Chef Solus Top 10 Tips For Parents With Picky Eater
Patience and persistence are the tools for parents of a picky eater. Your tenacity to make nutrition a priority will pay off in the long run as your child grows and begins to form food associations, preferences and priorities. Your guidance and role modeling will be a positive and formidable influence. (but you can’t see it right now, so hang in there and don’t give up.)
Picky Eater Tips – How To Get Your Child To Eat Healthy Foods
- If you find a couple of vegetables that they do like, well, it is okay to repeatedly serve them. Just continue to introduce one new food at a time.
- Introduce one new food at a time. Introduce it with another food they enjoy.
- Make the foods interesting. Jazz up those vegetables and fruits. Kids love dipping foods, so
how about adding a low fat dip for their vegetables or fruits. Serve them their vegetable with a vegetable made of into a picture or funny face.
- Don’t make your child clean their plate. Kids, especially under five, have a good sense of their hunger.
- Don’t despair. Be patient there is no magic solutions because kids, like us adults, have different personalities, tolerance levels, patience, moods etc. So in other words, what works for one child may not work for another.
- To add more nutrition for that stubborn picky eater who absolutely refuses to eat vegetables or fruits, be creative. You can add vegetables into some of their favorite meals. Dice them finely and add these healthy foods to their favorite meatloaf, stew, soup, casserole dish or pasta.
- Avoid letting your child snack all day long. If they aren’t very hungry at mealtime they are
less likely to try new foods.
- Try and offer them one bite of the healthy food they don’t want to eat. If your child
refuses, don’t give up or get mad. Keep bringing that vegetable back to mealtime every several days or so.
- It’s okay for kids to have a dessert or high sugar, high fat food once in awhile. Avoid completely eliminating a food they enjoy. Instead, teach your child how these foods are good to have once in a while.
- Take advantage of other activities to expose your child to healthy foods outside of mealtime. Have them help you pick out the vegetables and fruits at the grocery store, or better yet, at the farmers market. Let them help prepare the foods.
- Try to eliminate distractions, like TV, telephone, and cell phones during mealtime.
- Be a fun healthy eating role model. The kids are watching you. Pile on those veggies on your plate and let them know how delicious it is.
- Avoid bribing please! ie “If you eat your vegetables, you can have dessert later.” You will send the wrong message to your child. Multiple studies have shown that bribing kids doesn’t promote good healthy food preferences in the long run.
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