HAPPY TO SAY THIS ARTICLE STARTS WITH SOME THINGS I'VE FELT INSTINCTIVELY FOR PARENTS WITH THEIR CHILDREN IN RECENT YEARS: IF THEY MAKE THE MEALTIMES A FUN TIME WITH THE LITTLE KIDDIES AND INTERESTING WITH OTHER AGES, IT COULD WEIGH IN FAVOR OF GOOD NUTRITION AND MEET WITH LESS RESISTENCE. YOU CAN ENGAGE YOUR CHILDREN IN SOME COOKING - OR FOOD PREPARATIONS RATHER THAN HIDING GOOD FOOD ITEMS IN CERTAIN RECIPES. EVEN GROW SOME VEGGIES FROM EARLY AGES - THEY WILL WANT TO EAT OR ATLEAST TRY WHAT THE HAVE GROWN - THIS SHOULD WORK WITH DIFFERENT AGES TOO BECAUSE VEGGIE GARDENING CAN BE INTERESTING AND FUN, WATCHING THE SEEDLINGS GROW, AND PICKING THEIR OWN FRESH VEGGIES, HEY?
How to Deal With Picky Eaters
By Karen Cicero
Struggling to get your kids to try new foods? These tried and true strategies work when coupled with patience, persistence, expert insight, and love.
Let Kids Play With Their Food. Really.
If you've ever gone head-to-head with a finicky child, then dinner probably feels like a war zone—one you'd rather avoid. The food on your child's plate doesn't necessarily go into their mouth. If they move a vegetable around, pull it apart with their fingers, or sniff it, then they're at least getting more familiar with its look and feel. In fact, in a study at the University of Eastern Finland, kindergartners spent hands-on time with fruits and veggies in their classroom by baking and cooking with them, growing a garden, and seeing food-related themes in books and games. As a result, they were more likely to choose these food groups from a snack buffet than kids who didn't have these classroom activities.
If you're flustered about feeding your child—because the more you push your child to eat, the more they push back—rest assured that that's normal, says Marina Chaparro, R.D., a pediatric nutrition expert in Miami, who admits that even she is not immune to these feelings when dining with her 2-year-old daughter, Emma Lucia.
"I'm human!" she says of the frustration she feels when her little girl refuses a certain food. That's when she remembers the advice she gives parents at her nutrition practice, Nutrichicos. Much of what we consider picky eating is actually normal developmental behavior—phases when kids assert their independence by controlling what they eat and being naturally wary of new foods.
As long as you continue presenting healthy options, you're doing your job, Chaparro says: "Parents are responsible for providing the meal. You go to the grocery store, you prepare the food. But ultimately, the child is responsible for whether they want to eat it."
That concept may be hard to swallow for parents who were raised to clean their plates.
"It takes patience and consistency" to work, assures Chaparro. There will be times when toddlers will eat very little one day and compensate the next, she adds. But if your child is growing normally and the Paediatrician is not concerned, then don't stress it. What you can do is involve children in the meal-prep process to entice them to chow down. Get their help in planning the week's menu. Bring them along to the supermarket to pick out ingredients. Let them assist in the kitchen (cute aprons are an added bonus).
When it comes to dinnertime, balance the meal by putting veggies and fruits on one half of the plate, and protein and grains or starch on the other half, Chaparro suggests. With her own daughter, she introduces new foods one at a time, next to two others that she knows Emma Lucia will eat.
Instead of getting frustrated about foods that are met with a closed mouth, she simply serves them again at future dinners, a strategy backed by studies showing that young kids are more accepting of a new vegetable once it has been presented several times. You don't want to be the "food police," Chaparro says. "If all you're doing is nagging, kids are going to react negatively to eating altogether."
Stay With The Rotation Rule.
To help your child get into the habit of eating something different every day, don't offer the same food two days in a row, says Dina Rose, Ph.D., author of It's Not About the Broccoli. Say "You had carrots with lunch yesterday. Today you can have cauliflower or peas, and tomorrow you can have carrots again if you want."
Start Very Small.
Sure, you're not giving your kid a giant bowl of peas, but Keith E. Williams, Ph.D., director of the feeding program at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania says many parents offer a portion that's way too large. "We usually begin with pieces so small that they could literally be blown away," he says. At home, try a single pea, part of a noodle, or a crumble of cheese. Encourage your child by saying something like, "This is easy—you could be done in a second." Once your child eats it, give them a food they do like. Then, at subsequent meals, increase the portion of the new food and phase out the follow-up food.
Be Up-Front About Ingredients.
You want your kid to trust you about her food, especially if they're picky. If they ask what that green speck is in their smoothie, tell them you added spinach, recommends Rose. If they respond, "Yuck, no way!" say, "Now you know what's in it. Let's investigate those specks." Then show them what a spinach leaf looks like.
Stay With It.
You've probably heard it before: A child has to try something ten to 15 times before they like it. "While that sounds daunting to many parents who have a hard time getting their kids to try something once, it does get easier," says Dr. Williams. His research shows that once you get the ball rolling on tasting new foods, it takes on average only six attempts for kids to accept them. "Still, a lot of parents don't want to introduce new foods at lunch or dinner because it may ruin the meal for the whole family," he says. "Instead, offer them during snacktime."
Scale Back On Snacks And Drinks.
Before the appointment, most feeding clinics ask parents to record what their child has eaten and drunk for at least the last three days. "When we look at these records, we see that a lot of kids who resist new foods eat snack foods or drink all day long, which limits their hunger for foods at meals," says Nancy Entgelmeier, a pediatric nurse practitioner in the feeding clinic at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Once families cut back to three meals and one to three snacks at relatively consistent times, Entgelmeier says they find that their kids are more receptive to trying something new because they're truly hungry."
Invite An Adventurous Friend Over For Dinner.
While feeding-clinic sessions generally take place one-on-one, Dr. Williams says that at home you can harness the power of peers. "You and your spouse do influence what your child tries, but no one can make a bigger difference then a friend" says Dr. Williams.
A study by a Penn State colleague, Helen Hendy, Ph.D., found that preschoolers were more likely to taste mango when they saw a classmate do it. "Sometimes all it takes is for a friend to snatch a piece of broccoli for your kid to want to nibble on it," he says. Of course, one taste probably won't make your child a broccoli fan, but it will help them get over the hump of trying it, which is half the battle.
Encourage Conversation
Dinner with eager eaters may be smoother, but it really takes off once everyone starts chatting. Tiffany Bendayan, a chef and baker in Miami, devises different ways to make the table a space where her daughters—Emily, 10, and Sofia, 8—feel comfortable sharing just about anything. She asks fun hypothetical questions as icebreakers: "What would you do with a million dollars? If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Where would you like to live one day?"
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At last, we have some positive solutions to try. We were weighed down with concern......now we have hope. Thank you Janet.