How To Feed A Picky Eater

Having picky eaters can turn dinner into a parents headache. Kids can be picky when it comes to food, especially vegetables and fruits. What can you do? How can you get your picky eater to try different foods? Good habits start at an early age. Here are some helpful tips.

1. Practice what you preach
If you aren't eating fruits and veggies, don't expect your children too. Setting your plate up, like your child's plate will encourage them to try different foods.

2. Taste development
Start your child eating healthy as young as possible. Give healthy snacks such as carrot stick, celery, apple slices, and oranges rather than roll ups, chips and candy.

3. Keep eating times distraction free
Turn off the television, put away the toys and turn off the phones.

4. Allow kids to be involved
Kids love to help prepare meals and grocery shop. Let your child select the veggy and fruits to be prepared for meals. Let the wash the produce and prepare them for plating. When grocery shopping, let the picky eater help pick out the fruits and veggies.

5. Don't give up
Be persistent, if your child is refusing to try a new food, encourage them to try a bit. Keep including healthy food items in your child's diet on a regular basis. It takes children an average of ten times before they develop a like for a particular food.

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Comment by Bill Elliott on January 29, 2012 at 9:59am: One tip I found to work on my Children and Grandchildren is covering vegetables with cheese. My kids love cheese and this worked great when trying to get children to eat green vegetables. Try this on green beans, broccoli , celery and even peas.

Comment by John Darrow on January 19, 2012 at 11:47pm: One other aspect to consider is possible food allergies or sensitivities. There may be a reason why a child refuses particular foods, even if they can't articulate it. I was in my teens before skin tests identified why I was avoiding particular foods.

Comment by nathania hunter on January 4, 2012 at 6:17pm: great post!! I have one picky eater when it comes to meats and cooked food unless it's whole wheat spaghetti, but veggies and fruit are not a problem!!.

Comment by Trasina L McGahey on November 20, 2011 at 3:21pm: I have 4 kids and 3 of them like veggies and aren't very picky. But, one of them will not eat any veggies at all. The thing is that when she was an infant and starting on solid foods she would literally gag whenever she was fed a vegetable. I mean tongue out almost throwing up GAG. For a year I would repeatedly try to reintroduce different ones and it was a no go. I think it is possible some people just cannot stand the taste of certain things. She's older now and throughout the years I would try to make her eat her veggies and eventually I just gave up!

Comment by Becky Donald on October 12, 2011 at 6:02pm: I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I don't really care . . . unless someone is complaining about their child's habits. The word "HABIT" says it all. Some parents have legitimate concerns, but many are just unwilling to make the changes that are necessary. Think of all of the children with allergies and of all the choices they will never have. Think of the hard work their parents have ahead of them. Its such a heartbreaking thing to watch a kinder with a gluten or dairy allergy during a class party.

I am passionate about the school lunches and how the eating habits are created and enforced in the school systems - but parents that complain about the picky eater they created . . . no time for that. Be persistent and be serious. Take a page out of WIC's hand book and get back to the basics. Create Taco Tuesday or have homemade pizza the third Friday of every month. And Change it up - Tacos don't have to be on shells, they can be on lettuce. Use turkey or chicken. Its smells a lot better coming out. Salsa doesn't have to be red and sugary, it comes in green too. Pizza can be on crackers and doesn't need pepperoni, it can have broccoli. The toppings go off as easy as they go on. There are so many amazing foods out there . . . experience them with your children. A big favorite of my kids when they were little . . . smoked salmon. I told my daughter it was candy. She still loves it. We introduced fish at very young ages (but we could because of where we live - it is wild and available).

And give your dishes crazy names. Kids learn to ask for things by name that way. Snack time? if you only have crackers, apple sauce and cheese available, it is what they will eat. Heating a cheese stick in the microwave makes a cheesy treat turn sweet.

Speaking of microwaves - go microwave free for a couple weeks. Kids and Tweens relearn the value of dinner time. We went microwave free for two months. It is, hands down, one of my favorite family memories. Everyone got involved in meal time to make sure it was hot and ready for everyone to eat.

See, I went off again. UGH. Sorry.

Comment by LaDonna on October 12, 2011 at 5:14pm: WOW I can't believe how many typing errors I had in this. I was multitasking lol oh well.

Comment by LaDonna on October 12, 2011 at 5:10pm: WOW Becky! Thank you for your in put. But you know, everything you said is true. If our child is pick and has bad eating habits, it's our own fault!

Comment by Becky Donald on October 12, 2011 at 4:50pm: Number 2 is SO important! If you introduce your child to chicken nuggets and french fries, they are going to want chicken nuggets and french fries. It is so frustrating to hear about a "picky eater". How do you think they got that way? We all do it . . . own it and fix it. And for goodness sake, just because McDonald's has a toy for 3 and under doesn't mean you have to get your toddler a happy meal.

Do you think WIC hands out coupons for snickers, Doritos, and fruit roll ups? Nope, its cheese - milk - eggs & juice. Why do you think that is?

Okay, its a frustrating subject for me. People claim they do everything to get their child to eat right (where did they learn to eat wrong?) . . . and I've witness the throwing up from "yucky" foods - my daughter has an awful gag reflex. And my son hates potatoes . . . But you know what? Because we didn't give in, they didn't give up.

(I even convinced my first born he was allergic to chocolate so he wouldn't ask for it at the store - he is now 14 and doesn't like chocolate)

That brings me to baby food - fruits vs veggies. If you never give them the applesauce, they don't know its better than the sweet potatoes. Cruel? Maybe. Necessary? Probably.

And stop blaming Grandma. Free child care means more money to spend on healthy food.

Don't get me started on the school lunch program. . .I mean, since when is chips and salsa a "healthy alternative"? And "eat your hot pack first"! What? Did you just tell my child veggies and fruit were optional. Because that's what it sounded like to me.