Scared to Talk About Changes

My 5 year old daughter apparently had changing tastes due to her reaction and trigger from something she ate a few weeks back. I think it’s normal to have those changing tastes and it makes sense that even as you grow up, your tastes could change as well. My daughter didn’t want to talk about her changing tastes for a few weeks, but she finally built the nerve up to talk to me about it.

She told me that she didn’t like the things she ate on the day of her last episode (and thankfully she hasn’t had another trigger since then after we cut out gluten). She told me that she was scared to talk about it for a long time. I think when kids build up the courage to tell you something, it’s a good thing to reinforce that talking about an issue is the right thing and that they shouldn’t be scared to say how they feel. Especially if it’s something that my wife and I could adjust.

I told her that I appreciated her thoughts and her voice. I also told her not to be scared of saying how she feels because we need to talk about these things to figure out a solution. By the end of the short conversation, she was smiling, and she felt good about sharing those thoughts and feelings with me. I also told her that we would adjust lunches and dinner so that we avoided some of those foods that she didn’t like anymore. As she grows older, maybe she could end up liking those foods once again, but for now we will just avoid it. Simple as that.