Strollerderby

My son, 11 months, eats whatever we eat, and has for several months now.  We've learned to stay away from spicy foods- he likes them, but they upset his stomach.  We also aren't taking any chances with honey.  That's about it, though- everything else is fair game.  He loves variety, and does not require any teeth to tear through his own slice of pizza, no grinding involved.

You are soooo lucky.  My second child ate whatever baby food she was given, including some homemade creations that were pretty tasty (lentils, cauliflower, you name it!).  I was so proud of myself.  Then she showed me...as soon as she to use her own fork/spoon, she decided to refuse pretty much everything. She does at least refuse pizza and french fries but eating out is tough.

My daughter is about to turn one, and like M's son, she eats what we eat. she got her first teeth at 4 months, and now has 8. So chewing is not really an issue. But she loves fruit and french fries. She used to eat everything, even when she was on baby food, she would eat her dinner than have a few bites of mine. But she has, very recently, become veryyyy picky. And she will eat only fruit, some veggies, and things that are probably not good for little kids (french fries, pizza, mcdonalds chicken nuggets).

I must be raising a baby goat. My son literally eats EVERYTHING. If his parents are trying to eat it, that makes it doubly attractive. From the time of crawling he has been stealing fruit or veggies from the grocery bag and dragging it off to a corner to gnaw on it - usually RAW.

My mom used the food mill; us kids ate everything my folks ate. She says she rarely bought baby food.

From the time my daughter was a month old, we've given her tiny licks and tastes of almost everything we've eaten (no nuts, no honey, no raw fish, you know...). We started with a dab of pickled ginger juice on the end of a chopstick, and went from there. I think she got her first fingertip of horseradish at around 3 months. She's two now, and she's often offended by the offerings on the "kids menu" - they're not only blah taste-wise, but they're almost always nutritionally awful. When we eat out we order her a milk and a spare plate and just share our meals with her. She eats everything, especially spicy ethnic foods. She eats pickled ginger like candy and drinks the salsa if you leave the bowl too close.

We just refuse to buy into the notion of "kid food."

I have two kids, raised essentially the same in terms of eating what my husband and I eat, and we got two opposite eaters.  

My oldest, though selective at times, will eat just about anything (and always has).  She's tried octopus at sushi restaurants.  Her favorite birthday meal is "salmon with lemon-butter-caper sauce."  She'll even eat spicy foods--to a point.

My youngest is the quintessential carb girl.  Her favorite foods are white rice, crackers, and plain pasta.  It is so aggravating!!!  She will not even try new foods.  She gags on ones I urge her to try.  And this started when she was 1 or so (before then, she would open her little mouth and eat anything).

I don't know if it's because #2 is establishing her own identity ("I'm the picky one in the family") or if it's genetics.  However, I would caution people in making assumptions that their actions alone determine whether a kid is an adventurous eater or not.  If I had only one kid, I would have patted myself on the back that I raised a good eater.  Having two showed me I needed to swallow my pride!

J - My two eldest children sound a lot like yours.  I don't know how old yours are, but my boys (ages 10 and 7) are now both pretty decent eaters, though the older one is way mellower in general about everything - including trying new stuff.  Until the younger one was about five he was a white rice/mashed potato/bread/plain noodles (NO SAUCE!!!!!!) guy.  My oldest has eaten a dozen different vegetables, curries, gyros, omelets, ETC. his entire solid-food-eating life.  I, too, thought "how brilliant!" about myself until my second one put on the brakes to all that self-complimenting nonsense!!  ;-)  Their little sis is a good eater, but she just wants to do any and everything the big boys are doing, which is her primary motivator... so I don't know if she actually likes what she eats or if she just eats to be one of the gang.  Whatever - finally we have a good showing at the Clean Plate Club most nights.