Arthur's Strange Foodie Fad!

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Arthur is our little three year old neighbour. He's a great kid, always cheerful and so well behaved so I was surprised when his mum, Helen, had a chat with me over the garden fence just before lunch. I was talking about what I was going to have for lunch and mentioned that I may have a sardine sandwich with salad. She mentioned that she and her four year old, Isabella, would have sandwiches but Arthur would have a slice of toast. I asked why and she said that Arthur was going through a 'phase' but was a little concerned about him. Apparently he'll only eat bread if it's toasted but he won't eat meat, fish or cooked vegetables. However, he will eat crisps and cheese. I suggested that perhaps she might want to give him baked beans or a milky drink to give him some protein but she said that he won't eat anything that has liquid with it I have to confess I've never heard of a child who won't eat anything moist but I told her not to worry and that as long as he was happy and had plenty of energy then he'd probably soon grow out of it. Once I got back indoors I thought about Helen's concern but then it occurred to me that my sister, when she was in her early teens, decided she didn't like Mum's roast dinners and always had a cheese and tomato sandwich. She's now 64 and quite healthy. Likewise, her son, my nephew Dominic would only eat minced beef in gravy, boiled rice and sweetcorn but he's now a strapping 6' tall, 19 year old hunk. An old workmate of mine had a nephew who, for about five years, wouldn't eat anything other than bread or toast and Marmite but he's now 18 and is about to start some sort of engineering degree at University. Adam's nephew went through a stage of eating nothing but crisps, sausages, sausage rolls and chips but he's now married with two healthy sons. And I haven't always been a healthy eater. I was very difficult to feed when I was very young, before starting school, but our GP said that I'd be fine and that I was quite healthy. When I started primary school at the age of 5 Mum was buying me dresses for a three year old but it all changed when I got meningitis. I wouldn't eat in hospital while I was recovering so the hospital suggested I should return home. As soon as I got home Dad sat me on the mat in front of the fire (I wasn't able to walk as I was too weak) and he told me that I could have whatever I wanted to eat. I said I fancied a tin of Heinz baked beans and pork sausages. Mum got a can (she ran a small village shop which was attached to our house) and said she'd heat them up in no time but I told her I wanted them cold. So a tin of cold beans and sausages were put in a bowl and I had them with bread and butter. The weird thing is that, following my meningitis problem, I never looked back when it came to eating.