|
Pickiness is useful in aspects of life when choices are hard to undo and the stakes are high: selecting a partner, say, or a doctor. But at the dinner table, picky eating is a scourge. Many parents feel like throwing their own tantrum when their offspring emphatically push away their plate. (For the record, as I have told our seven-year-old several times, plain pasta is not a vegetable. Period.)
Why are some children such fussy eaters? Culture surely plays a part. If you have ever seen a French school’s cafeteria menu—which can include leeks, pâté and beets—you probably know that outside America many children delight in foods other than pizza and macaroni and cheese. So are indulgent parents to blame for American children’s picky eating? It’s a subject worth picking apart. | 
