The Secret Life of Kids: Are Picky Eaters Still Picky When No Grown-up’s Around to See?

Dec 18, 2009 by Anna Migeon

I sometimes suspect that kids may be like the white people in Eddie Murphy’s classic Saturday Night Live sketch, “White Like Me.”

Murphy goes undercover, disguising himself as white, and discovers the “truth” about how wonderfully white people treat each other when blacks aren’t around.

White shop keepers are not only suddenly warm and friendly once all blacks leave the premises, but they also give away their wares for free to other whites. A cozy party with champagne for all the whites on board breaks out on the city bus as soon as the last black person gets off.

If we parents could disguise ourselves as kids, might we witness a similarly drastic shift in our youngsters’ attitudes toward all those healthy foods some of them don’t want to eat?

My daughter recently reported that when she took a liver pâté sandwich to school, a group of her friends caught sight of it, wanted to know what it was and demanded to try it. She told them they wouldn’t like it, they didn’t want it, that it was liver, but they absolutely insisted. And they liked it.

I don’t know, it just sounds so unlike most of the kids I’ve seen reacting to foods, especially something as ill-reputed as liver.

What’s really going on here?

Foolish freedom: why some kids refuse to eat even to the point of harming themselves

How to get kids to eat liver (recipe for pâté)