Picky eaters can be a challenge at home or in a restaurant. But traveling around the world with a girl who basically eats nothing but peanut butter. This traveling mom takes it all in stride — and works to find at least one food in each country her daughter is willing to taste.
The whole family (Lisa, Siena, Avocet and Marty) in our favorite shop in Ljubljana, Slovenia – a chocolate shop. Photo courtesy of LIsa Shusterman
Traveling the World with a Picky Eater
I was blessed with a daughter who is a picky eater. Trust me, I use that term loosely. I’m talking a child who is a vegetarian who doesn’t eat vegetables and only a limited number of fruits; a girl who won’t eat pizza since she doesn’t like red sauce; someone who doesn’t eat rice because it has a funny texture. I mean really, no rice? You won’t find any food more benign than white rice! I believe Avocet (my daughter’s name) is in my life for having committed the sin of judging other people’s parenting habits with respect to food, prior to being a parent myself.
Eating in a restaurant is a challenge with Avocet. No hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets or pizza are going to work for this girl. So if eating in a restaurant at home in the United States is a challenge, whatever made me think we could travel around the world for a year and not come home with a malnourished child? Nothing! But I knew I wasn’t going to let my daughter’s eating habits keep us from making our dream come true.
Avocet’s meal in a “nice” restaurant: mashed potatoes in Valparaiso, Chile. Photo credit: Lisa Shusterman
Allaying the Fears of a Picky Eater
The first trick was to relieve her of her fear having nothing to eat. As we researched our itinerary, I would read about the foods of the regions to Avocet. Invariably, there was one food per country she could hang her hat on: pancakes in The Netherlands, pierogi in Poland, empanadas in Chile.
We would also tell her about restaurants we discovered that served “American Fare.” Of course, that wasn’t a huge comfort since American restaurants were a stressful and often unsuccessful dining experience here in the U.S. Still, her tensions started easing; but not completely until we presented her with her security blanket – a large jar of peanut butter.
Avocet carried a jar of peanut butter with her around the entire globe. She wouldn’t finish up a jar until a replacement had been purchased. We learned to say peanut butter in quite a few different languages and were able to find it in every country we visited with the exception of Argentina.
Even a picky eater can eat cake! Photo credit: Stock Unlimited
Let Her Eat Cake
Given the fact that almost all countries have some form of bread and cheese–grilled cheese, cheese toasty, Panini, cheese empanadas—Avocet became a connoisseur. She also learned how to order pizza without sauce (pizza sin salsa in Spanish) in multiple languages so she could order a white pizza; another form of bread and cheese. Pasta with only olive oil and garlic, known in Italian as Pasta Aglio Olio, was another standard and once again we learned to order this in a number of languages. I was completely bored with her diet, but she was just thrilled to be eating!
If we had to eat three meals a day for 365 days in restaurants, I don’t know if we could have done it. Fortunately, eight out of the twelve months we traveled, we stayed in apartments, which enabled us to cook our own meals. It is much easier to find a variety of healthy (or semi-healthy) foods for a picky eater in a supermarket, than it is in a restaurant. If we were willing to splurge, we could often find American products, like cereal, which we bought when it wasn’t too great of an expense. Since we were saving money by not eating in restaurants, we could justify the luxury a little more readily.
At a minimum, we knew Avocet could obtain her calories from sweets. She has almost never met a dessert she didn’t like. And, after all, cake is just bread with a little added sugar right? For the most part, we didn’t have to sink that low, but there were a few Nutella and bread meals here and there.
In the end, we didn’t manage to expand her food options all that much, although she did pick up an appreciation for cucumbers in China, but we did manage to travel around the world and return home with a healthy and still growing daughter.
4 Comments on “The Joy of Traveling with a Picky Eater”
I don’t want to discourage you wonderful moms, but just want to let you know that this may not be a childhood thing from which your daughters will emerge. I have suffered with Selective Eating Disorder all my life (I didn’t eat food at all until I was 3–just milk). Traveling (even eating out) is a challenge, but worth the effort. Having supportive people in your life really helps. “Just grow up and eat it” is more unkind to me than anything you can possibly say.
Peanut butter is a lifesaver for us too. Fortunately for me my son does eat peas and green beans too, apples(no peel), bananas(no spots)and we only buy whole wheat breads. He likes cheerios and life cereal. Fish sticks(one brand), chicken nuggets(from McD’s only) and occasionally a corndog. Yogurt, applesauce and pudding(all one brand of them, no variation). I think mine is a punishment too. I remember telling my stepmom that she should not be making my nephew(they adopted him) separate meals from the family and that it was ridiculous. I don’t know who the heck I thought I was, but now I know that some kids…you’re just glad they are eating something!
I wonder if you and I gave birth to the same child? Thank you for sharing your story, for the longest time I’ve had a big fear of taking my daughter abroad because of her picky eating habits.
She is also a vegetarian who will not eat veggies or fruit for that matter.
Your daughter sounds so much like mine (except that mine also will not eat cheese, and peanut butter isn’t an option for us since we have another child with food allergies). I understand your frustration and am glad to read of your success while traveling. Thanks for sharing!
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I don’t want to discourage you wonderful moms, but just want to let you know that this may not be a childhood thing from which your daughters will emerge. I have suffered with Selective Eating Disorder all my life (I didn’t eat food at all until I was 3–just milk). Traveling (even eating out) is a challenge, but worth the effort. Having supportive people in your life really helps. “Just grow up and eat it” is more unkind to me than anything you can possibly say.
Peanut butter is a lifesaver for us too. Fortunately for me my son does eat peas and green beans too, apples(no peel), bananas(no spots)and we only buy whole wheat breads. He likes cheerios and life cereal. Fish sticks(one brand), chicken nuggets(from McD’s only) and occasionally a corndog. Yogurt, applesauce and pudding(all one brand of them, no variation).
I think mine is a punishment too. I remember telling my stepmom that she should not be making my nephew(they adopted him) separate meals from the family and that it was ridiculous.
I don’t know who the heck I thought I was, but now I know that some kids…you’re just glad they are eating something!
I wonder if you and I gave birth to the same child? Thank you for sharing your story, for the longest time I’ve had a big fear of taking my daughter abroad because of her picky eating habits.
She is also a vegetarian who will not eat veggies or fruit for that matter.
Your daughter sounds so much like mine (except that mine also will not eat cheese, and peanut butter isn’t an option for us since we have another child with food allergies). I understand your frustration and am glad to read of your success while traveling. Thanks for sharing!