How American Kids Got So Picky

"I found myself gripped with envy as I read-not because the foods were particularly appetizing, but because I would kill for my kid to eat like that. To wit: As a girl, Edith Wharton adored oyster sauce, turtle, stewed celery, cooked tomatoes, and lima beans in cream. Mark Twain fondly remembered eating succotash, string beans, squirrels, and rabbits on his uncle's farm. And during her childhood, Veit writes, Elizabeth Cady Stanton "happily ate vegetables, hickory nuts, and cold jellied brain.""

"If these don't sound like typical "kid foods," that's because they aren't, and weren't. "Kid food," as a category, is a recent invention. According to Veit, American kids weren't picky until the early 20th century. (Indeed, the word picky came into widespread usage around then.) Before that, Veit writes, children in the United States ate "spicy relishes, vinegary pickles, wild plants, and a huge variety of animal species and organ meats. They slurped up raw oysters and looked forward to their daily coffee.""

Nineteenth-century American children commonly ate adult foods such as oysters, organ meats, wild game, pickles, and strong relishes; fennel seeds and tomatoes were treats. Children often did extensive chores and arrived at mealtimes hungry, which made them willing to eat a wide variety of flavors and animal species. The concept of specialized "kid food" emerged in the early twentieth century alongside changing cultural and medical views. The word "picky" entered widespread use around then. Contemporary children tend to eat narrower, milder diets compared with the broader historical range of child eating habits.

Read at The Atlantic