White Potatoes Verses Purple Potatoes

    I love when I hear a typical parent complain their child is a picky eater. I laugh inside because they have no idea how easy they have it. Having one child with Autism can make dinner time the worst time of day. Having three boys with Autism has made me wish I could skip dinner some nights because there are times no matter what I cook, one of them will have a problem with it. Last night was one of those nights.

Back Story on food for my boys - Donald only wants white food and my Irish Twins hate white food.

   Yesterday I went to Hannafords to get some needed groceries and dinner items. I saw that pollock  was on sale but I was not sure how to cook it. Then I saw a recipe card for 'An Irish Pollock Dinner' and it was a GF recipe so I now had a recipe :)  All I needed to buy was leeks, potatoes and the Pollock. When I went to get the potatoes, I saw purple potatoes and thought, maybe Kyle will eat purple potatoes since he hates white potatoes. Fast forward to 3pm - I started cutting the leeks & potatoes and Donald started in about them being purple. I tried to explain that they taste the same but he already had it stuck in his head that he would not like them because they were purple. I reminded him that he likes purple tomatoes but his comeback was, "tomatoes are not white so trying purple tomatoes was OK to do. Later my Irish Twins came home and asked what smelled so good and Donald grunted. I turned to Donald and reminded him of the house rules, eat your dinner or go to bed. Then explained that he was welcome to go to bed before dinner if he planned on complaining the whole night. He quieted down and did his homework. A half hour later I served dinner - Kyle LOVED the purple potatoes, Karl was not sure about them at first but once he tried them he love them. Donald was a different story, he just sat there staring at them, I could  tell it was going to be a battle of wills. My Irish Twins finished, cleaned up and started their homework while Donald mumbled stared at the potatoes and complained that the fish did not taste right as he is use to cod or haddock.

   He was reminded of the dinner rule and 15 minutes after K&K finished I set the timer. He knows that once the timer goes off he has to be done or go to bed. At one point he said "Mom are you going to make this again?" I said "Are you going to eat your dinner?" He said "NO" to which I replied "Then yes I will make it again,  He mumbled and tried to make himself gag but in the end he ate his dinner.
   
  While last night was one of those night I wish I could skip dinner. I am glad I can say that  dinnertime is a lot better than it was years ago. Some may not agree with my technique but I am not needing to make 3 different dinners every night just so they eat and the complaining has gotten less and less as time goes on and in the end we all have to do what works for us and this technique works for us :)