Not eating breakfast, I can understand. I remember as a kid just not being hungry in the morning. A glass of milk, and my kids seem to be good.

But lunch and dinner, I just don't get. What are they surviving on? Ask my kids what their favorite food is, and you might not even get an answer that's real food. Sour worms. Gum. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Sprinkles.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not stocking the pantry with candy. I don't even know where they've tasted sour worms.

But when I find them in my bed, at 9:30 when they should have been asleep for an hour, eating Oreo's and BarBQ potato chips, a pile of chocolate crumbs and orange hand smears on my white sheets... something's got to give.

"This is what happens when you don't eat your dinner. You sneak junk food into my bed? What were you thinking?"

We weren't thinking.

How do you get your kids to eat healthy foods? Hide them? Puree vegetables in their spaghetti sauce? Force them? Every once in a while they surprise me by eating the entire plate of asparagus, or a whole cantalope, or dipping red pepper in hummus. Is once in a while good enough?