“No sweet potatoes for me, thanks!”

Yesterday, I got a call from one of The Boy’s teachers. They were having a special Thanksgiving luncheon at school and she wanted to make sure he could eat some of the food.

“We’re going to have turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes with little marshmallows on top,” she said. “I know he can have the turkey, but can he have the rest of it, too?”

“Absolutely!” I replied. “And let me know how he does with the sweet potatoes, because every time I’ve offered it to him at home, it winds up on my kitchen floor.”

“Okay, Mom. I’ll let you know. Thank you!”

Well, sure enough, he didn’t touch the sweet potatoes. This morning, I heard all about it. The Boy even watched as the other kids cleaned sweet potatoes off their own plates, but he refused to touch it. Even when his teacher offered him a spoonful, he forcefully pushed her hand away and shook his head, adamantly refusing it. He stuck his finger in the cranberry sauce (and didn’t care for it), ate a little of the stuffing, and devoured the turkey, but the sweet potatoes remained completely untouched. I wasn’t at all surprised.

It reminded me of a time in March when we were in LA for Mom’s memorial service. It was lunchtime, so Chris was feeding The Boy. I only brought a few jars of baby food but also had some homemade food, including carrots and sweet potatoes. (I also stopped at the grocery store and bought him some avocadoes. This was back when he loved eating avocadoes.)

Well, The Boy was not a huge fan of carrots. He’d eat them for me, albeit begrudgingly, but he tended to spit them out over anyone else who dared to try. Chris offered him sweet potatoes this particular afternoon, and as soon as The Boy saw them, there was much thrashing and screaming as he refused to open his mouth. Finally, mid-scream, Chris managed to sneak in a spoonful, at which point the thrashing and screaming immediately ceased and the sweet potatoes were completely consumed.

The last time I was able to successfully get this kid to eat sweet potatoes, I had to mix them with some butternut squash risotto. Even then, he seemed to know what I had planned and only ate a couple of ounces before turning his full attention to his chicken nuggets.

He’s really not a finicky eater. He just doesn’t like cooked carrots. Or sweet potatoes, for that matter.