As a mother of three young kids I would like for them to LOVE veggies, but that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. I would also like them to eat everything I cook, but that never happens either. When it comes to food for little one's you have what I call good days, bad days, and in-between days. The good days are when they eat EVERYTHING on their plates. The bad days are when they don't eat ANYTHING on their plates. The in-between days are when they pick and choose what on their plate they will eat. Gobbling up what they think is tasty and leaving behind what they just don't want to eat.
I know there are some parents out there that force their kids to eat everything on their plate at meal time. I am personally against that. I have days when I can be strict about them eating something and days when I don't care. But I hope that I will never make them eat everything because that can backfire and make them want to eat nothing. My husband says that if they don't eat we should just leave their plates out and when they get hungry that is what they will eat. Sometimes I subscribe to that philosophy and sometimes I don't.
The bottom line is that there are no real rules when it comes to eating for kids. The closest you can come to a rule is to follow the food pyramid guide for kids (http://www.mypyramid.gov/) and hope that you are doing the best that you can by them. You want to find some kind of veggie they will eat and some fruit, but you have to find what works for them and what works for you. Don't follow someone else's rules or philosophy. Make up your own and make it work!!
