Eating: The Elements

My son has always had a small appetite and has been a somewhat picky eater. There are certain tastes and textures he cannot stand, especially dairy products. He doesn’t like milk or cheese or yogurt- I’m not sure why. There are certain foods he will eat, though he doesn’t like them, especially if you tell him they’ll make him healthy or tall (like some vegetables and fruit) but he’s always been stiffly resistant to milk and dairy.

It was while ago on a trip to Griffith Observatory that I had a lightbulb moment about how to get him to eat more varied foods, especially ones he had an aversion to.  Inside the building there is a large free-standing structure depicting the periodic table of elements. He was fascinated when he first saw this, since he loves anything to do with formation of stars. The Observatory structure is large and filled with lights and colors.

There are various buttons one can press on the structure, which lights up bulbs inside the square blocks representing each element.  One button lit all the elements that are present in the human body. My son stood there for a long time pressing that button since he wanted to know what he was made up of.  As he pressed the button I pointed to each square (element) and told him in where those elements could be found in everyday objects, and I realized how many of them were present in foods: iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and so on. It was a brilliant graphic display of chemistry that my son had known for a long time but only grasped in a visceral way when seeing it displayed visually.

Watching him press the button over and over again gave me an idea!  When we got left for home, I immediately decided to buy a book on the periodic table of elements, and at the next meal we sat down with the book which I read to him and let him look at.  Then I would find the food he wouldn’t eat, turn to the page that explained the element contained within that food, and he would promptly eat whatever he didn’t want to eat before!  He started drinking milk with very little resistance (though he still doesn’t like the texture of cheese and yogurt).

All our meals over the next few months were accompanied by a copy of the periodic table of elements, which my son would pore over while eating. That book became his favorite reading every night, and he preferred it over reading “Adventures of Huck Finn” or “Treasure Island"!