My 4 year old picks every bit of onion and tomato out of his sabzi

maple_spoon_5939

Every bit. He sits with the plate and removes them one by one with total concentration, lines them up on the side, and then eats the potato. It takes twenty minutes. His didi eats everything and has started commenting, which makes it worse. I don't mind the onion. I mind the twenty minutes. Do I start blending everything into the masala, or let him pick and stop watching?

4 comments

  • ivory_spoon_8503

    We blend. Onion, tomato, sometimes a carrot nobody needs to know about, all into the gravy. Son is 6 and still hasn't caught on 😄 The sister commentary is the bigger problem, I think.

    • maple_spoon_5939

      The carrot is going in, thank you. The sister I'll have to handle separately.

  • silver_paper_8497

    Does it matter, if he eats the potato and the roti? Picking things out at four is very common and usually passes. The twenty minutes is what I'd change: a fixed time for the meal, then the plate goes, picked or not. He'll learn to pick faster or stop bothering.

    • maple_spoon_5939

      Fair. It probably doesn't matter. I think a fixed time would turn into a race with his sister, though. She'd win and he'd cry.

  • pebble_river_837

    Mine is younger and does the same with jeera. Each seed removed and placed on my plate, as a gift. I've decided it's fine motor practice 😂

  • umber_sandal_9012

    Let him help chop. My younger one ate more of whatever she'd 'made'. Not every time, maybe half.

    • maple_spoon_5939

      Update: on Saturday he 'chopped' the tomatoes with a butter knife, which mostly meant squashing them, and ate every bit in the sabzi. On Sunday my partner did the chopping and he was back to picking. So it works, but only if he did it himself.

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