Food Rankings

Back when the boys were just starting to eat solid food, I kept track of how they liked certain things. It was fun and much less stressful than today. A funny (to the grown-ups) face communicated the intense dislike or just some spitting it out and letting it drip all over the bib or bare chest or the side-to-side head movements to avoid the item altogether. If they don’t like something now, we get a lot of “I’m not eating that!” or running directly to the garbage can to spit something out or “this tastes awful” or “that hurts my tongue” or “I hate meat” or just a general temper tantrum which immediately results in a trip to the naughty corner. (You would think they would learn.)

But, back then (four years ago) I had a clever (to me) way to judge how a food was liked (or not) – it was a spoon rating system. The maximum score was four spoons. The criteria was smearability, stainability, taste, and consistency. Obviously, the messier a food is, the more fun it is – this still holds true today (not only for the boys but also for Bub who consistently makes more laundry than the two boys put together!).
Here are some of the food rankings from their baby years:

Sweet potatoes – Meatball gave them 3 spoons – smearability and stainability were surprisingly not high. Peanut gave them 2.5 spoons – he didn’t like the taste as much as his brother. Last night, Peanut liked them much better than Meatball.

Rice cereal – This pasty food was white so it got zero spoons with the stainability factor. Peanut really hated this at first and didn’t even give it a quarter spoon for taste. His overall score was a measly 1.25 spoons while Meatball liked it a bit better at 2 spoons.

Peas – Ah – nice and green and messy and yummy! Both boys gave peas 4 spoons. Then, at about 3 years old, they both went on pea strike. We have only recently decided to give peas a chance. (Bwah-ha-ha-ha – get it? “Give peace a chance”?!?!? Gawd – I slay myself.)

Squash – Messy again. 4 spoons each again. Why do kids like the messiest foods? Today, I can’t get them to eat squash to save my life. I have to hide it in bread and biscuits and muffins and pasta. Unless it’s spaghetti squash, they HATE it. Of course, so does Bub. I think that she is secretly training them while I’m at work during the day.

Green Beans – Meatball used to give these 3.5 spoons. He hasn’t willingly eaten a green bean for about 2 years now. Peanut was pretty unsure about this food at first, but will tolerate it now. Me? I LOVE green beans! How can you not?

Carrots – the all-time favorite! From the very first jar, both boys adored this food. In fact, they ate this food in record time. This is the only food that they have continued to absolutely love. Raw carrot sticks (with or without dippy sauce, aka ranch dressing), steamed carrots, baked carrots (picked away from other root veggies, of course), in soup, in salad, shredded in cakes and muffins – even in juice! The good things in life just never change, right?