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Comment by oblio | Hacker News Reader

> If you're hungry, in the true sense of the word, you'll have meat and fat and ask for seconds.

If you're really hungry you're going to ask for seconds for everything.

Source: Fussy 11 year old me stuck in a summer camp with awful food. The first morning there I refused to eat and after breakfast they took us hiking up some mountains for 4 hours or so. For lunch I asked for seconds of their awful food and I enjoyed it :-)

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Monday: cat gets some porridge. It looks at it and says: screw it! And walks away.

Tuesday: cat gets porridge again. It looks at it, sights and exclaims: porridge! And walks away.

Wednesday: cat gets porridge again. It looks at it in a semi-curious way. Hmm, porridge.. And walks away.

Sunday: cat gets porridge again. It looks at the porridge, its eyes fully focused on it. It smells it.. It walks around the plate trying to catch even more smell of it. And then it screams: porridge!!!!!!! And eats it all in just a few large bites.

I think this is the source of most young picky eaters. They just aren't hungry. I know my kids are picky unless there are no snacks in the house, then suddenly they like everything!

The trouble we run into is if you try to call their bluff and make them wait it out until they are actually hungry, suddenly it's bedtime and you have a kid who won't go to sleep because they didn't eat anything, and it stops being their problem and turns into a massive inconvenience for you.

But probably the better idea would just be for us to ration snacks more closely throughout the middle of the day.

This 100% the situation we have with our almost 4 year old daughter. My wife has a soft spot,so any cries would make her surrender in a second,so it's very easy for our daughter to just walk away from a really nice meal because it's not ' what she likes' and then keep coming back for all sorts of snacks or the food she really likes.

we ration snacks and provide meals with lasting hunger satiation (no cereal!).

Nah. I watched a four-year-old nephew basically go 3+ days without eating anything (long weekend in a cabin). There can be other things at play.

I think these habits are developed over more than a few days too. I bet the pickier you are, the longer it takes for your biology to tell you that it's time to eat. Also this is all dancing around wanting to call picky eaters spoiled brats lol.

that's a special case, or he's a pantry cat burglar. I've known both. One case, the boy is autistic so once he heard he would get a specific food, he wouldn't eat until he got it. The other case the kid had a stash of snacks in his room and would break into the pantry when mom wasn't looking.

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