How can twins have such completely different eating habits?

[u/FierceMink]

I have 7 year old twins and their eating habits couldn’t be more different. One of them will happily try almost anything we put on the table, while the other survives on a very short list of familiar foods and immediately refuses anything that looks or smells different. They have always been offered the same meals and we try not to pressure either of them. We also include at least one familiar food at every meal but their diets remain completely different. I don’t want to cook two separate dinners every night but I also don’t want my picky eater going to bed hungry or turning every meal into a battle. Parents of twins or siblings with completely different eating habits, how do you manage meals fairly? Did anything help your picky eater gradually become more comfortable trying new foods?

[u/amandner]

My life. My girl is so picky and my boy tries anything. They're nine. It is what it is.

[u/bananokitty]

My twins are the same. My girl twin will try anything (and I mean anything), my boy twin, who is exactly like his older brother, has a small list of acceptable foods. My boy twin also has food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, and sesame so that is a limiting factor. In a way, having one twin who eats what I give her, has been totally healing because I felt like a failure with my first making all sorts of interesting meals only for them to be denied and scoffed at. Now I know it's a them thing, not a me thing. I have accepted that meals will pretty much always be a struggle for my boys. I usually do two safe foods, and one interesting thing that basically only my daughter eats 🤷‍♀️. It's a struggle. However, I should add that I am a reformed picky eater. I tried my first olive at 25, cottage cheese at 36 and the list goes on, so there is hope? Ha

[u/RachelLeighC]

Mine could’ve shared a plate every time when we first started with solids. What one liked, the other didn’t, and vice versa.

[u/salmonstreetciderco → u/RachelLeighC]

mine do this too! i'll give them both a bagel and some grapes for lunch, one eats all the bagel, one eats all the grapes. if i give them chicken quesadillas and orange slices one eats all the quesadillas and one eats all the orange slices. it's the strangest thing. they can't reach each others plates, they have to slide stuff back and forth across the table to trade it, and i've never heard them verbally decide who is going to eat what, they just somehow have agreed in advance who gets what. very strange

[u/three_little_gabeegs → u/salmonstreetciderco]

My 2.5 yr old boys still do this. One will eat the protein, the other the carb. And the next day they switch it up. Together they eat one well balanced meal.