Photo: Olivia Mew
?Yes?

Leah Rumack, mom of one
?Wow,? said my friend, impressed, as I spooned Moroccan-flavoured chickpea stew into my then 10-month-old son?s cooperative little bird mouth. ?My baby would never eat that.?
?That?s OK,? I assured her, feeling smug while attempting to appear benevolent and kind. ?Ben just came this way!?
My baby gourmand would eat pretty much everything I put in front of him, and that?I was sure?was because I was Following The Rules. I was exposing him to a variety of flavours. He nibbled on crab when we went for Pho, he munched on injera when we went for Ethiopian, he gobbled tuna and squashed veggies. I was never going to be that type of pushover who made a separate meal for my kid. He was going to be a cool, cosmopolitan, tagine-eating machine. And then, as the famous saying goes, everything turned to sh*t.
We enrolled Ben at a home daycare when he was one. Sure, his caregiver didn?t provide catered meals like the ?real? daycares, but she fed the kids what seemed like a reasonably healthy menu. At some point between age one and two, however, Ben?s food preferences shrank?and shrank?and shrank, until there were only about 10 things he would go anywhere near.
?He?ll grow out of it,? my friends assured me, feeling superior as they fed their kids stinky cheese and smoked salmon.
He didn?t. For almost three years now, he?s eaten the same handful of foods?hummus, yogurt, milk, peanut butter, bread, cereal, fruit, chicken fingers?no matte...