the eggs often with my homemade fresh baked, ground and soaked whole wheat, cinnamon buns, loaded with the best butter I could find and sweetened with some real sweetener such as Rapadura.   Yes, this was bribery, but it did often work.  Other foods for breakfast could be fruit, soaked oatmeal, and real milk.  Bacon from local farms did not get eaten too well, so I opted for Applegate Farms instead.

But there were days that Alex prevailed and he would not eat even one bite of his egg yolk, just his dry cereal and some real milk.  Okay, we were halfway there anyway.   So then I got creative with egg yolks and began to make raw milk shakes with 1-2 yolks, flavored with natural peanut butter and some chocolate syrup.  These he would drink.  Or later in the day, after school or dinner, I would serve foods where I snuck in as many egg yolks as would not be detectable, such as pasta sauce, taco meat, meat balls or meat loaf, homemade custards, crepes, and even on occasion fruit with Zabaglione sauce which contains about 1 egg yolk per serving.  So with all this effort, I think I managed at least one egg yolk per day into his tummy.

Looking back, I do feel the aggravation and argumentation was worth it.  Alex now eats eggs with some frequency, even though he admits that he does not particularly like them.  He even cooks them for himself in the mornings, usually served with half of a bagel.  When he had his own nearby apartment in college, he would gladly take back with him a carton of the eggs I had purchased from our Amish farmer.  He knew the difference. When I made homemade hash browns, he would also eat those instead of the bagel.  Note to cooks out there:  Make your hash or roasted potatoes in half ghee, half olive oil or lard and they are not only super-delicious they will be a great source of vitamin K2 and probably vitamin D.  You can buy Pure Indian Foods Grassfed Organic Ghee, or make your own from the best grass-fed butter you can find, it doesn’t have to be raw.  Anyway, even children with casein intolerance can usually tolerate ghee with no problem.

Now I do realize this is a lot of work, but to me, making a lasting investment in your child’s health is probably one of the best of all ways to use your time, even it is limited.  Getting the kids on board as soon as they begin their first foods is obviously the best, but for many parents that window of opportunity has passed.  But don’t give up – there are many ways to nourish the picky eater, and that is something I help parents who meet with me find solutions for.

My next guest blog will be about what you can do with chicken stock, why it is important, and how to get a few servings of vegetables down their little hatches. 

Mom with her Picky Eater