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Kids and food are a funny thing, and how to feed a newly adopted child is one of those issues that comes up a lot. On one end of the spectrum you have kids like Belane, who instantly take to American food. While we were still staying at the hotel in Addis, I would order one American dish and one Ethiopian dish to share, and regularly she chose the cheeseburger and fries or pizza over the injera and wat (good thing I like Ethiopian food!) This picture is from our first day together in Ethiopia.

Another family that we traveled with adopted two older children (who have been home for the same 2 ½ months as Belane) and they still are refusing almost any food that is not Ethiopian. My friend gets injera from a local restaurant and has learned how to prepare several Ethiopian dishes to keep the kids happy (and fed). She prepares two meals a night, since her other kids aren’t fond of Ethiopian food, and continues to try and get the two new additions to try new things. Food has been one of their biggest challenges.

I have heard stories of kids coming home and wanting nothing but bananas and eggs, or bread and peanut butter. Some kids eat so little that their new parents worry about keeping them healthy, while other kids (especially ones who are malnourished or had been very hungry earlier in their lives) eat so much that they make themselves ill.

I try to imagine myself living in a new country and having all new food to eat, without any of my old favorites. While I like Ethiopian food for example, I am sure that there are plenty of dishes that I may not enjoy, and if it were my only choice, I would surely be missing lots of foods I like now. When you imagine yourself in a similar position, it is easy to see how food could be difficult for a child just coming to America.

Even for domestic adoptions, food can be an issue. Our girls, who were adopted from the deep south, were used to very different foods than what we were used to eating and I am pretty sure had never truly eaten a vegetable or fruit in their lives. No matter where your child is adopted from, feeding them can be a challenge.

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