Normally, I say, "Do what works." If children are young and dicing up their meat in interesting shapes or letting them dine with a favorite spoon or fork works, go for it...

But today I spoke to a client about this topic. She said she had to put her daughter's food in muffin tins with toothpicks so she would eat it. A variety of condiments were made available.

That seems like too much to me.

Though I was criticized when my son was six. He did not like tablespoons, so I made sure he had small spoons. A friend said I was spoiling him. I didn't think so.

Now, if he was 15 and making the same request, maybe....

You know, as kids I really don't know that we had any odd preferences with our food. I didn't start mixing everything of mine up until I was about 11, until then everything was separate. Always used the same utensils as my brother, my mother decided when we switched to the big forks from the little ones.

No now that I think of it, when we had chicken patties on hamburger buns, I always had to have mine cut up into 3 or 4 strips and I would dunk them in ketchup and eat off the breading first and then the chicken, that's about the only one I remember having though.

As long as it was doable and reasonable.

As long as it's within reason I don't see a problem. But I would probably not do the muffin/tin/toothpicks thing. To be honest that almost has an OCD sound to it. What does this kid do when eating at school or out in public? They're not going to cater to that. Everyone has little quirks & as long as it's not ridiculous it usually passes in time.

As long as its not something way out there and bizarre then I say its o.k. but try to break them out of the strange meal preferences.

I'd be more willing to put up with reasonably odd behavior on how the kid ate, not what he ate.

my bro used to only eat pizza, mac n cheese, and doritos... no lie... even breakfast was mac n cheese. My mother catered to him... and let me tell you.. as he got older he lived in more and more of a fantasy world. He is now 37 and still expects people to cater to him... If i buy lunch meat and rolls and ask him if he wants a sandwich... he will say yeah thanks... but he wont make it on his own! and i refuse to make it for him... so after the yeah thanks... i say... well the lunchmeat is in the fridge and the rolls in the cabinet... he wont eat! I swear its true!