Resist Food Fights with Your Picky Eater

Posted by:
Kara Ryan, Department of Public Health 

 

Kara is a Nutrition Education Specialist at DPH.

Do you have a hard time getting your kids to eat healthy foods?   Do mealtimes with your kids feel like a struggle for control?  Don’t worry, you’re not alone. 

All parents want what is best for their kids and if mealtime is a struggle, worried parents may go to great lengths to make sure their child eats right. Some parents will bribe their kids into eating healthy foods or may punish them for not.  Chances are, this just leads to more of a struggle at mealtime.  This can cause parents to feel even more angry and worried about the situation.  Rather than putting you or your child through this struggle for control, try some of these options from parents and professionals:

• Ellyn Satter, a well known food guru for kids, says that the parent and child each have a job when it comes to mealtime. The parent’s job is to decide what, when and where a child eats.  The child’s job is to decide how much to eat— and whether or not to eat it.  This means parents need to make a variety of healthy foods available but be ready to take “no” for an answer.  When a parent is too pushy, the odds are the child will not listen, will turn grumpy, or begin to whine.  Ellyn says be sure to include at least one food that you know your child usually likes, but also to add some new foods. For more tips from Ellyn  visit her website.

• One of our WIC moms shared with other moms the tough times she had getting her two picky eaters to eat healthy.  What ideas does she have to offer to other parents? 
  • Make mealtime fun!  Talk with your kids and make mealtime happy and light.  Some kids may like to have a special plate or cup with their favorite character on it.

  • Be creative!  Cut fruits and vegetables into different shapes.   Make fruit look like a smiley face or use broccoli to make mini trees.

  • Include the kids!  Let your kids help prepare the meals.  This can be a fun family activity. Plus, your junior chef will most likely want to taste what he helped to make!

  • Be a role model.  Kids learn by watching you.  If you eat healthy, they’ll eat healthy!

• Jessica Seinfeld, mother of three and wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, likes to puree fruits and vegetables and add them to the foods she is makes.  She thinks this gives her kids an extra boost of nutrition. Jessica offers cooking tips in her book, Deceptively Delicious.  You can also try some of the recipes from her cookbook from Oprah’s website.

What are your thoughts about these options for getting your picky eater to eat healthy?  Have you found ways to get your child interested in healthy foods?  Tell us about it!

Comments

[helen]

have never thought about it like that before. Thanks so much for the depth and understanding at which you covered the topic. it's a useful piece of information not only for me but for many others. have seen lots of this stuff (download mainly from http://www.picktorrent.com but this piece really gives food for thought

[Kathryn]

This was helpful. I will have to try these tips out. My picky eater loves foods that look colorful and fun...we are going to try the broccoli tree idea! This is so cute!