6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

Obviously this article on food mistakes parents make doesn't apply to Ben yet, but I think these are helpful tips for the future. In the meantime, his preference is for boob honey versus bottle milk (he'll drink both, but he glares at us vexedly when we offer him a bottle as though it's the infantile equivalent of boxed wine).

If Ben mimics his parents, he could go either way. As a preschooler, I had a predilection for steamed clams, house salads, and Wiener Schnitzel, as well as virtually everything else placed in front of me. I was once known to turn down ice cream in favor of radishes. By contrast, young Ickie had a hatred of vegetables and would only eat the cottage cheese and bacon bits at a salad bar. Throughout college his diet consisted primarily of Reese's cups and chicken fingers. He likes many more vegetables now and he's over 6 feet tall, so the theory that your kids won't grow up big and strong if they don't eat their vegetables isn't always applicable.

My parents were pretty laid back about food with my sister and I. Growing up, my dad often skipped dinner in favor of a glass of milk. For the first 10 years of her life, my sister refused to eat anything but grilled cheese sandwiches, so that's what they gave her. Both of them became long-distance runners.