Everything I've read about has really happened. The first couple of days, my youngest ate nothing but Twinkies and Spider-Man snacks. Then, amazingly enough, he got up the next morning and asked me for grapes for breakfast. You could have knocked me over with a feather! It truly didn't seem possible until I experienced it for myself.

Whimsigal/Evie, at Unschooling.Info/forum

Holly Dodd report, March 2006

Holly has had braces since she was twelve years old. She's fourteen and they come off next month. She's been able to choose or reject foods her whole life. On her Myspace page she has posted this:

Things to do when I get my braces off:
1. Have corn on the cob like all the time
2. Go to Shoney's and get like a ton of gum from their really cool 25¢ gum machine
3. Eat carrots until my skin turns orange

She doesn't chew gum much at all; never has. But she's frugal, and to spend a quarter to see that big gumball roller coaster work when she can't even eat the gum seems wrong to her. She has definitely been missing carrots, and grated carrots just aren't the same for her.—Sandra

by Katherine ["queenjane"], November 2004:

Weight issues . . . run in my family, and I would do just about anything to help my son avoid that burden. What we did was not restrict his food at all, not use food as a reward or punishment, allow him to eat what he wanted to eat when he wanted to eat it (while offering a wide variety of healthy choices, as well as the typical "junk" food). My son views food not as a source of comfort, but as fuel for his body. He literally NEVER and I mean never overeats. Here's a conversation we had last night:

ME: Hey seamus, why didnt you go to more houses on Halloween? I mean, you passed on all that free candy!

SEAMUS: Yeah, but I get free candy whenever I want it...I mean, if I asked you for candy you'd just buy it for me. Candy's no big deal really.

ME: Hmmm....well if I buy you all the candy you want, why don't you just eat tons of it, all the time?

SEAMUS: Well that would be stupid. I mean, it's not like it's real food. Too much candy gets boring and gross. I'd rather have Chinese food or something.

ME: Do you think if I restricted how much candy you can eat, you'd eat more of it or what?

SEAMUS: Well, yeah, cuz I wouldn't know if I'd get any more. But I know I can always get more candy, so it's no big deal.

ME: Thanks for sharing your halloween candy with me, even the good candy bars.

SEAMUS: You're welcome!

By ~heather (~heather) at www.unschooling.com

This morning my two year old wanted mini marshmallows for her breakfast and nothing else. I offered raisin toast, cantaloupe, grapes, cereal, oatmeal, eggs...nope she wanted her mini marshmallows and in a baggie so she could carry them around. I gave her the marshmallows because that was what she wanted. She topped it off later with a chocolate pudding.

A few hours later she had lunch with her brothers, pizza and milk. She munched on two whole carrots later, a piece of celery with peanut butter.

She loves to dig in the fridge and this afternoon she found a box of alfalfa sprouts I just bought and wanted to try some. She ate half the box.

She is also my child when we have brocolli will eat 2 or 3 helpings and finish off her brothers and want more. If we have a stir fry she picks out the brocolli.

I have learned about food issues from my sweet kids. The issue was really in MY head. My kids will eat what they want and it all balances out eventually in the day, week or month. However, I still can't help myself to offer other things to them when I feel like they might be hurting their little bodies, but at least I am accepting of it and have learned not to say NO when they want their mini marshmallows (in a baggy) for breakfast.