Talking by experience, my kids would just eat dessert and cry later that they want more dessert.
I went in the opposite direction. I put a small portion of meat on the dish. When it's over, I put some vegetables; rinse and repeat until the portion of food is assimilated.
It seems like giving small goals is helping with going through the entire dinner and not having a choice minimises building up dislike for a specific food.
I think the reasoning for the second phenomenon is something like:
1. I can eat potatoes or chicken.
2. I like potatoes.
3. I'll eat potatoes.
4. Remember that dislikeChicken++
4. Go back to 1 until I'm full
This is honestly the most original take I've ever seen on handling picky kids, and despite it being sort of in jest I can't help but think there's some potential validity. Kids tend to be pretty easy to manipulate when it comes to food (e.g. "broccoli is tiny trees!"), as long as you can find the fulcrum point from which to pivot the presentation. I hadn't considered the choice/reinforcement aspect of this before, and will keep it in mind as a harmless test concept!
Kids are very different. My first daughter had a healthy appetite while small, then after a cold she became a very picky eater; she remains somewhat picky today, as an adult. The second daughter, we "trained" to eat varied, healthy food. We were proud of ourselves and thought we know "how it's done". The third one broke us completely - at some point we were begging her "eat this cupcake, it has loads of chocolate!"
All our three kids ate everything until they were about three, after that they were really picky but it seems to get slowly better once they reach 8-9 years old. That said, when they were in daycare/kindergarten they eat what they are served. Very strange. Our oldest attended an “alternative” kindergarten where everything they were served was full of spices and herbs. She ate it all, but at home she barely touched the most plain of plainest meals. Peculiar.
My brother-in-law's children are trilingual, and they react differently depending which language you talk to them in. Because they speak French at school, if you ask them to clean up or eat their vegetables in French they do it without complaining. But do it in Polish of English, nope, not having any of it. 4 and 7 years old.
I went in the opposite direction. I put a small portion of meat on the dish. When it's over, I put some vegetables; rinse and repeat until the portion of food is assimilated.
It seems like giving small goals is helping with going through the entire dinner and not having a choice minimises building up dislike for a specific food.
I think the reasoning for the second phenomenon is something like:
1. I can eat potatoes or chicken. 2. I like potatoes. 3. I'll eat potatoes. 4. Remember that dislikeChicken++ 4. Go back to 1 until I'm full