Picky Eaters: 10 Ideas To Get Them Eating
Olivia on Nov 17 2008 at 8:39 pm | Filed under: Parenting
It’s quite stressful when you have a picky eater at home, don’t you agree? Figuring out what kinds of food to cook and how to get them to eat is a daily headache. I’m sure the meal time battles are driving your blood pressure up too. Having little children that are picky eaters is not unusual. Many parents are in the same boat. I’ve been told that the fussiness over food will disappear when the children get older. But waiting it out isn’t really going to help you now. So here are some suggestions for you:
1. Let them plan meals and go grocery shopping with you. By giving them the liberty to select the dinner menu, you raise the chances of them eating it.
2. Watch the before-meal snacks. If they have a snack close to meal time, it’s likely they won’t eat their meal. Apart from the snacks, limit the drinks too. Don’t underestimate the filling power of juice and milk.
3. Don’t serve them too much at one go. Start with a small portions and if it’s not enough, serve them seconds. This way you are setting them up to successfully finish their meal.
4. Employ their little hands to prepare the food. You’ll be surprised to see them willingly chowing down the food just because they had a hand in making it. For instance, while preparing dinner, I persuaded my daughter who is 7 years old to help me chop up the broccoli and cauliflower. What do you reckon happened next? She heartily ate them when before, she wouldn’t even touch them.
5. Offer them several different foods to choose from. Allow them to make a selection. You can ask them if they want spinach or green beans, french toast or scrambled eggs, etc….
6. Prepare nutritional snacks. Fruits and vegetables are ideal. Turn them into finger foods that the kids can enjoy such as fruit kebab.
7. Point out what other children eat, especially their friends. I used to joke with my friend that we should exchange food because our children seem to prefer the other person’s food. It doesn’t matter if their friends are eating food that is alien to them, as long as their friends are eating it, they are more likely to try. So maybe organizing a “tea-party” where your kids and their friends eat together may be a good idea. If you do this, make a pact with the parents first that only healthy food will be served.
8. It could be your picky eater has a problem with the food’s texture rather than the food’s taste. You should come up with alternative ways to prepare the food such as grinding it up in a blender or food processor.
9. Avoid giving them the label of a picky eater. If they hear you say it all the time, they may just accept that to be who they are.
10. Don’t prepare separate meals just for them. Yes, you suggest a choice of foods to them but it’s not something different from the family menu. If you give in to their demands, you’ll never get them to expand their list of like-able foods.
Dealing with picky eaters requires much patience. The most important thing you must do, and also the hardest, is to let go of the power struggle during meal times. Talk to the children about meal time rules and enforce them consistently. Another arsenal to put in your bag is to arm yourself with a variety of easy recipes for picky eaters. Mixing creativity into your cooking can only bring about good things.
