Children And Food

From The Beat Goes On

Segment Four

The Comedians


By

Shelley Gail Weiss Lightman
Class of 1969
____In the eyes of a baby or a child for that matter, there are definitely no bounds, when it comes to what is edible. For instance with a baby, the rule of thumb, is if it's there, eat it. Leave it and they will come with hand out, connect it to mouth, wide open. If it's not nailed down and you forgot about it, it's absolutely fair game.

____It's not that they don't know food from fehh. Oh no, not at all. My son proved this by only placing things with cream cheese in his mouth for the better part of his first three years. However, my daughter had no such compulsions! If it was there, it was hers! The bigger, the better, I might add, and she was very small.

____It didn't matter if it wasn't even remotely related to the realm of "edible". However, if it was edible it had better be big, intact and not anything remotely related to baby food! With one mighty effort she could, at five months, demolish one whole delicious apple peel, core and all, without the aid, I might add, of teeth! How she did this, was a mystery to everyone.

____My mother assured me that my grandfather could do this too, without the aid of his bridge. That was reassuring. "Yes", I said, "But at least he uses a fork and knife. She, on the other hand, just takes it whole and Annihilates it"!

____I've seen many a toddler, with a ball on one hand and a cookie in the other, deciding which of the two is more appetizing. It can continue in this vein for quite some time, until they become fixated on one sort of foodstuff. When this happens, stock up; it will last an eternity!

____Now, of course that my kids are older and more discriminating every other word is, "yech", "gross" or "disgusting"! But then again, I refuse to feed them sushi at every meal!

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Photoes of Daisy Aldan, from the collection of Lee Stewart, 1953

Page Thirteen of Twenty-Three

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