News flash: The boy hates pancakes!

A few weeks ago Little Mister encountered his first ever pancakes. Given his usual ferocious appetite for food, we’d assumed he would love them as much as his sister always has. But he wouldn’t touch them!

He rejected the savoury option with ham and cheese. He even turned down the sweet delights of a chocolate spread filled desert pancake, which even the fussiest toddler would probably have struggled to refuse.

Just a fluke, we thought. He’d been a bit under the weather and, unusually for him, had been less fussed about food in general that weekend.

This is a boy can demolish a banana in a few bites. Who’s renowned for almost always eating thirds at nursery. Who screams if dinner is running late. And has been known to sob uncontrollably when pudding has finished, especially if it’s apple crumble!

I can count on one hand the foods he won’t eat. Actually, right now, pancakes is really the only thing I can think of!

This time two years ago his sister, who was a similar age to him now, was pleading for ‘more pancakes please! She had a complete meltdown when her Shrove Tuesday pancakes finished. I’d assumed her brother would be the same and then some. Boy versus pancakes is what I’d envisaged.

Alas, no. Today at nursery he consumed his usual thirds of ‘herby cod’ (his older sister only managed ‘most’ of her first helping). But the pudding column of his food chart read, for the first time ever I think, ‘none’. Apparently hardly any of the current contingent of babies ‘got’ pancakes.

At home tonight we tried again. Third time lucky, we thought. No way, he thought. He looked at his pancake with suspicion. He poked it a bit, licked some of the honey off, then pushed his plate away and said ‘no’. He would not be persuaded otherwise. He clamped his mouth shut and looked at me as if I was a complete idiot for even thinking he might want to eat what had been put in front of him.

I had thought I was going to have to add a footnote to this post saying he’d had a last minute change of heart. As I started writing this he wavered slightly. Unprompted, he did have a nibble of the then cold pancake which we’d left on the table. He still looked suspicious and was mainly playing with it but, at last, a piece did at least pass his lips!