this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Original question by @Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world

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[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Okay, look, as a parent, I can tell you you have to tread a fine line. If you don't "force feed" your kid (specifically, aren't allowed to leave the table or eat anything else), they'll end up eating nothing but chicken nuggets, fries, mac & cheese, and apples. That is not a balanced diet.

However, forcing them to eat absolutely anything and everything is extreme, too. I don't like everything. I wouldn't want somebody to force me to eat mushrooms.

So at any given meal, they can choose one and only one thing they don't like and don't have to eat. And I do try to avoid giving them things they obviously don't want to eat (not even going to try putting broccoli on their plate even though it's delicious).

Plus it's a sliding scale: if I could get my 3-year-old to eat, and it wasn't junk food, I was happy. When he turned 5, he had to start expanding his food out a bit (turns out he's basically vegetarian except chicken nuggets, but he loves cucumber, carrots, salad, oranges, apples, etc because we made him eat them for a bit). Our 11-year-old, hoever, is expected to eat what we eat (minus spicy or overly spiced things, kids' palates are different), but can make small exceptions. If she's like "I don't like any of this," that doesn't fly, though.

All that to say "Force feeding kids is so fucked up" is ignoring a lot of necessary nuance.