It is a fact of life that kids can be picky, but this need not deter you from making healthy dietary changes for your family. Here are our top tips for overcoming pickiness.
- Involve your children. This is the most important, effective thing you can do. Involved children feel more control (which they love), and involving them makes every step more fun. In the grocery store, let your kids pick out fruits and vegetables; at home, brainstorm meals together and encourage them to help with the cooking process by giving them age-appropriate tasks. The more involved they are, the more invested they will be in the food and the more likely they will eat it.
- Make changes gradually. You may be able to make big changes relatively quickly with young children. If your children are older, however, it is probably better to change things slowly. Be patient—your children may be resistant at first. But if you slowly switch things out over time, it may make the process easier on them. Swap whole wheat pasta for white pasta, have one meatless dinner per week (then two, then three, etc.), and add one new vegetable or fruit at a time. These transitions will give your children a chance to adjust more easily.
- Give them choices. As we mentioned above, kids like having control. You don’t have to go crazy—just two or three options will work. And make it two or three things you actually want them to eat. For instance, let them choose between a sandwich with hummus or peanut butter and jelly.
- Pair the new with the old. When introducing new foods, build the meal around things your children already like: if they like hummus, put some thinly sliced cucumber on their next hummus sandwich; if they like tomato soup, blend some greens with it; or if they like salsa, throw in some black beans. You get the idea. Over time, they will become more comfortable with the new foods and more open to eating them in less familiar contexts.
- Less can be more. Whereas adults often enjoy a wider variety, it’s completely normal for children to be selective. Try not to get hung up on making sure your children are eating a wide range of foods; instead, find a few healthy foods they like and go with it. (You may find it monotonous to set out carrot sticks every day at snack time, but who cares? Your child is eating carrots every day!) Continue introducing them to new foods occasionally, but don’t worry too much if your children are eating the same few health-promoting foods a lot of the time. It is far better for your child to eat a smaller variety of healthy options than to increase variety by including unhealthy options.
- Make trying new food a fun activity You can serve your kid a “muffin tin meal” by placing a different food in each part of a muffin tin. To encourage them to try at least one bit from each spot, use positive instead of negative words. For example, instead of saying, Try it before deciding you don’t like it!, you might say, After you try it, you can have some more or try another. You could even put stickers at the bottom of each muffin spot to make things more fun. This is only one idea—the opportunities to make trying new food fun are endless. This is your chance to get creative!
