Even Unborn Children are Picky, Apparently

Food is a complicated matter with children. It's not easy to get them to eat what we know they should, or what the rest of us are eating. The challenge is all the more so when the child doesn't speak or understand much. Sometimes, a child's demands become so overwhelming that we just have to give in. Now, is one of those times in our family.

We are now working with a bit of an extra food challenge: unexplained and often unreasonable food cravings and aversions. That's right, folks. I'm pregnant. My appetite has increased, well, too much. We may need to adjust our budget to include the little bean growing inside, since it's taking a good 300 calories per day of my food. We'll see how the spending goes and if that really proves necessary. Menu planning has clearly been influenced by the bean, as well.

Here are few of my food cravings and aversions (some of which have subsided now):

Cravings
Asian foods
shellfish
red meat
warm milk
yogurt
fruit
honey
salt

Aversions
coffee
agave nectar
poultry (mostly turkey)
nuts

With my last pregnancy, I had only food aversions, the strongest of which was to baby lettuces. I'm glad that one has not affected me this time. So far, I haven't had any vegetable aversions with this pregnancy.

In many ways, it's easier to manage a child who is still in the womb (they have a built-in carrier that works pretty well), but even so, those little stinkers can be pretty demanding!