Picky Eater - Progress?

Gavin is a very picky eater. He has his menu. I know that is my fault because I indulge his wants and put up with his distastes. As he has gotten older he can hold out too, meals at a time boycotting what is in front of him. To his credit, has a range of things that he does eat, hitting the food groups although avoiding vegetables all together. I now hide applesauce, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes, etc in pancakes and other things that we eat. Good for all of us to have the hidden fruit and veggie content. He willfully eats strawberries, bananas and apples. Dairy - no milk - but yogurt three times a day. I worry he will burn out but no sign of that. Meat/protein - chicken (majority of intake), pepperoni (is that really protein?) and ground beef in meals.

So, we seem to be taking a few positive steps lately trying to add some things to his menu. I had made some progress before tonsils/adenoid surgery and was hoping we would get back to it. So, last night, taking advantage of Gavin's ferocious appetite as of late (post-op), I baked a frozen lasagna that I had made. He has boycotted pasta of all sorts awhile ago. He ate a lot of pasta until he was ~3 years old and for some reason gave it up. So, I have repeatedly tried to reintroduce pasta (in various forms) over the past two years. He has eaten spaghetti a few times lately but with much protest. So, I figured we would try lasagna. I convinced him to try it because it has the same ingredients as pizza (top pick) and then after a couple bites he liken it to "pizza bites" [a.k.a. pizza rolls]. At first his comment was, "Mom, it doesn't taste good, but I'm going to eat it because I am hungry." A few bites later, "Ya know, I do like it and I think I'll eat it all." He did pretty well until on the last piece in his bowl he found a browned edge piece and declared that he was "not eating that!"

Either way, a good dinner table evening for Gavin. I'll skip the Nora-that-did-not-nap-grumpy-decline-to-eat story as well Dylan's-continued-desire-to through food-on the floor-for entertainment story [I love daycare...].