We've all been there: driven to the brink of dinner table despair at the hands of a 'picky eater.' Some of us get downright cloak and dagger when it comes to getting our kids to eat—hiding all manner of greens in cakes and muffins. But it could be so much worse.
Though fussy eating is one of the most predictable stages of parenting, not all parents take it in their stride. Like the anon parent who posted an appeal on Craigslist, seeking a "really really skinny person" to drive the message home to their neophobic kid (a fussy foodie's fancy scientific name) that starving isn't the way to go.
As a child, you may have been told by a well-meaning relative to consider the starving children in Africa (like I was). But the thinking today has changed with the times; with the extent of disordered eating and globesity, nutritionists and parenting experts stress the goal shouldn't be for kids to clean their plates but to eat healthy, balanced meals.
As the article in the Huffington Post suggests, we can only hope this Craigslist ad is simply a "not-very-funny joke." As evidenced by one of my in-laws, who as a child subsisted on only fries and white bread, parents would do well to remember: this too will pass.
Have a fussy eater? See our resident nutritionist's top tips to get their forks in action.
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