Tips on Getting Picky Eaters too EAT

After reading my friend Lyndsay's blog about the eating habits of her children, (one good eater, one picky eater…hmmm sounds familiar) she posed the question, "How do you get your kids to eat?" After dealing with a picky eater for almost 2 years now, I have tried many things including begging and pleading (not recommended). I was going to post all my tips in her comment section but then decided it needed it's own post. So here goes:

1. Make food fun any way you can. Could be using your cookie cutters to cut sandwiches pancakes, waffles into shapes, adding a few sprinkles to a whole grain bread, letting them dip veggies into dressing, making faces or animals our of food, etc. Whatever might inspire them to take a bite. Some of this has worked on Luke, and some of it hasn't.

2. Let them help prepare food. My neighbor's son is a great eater. And from a very young age, she let him help in the kitchen; adding ingredients, stirring, smelling foods etc. Of course this is MUCH easier to do when you only have one child. I couldn't imagine doing this with Luke AND Gavin, but when they are a little older, I plan to do this. You can get a safe knife that kids can't cut themselves with to let then chop veggies. they are more likely to take a bite while they are cutting. See HERE for safe knife.

3. Let them help shop for food and pick items out to try. If they pick out the food that they want to eat, they are more likely to try it. I have let Luke do this. Sometimes he'll eat what he picks out and sometimes he won't. Hit and miss, as usual.

4. Don't feed babies baby food. This was a comment from Lyndsay's blog, and I have to agree. I gave Gavin a lot more table food at a young age, and he is a great eater. Sometimes I would just puree whatever we were having for dinner in my Magic Bullet and he would eat it right up. So start EARLY and expose them to as many flavors, colors and textures as possible.

5. When all else fails, get sneaky. Check out The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious for recipes and tips on how to sneak fruits and veggies into your kids favorites meals like mac and cheese, grilled cheese and even COOKIES! The healthier versions of these dishes will give you some peace of mind that there is some nutritional value in there, not just sugar, fat and salt!

Hope you find some of these tips useful. Happy eating!