Is it me? Yes.
From babyhood until the age of nineteen, I would only eat:

- branflakes
- bread
- milk
- lancashire cheese
- fishfingers
- Granny Smiths
- chips
- Seabrook's Salt and Vinegar Crisps
- Sausages, and (a revelation when I was 15)
- Margherita pizza.

Now, there's been plenty of nonsense spouted on here along the lines of "parents shouldn't put up with this shit...yargh skiffle blah."

Well. My poor parents tried EVERYTHING to get me to eat normally - cajoles, threats, not letting me have anything else (redundant after I grew tall enough to reach the cereal cupboard) social embarrasment, wailing and nashing of teeth etc. And nothing worked. Because every time I tried to eat something not on above menu, I would be physically unable to swallow it, and just keep chewing and chewing until I eventually wretched.
Psychosomatic? Yes, but that doesn't make it any less real. Believe me, by the time I was a teenager no-one was more keen than me on the idea of eating normally.

Worse than anything else was the unsympathetic-bordering-on-offensive attitude of a few other people's parents, who would treat it - bearing in mind I would always warn them in advance - like a personal insult and make the whole unfortunate situation into a big issue and make me even more anxious about food than I already was. So, words of advice -

Parents - if you come across a kid with funny eating habits, for God's sake don't be offended or make a fuss. Just tolerate it. The whole thing is far worse for them than it is for you. And if it's your sprog who refuses to eat anything but jam sandwiches well beyond the fussy stage, relax - the affliction vanished almostly instantly (and inexplicably) when I went to uni. I'm 21 now and I will eat almost anything and like it.

Apart from tuna. Fucking hate tuna.

Miaow.

/rant
(jennymnemonic, Mon 5 Mar 2007, 21:33, Reply)