I know some parents totally make the situations with picky kids, but between genetics determining if you like vegetables or not [BASICALLY. whether or not a lot of them taste overpoweringly bitter/unpleasant to some folks and fine and tasty to others] and there being disorders, both of the physical sort and the [I am assuming] mental sort, where a child or adult essentially develops a phobia of new foods, it isn't necessarily shitty parenting that produces picky kids.

Ideally you'd like, talk to a doctor to figure out ways to sneak more nutrition into their diet, in a healthy non sugar laden manner but... *shrug*

THAT and you have to consider, they aren't marketing to folks who have malnourished kids [I.. erm... hope] but more so preying on the [understandable] tendency for parents to want to give their kids every advantage they can. You see it a LOT in basically any food commercial aimed at kids that isn't for sweets, and maybe even then. It's like, kind of prodding at the "am I a good enough parent?" bit of the brain, and the way most folks answer that is OGM BETTER BE SAFE GIVE GIVE GIVE. Which the companies know.

^^ I have the gene where some vegetables taste overwhelmingly bitter. I hate brussels sprouts and broccoli rabe with a passion (to me it's like eating whiteout), but most vegetables are fine. It's really not to hard to avoid the bad vegetables, so I don't think it's a really good reason for kids not to eat their veg. Carrots, lettuces, etc don't have the bitter taste at all, and they are easy for kids to eat.

I do think it does take effort to introduce kids with a more anxious / reluctant temperament to new foods, but it's not impossible.

It's kinda late, so I admit I am not looking this up to confirm, but I want to say that it varies with intensity with some people finding pretty much all veggies unpalatable due to it.

Well yeah, but if one kind of vegetable is not palatable there's likely another kind of vegetable that can deliver the same nutrients- I don't like spinach, but I bake kale and make chips out of it, with a teensy bit of olive oil and sea salt, and it packs the same nutritional punch. And none of us like carrots, so we eat parsnips instead, since they have a higher concentration of vitamins and therefore you can eat less of them.
The thing that just kills me is the commercials specifically saying- "My child's poor eating habits have affected her growth! HERE BAYBEE HAVE SOME CORN SYRUP" It makes me frown.

Of course, I'm saying that NOW, while Henry ain't talking much and the new baby isn't even born yet. Give me a couple years, I'll probably have them both hooked to a corn syrup IV, comatose in front of the television. :P

I think with the genetics-making-things-taste-bitter thing you're just sort of fucked for all categories of vegetables, but especially leafy greens I believe. :B

Only cruciferous vegetables I think-- I have it really, really bad (I took the "fun taste test! Lick the paper with propylthiouracil all over it!" in 9th grade and spent the rest of the day attempting to wash the agonizing, bitter awfulness out of my mouth) and I can eat veggies with low concentrations of the stuff that have been cooked enough to denature most of it (some cabbage, broccoli), as well as non-cruciferous veggies like lettuce, squash, beans, etc etc.

Yeahh my parents wtfed at that too. And I'm not even a parent and I wtfed at it as well. If a kid starts being so picky it affects their development something is seriously wrong and sugary formula is definitely not the answer. My parents occasionally let me have sugary stuff and french fries, but they also made sure that my regular diet was balanced and included plenty of fruits and vegetables. IS IT THAT HARD? I think a lot of parents just pop out the tyson chicken nuggets (have you seen that commercial? mein gott, encouraging kids to eat palatable chicken paste because they're willing to dip it in ketchup and put it in their mouth) and french fries and lunchables because it's fast. But really, cooking isn't that difficult nor is it too time consuming! I can cook dinner in 45 minutes and I am a terrible (disorganized) cook.

Though I guess how I was fed early on in life really effected my palate, my grandma gave me many odd things including slightly fermented dried fish, and I now am addicted to slightly fermented fishy flavors. They are so comforting!

Also, I only know how to cook fish.

What we're hoping for Henry so far is now that he's old enough to understand very basic concepts, we're planting vegetables in the backyard and hoping that if he sees them grow, he'll be more interested in eating them. He might be too young for that though, I'm not sure how much of the world he actually understands. We tried to talk to him about the baby coming, but he's not quite clear on who is pregnant- sometimes it's me and sometimes it's El and sometimes it's him or the dog. But he knows something's happening. To someone. Maybe we'll get the same confused enthusiasm with the garden.
I was fed the same way- lots of curry, rice, and vegetables, so now that's what I go for when I need something familiar. I ate a thousand year egg once. Then promptly vomited it back up.

Same here, with the being fed all sorts of stuff by my grandmother. She was a crazy, mean bitch, but she taught me manners and the value of trying new foods [and retrying old ones], dangit!

Fucking A. Maddy has a 'try two bites" rule.If she REALLY doesn't like it then she can eat the rest of the dinner, but she has to at least try it. Who hte fuck would just let their kids pick their own meals constantly???

Parents who think milk and corn syrup will make up for the deficiencies, I guess!