The (mostly) horrible things my daughter eats, part 1

For a long time, I have been reluctant to post in detail about the food my daughter eats. Why? Because I am more than a bit ashamed that my daughter lives almost exclusively on junk food :(

In two of the Austria pictures, you can see her at the edges of the photos, reading a book on her Kindle or playing on her Nintendo DS. (I wonder if this is also a reason I should be ashamed of myself. On one occasion, I told her that she was being a bad example for other kids, whose parents don't want them to read or play while the family is sitting together at the dinner table. And those kids ask their parents: "Why is that girl allowed to do that and I am not?") In fact, if she wasn't allowed to read or play, she wouldn't be sitting with us at the dinner table at all. She would be bored to hell if she had to watch us stuffing ourselves with what to us is gorgeous food, while she suffers from Hot Dog withdrawal.

And when I say Hot Dog, I mean hot dogs like these:

 

The sausages are the vegetarian sausages I mentioned before in this post, heated briefly in hot water. Well, at least the buns are made in part with wholemeal flour.

You can count the foods/dishes my daughter likes on the fingers of three hands. And both Ben and I have the impression that they become less and less over time. Sometimes, we try to advertise food to her saying: "You used to like that! We have photos of you eating that!"

And she always answers: "Have you forgotten? I have lingua geographica!"

Lingua geographica is a condition of the mucosa of the tongue. I first noticed the large red blotches on Esther's tongue when she was three, and the pediatrician who looked at them said that it was nothing serious, but this condition could affect her sense of taste. Things she likes may become suddenly unpleasant, while she may suddenly like things she didn't like before. (But she is not so eager to explore the latter possibility.)

Read more about lingua geographica here.

In my first post from Austria, you have already seen one pasta dish she likes: Spaghetti Bolognese. She also likes pasta with tomato sauce. But after two days of feasting on that here in Austria, she has temporarily lost interest.

In the past week, she had private skiing lessons, while this (second) week she has group lessons the whole day, and lunch is provided. She is more likely to eat properly if there is some peer pressure :)

And yes, of course I am concerned about whether she will develop properly and whether she gets all she needs via her food. I appease myself by giving her these:

  

 Vitamin gummy bears. What else can I do?