No allergies that we ever found, except pollens.

What we found interesting was that he never put toys or anything non-food in his mouth. There was never a worry about poisoning or choking with him. I see babies chewing on all kinds of things and I think it looks so weird, even though I know it is normal.

He is also what I would call a food person. He knows what people are eating, what is in everything. He reads recipes for fun and looks forward to helping make stuff he would never eat himself.

I cannot imagine for a second getting away with zucchini in the pasta sauce; he flipped out when he saw a tiny tiny speck of basil once. Not that it matters, really, because the pasta sauce was a new addition in the last couple years, anyway, but I would be a fool to try to add a green thing to it. This kid has laser vision for the green flecks.

DS7 was the same way about never putting things in his mouth. After about 6 months or so, it just was never an issue. He did suck his thumb--especially when he was thinking about something or studying how something worked--but he just didn't mouth toys. However, he is my "I'll try any food" kid, so I don't think that was a sensitivity issue so much as the fact that he's a really visual kid and he liked his thumb a lot.

DS4 did mouth stuff, so it was a real adjustment when he came along! Of course he also managed to reach up inside the fireplace stove, into the wall and pull out a handful of fiberglass insulation when he was a little over a year old. We didn't know that was even possible! The room had been childproofed for 4 years by that time! And when he was about 18mos., he locked me out of my bedroom. By the time I got the door open, he had pennies in one hand, his arm was wet to the elbow from the toilet, and he was reaching for the outlet with the other hand. No exaggeration! All he was missing for the "child kills self with exploration" hat trick was a bottle of something poisonous waiting to be guzzled! I would have thought it was a made-up story if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!!!

Sorry to digress...My point is that the 4yo adventure nut who knows no fear is my picky eater. My 7yo cautious, responsible kid with food allergies will eat whatever I put in front of him--and we eat some unusual things compared to most Americans!--and ask for seconds and thirds.

Weird.

Some people are "supertasters".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

They actually have more tastebuds and taste bitter flavors more strongly. Many green vegetables taste bitter to supertasters.

Thank you Austin!

Kriston is right in that I read the book over a year ago and was quoting from memory. It is not an pro-environmental, anti-pesticide, organic-hugging book at all. I was merely trying to point out the level of care and detail that the author goes to in researching the ingredients. It is hard to imagine that one could write an entire chapter on "wheat flour". You grow it, you harvest it, you mill it... what else is there to say? Just wait until he gets to the polysorbate 20 chapter. (*note* I am also remembering this from over a year ago, so take the last sentence with a grain of salt, please!)

I found the book fascinating from a food allergy point of view, since we have major food allergies. He shows you how a soy or corn product will come down a manufacturing line and split into food and non-food production items.

Interesting. I was intrigued by the list of most offensive foods. I am not a picky eater and never have been. But I do gag on Brussel sprouts and Kale, even now. And I do not like coffee or chocolate because they are so bitter.

So maybe he did get it from me--I have always blamed DH!

Understood.

Me. I cannot stand coffee (love the smell) and olives taste weird to me. I can tell when food is starting to spoil by smell or taste when no one else can. I cannot handle sour candy at all. Alcohol in small amounts if at all - love the buzz, but after a few sips, it turns me off. I can taste very small amounts of impurities in food such as detergent or bleach left over from cleaning or other contaminants like oil that no one else can. Moldy smells, smoke, urine - all jump out at me.



I am very anti-pesticide myself. I studied the use of chemical weapons in the Army and hate them and most pesticides are the same thing as are most herbicides.

Food is VERY interesting stuff. Most industries will give tours. I got a tour of a cheese plant once. They make hundreds of tons of it a day in giant vats. You see all the care that goes into making it and then get to taste it at the end - and its quite good!

OTOH, I love the dairy ads where they show cows on grass, when most dairies are using prepared rations now. Nothing wrong with that and its probably better for the cows, but still - its misleading.

Soy is an interesting substance. A good friend's son was a vegetarian and ate a lot of soy. He ended up with issues related to the hormone mimics in soy and had to go off it onto grass-fed beef and fish and is now OK.

I wonder if some people are "super receptors" for some things??

My DS4 can't stand the smell of peanuts and peanut butter. He asks us to go eat a mint or something if he smells it on our breath.

Here's where I learned about supertasters:
TMBG - John Lee Supertaster

(I have learned many many things from They Might Be Giants!)

Thanx for all the great suggestions... My sister tried a few of them but her husband found the easiest solution.. He brought home this new drink called Wat-aah and my nephew just loves it.. http://www.drinkwataah.com/ .. but sometimes she does have to add a lemon when he gets stubborn again..