6 Simple Steps for Raising Non-Picky Eaters
Does your kid eat pizza for every single meal? Claim they don’t like any vegetables? Load up on sweet treats but pick at their dinner? You are not alone! According to the University of Michigan CS Mott’s Childrens Hospital a whopping 30-50% of American children are picky eaters. Having a picky eater in your household is taxing for everyone. If you want to help improve your child’s relationship with food, follow these six simple steps!
I hear so many parents struggling with having picky eaters. Living in a household of adventurous eaters, I wanted to share our tips and tricks for how we have raised our kids to love and enjoy eating a variety of foods. I hope these 6 simple steps for raising non-picky eaters help your family improve their relationship with food!
Raising Non-Picky Eaters Step 1—Clean up the snacks
The most impactful thing you can do is serve healthy snack options. Snacks are not meals, and they shouldn’t always come out of an individually packaged wrapper. Snacks are meant to tide you over between meals, not fill you up so you’re no longer hungry for a healthy dinner. Great snacks options are a piece of fruit, veggies dipped in hummus, or edamame, to name a few. Like our meals, we should strive to have snacks that are whole real foods. This way kids aren’t loading up on sugary-carb ultra-processed snacks and then eating a light dinner.
Step one, take a real hard look at your pantry, what kinds of snacks are you stocking? Purge your pantry of ultra-processed bars, chips, crackers, cookies and load up the refrigerator with fruits, veggies, nut butters, and bean dips. Make choosing a healthy snack easy for your kids by removing the ultra-processed, sweetened temptations around your home. If you had the choice between an apple and some chocolate brownie bar what would you choose? If you eliminate the junk food then healthy snack choices are easy peasy!
Raising Non-Picky Eaters Step 2—Let Kids Choose
Mealtime doesn’t have to be a battle, and you shouldn’t have to make a special meal for picky eaters either. The solution—give kids choices. This helps them feel a sense of control. Sometimes picky-eating is all about control. The caveat—only give them healthy choices. Instead of “what do you want to eat?”, try “do you want an apple or an orange?”, “Do you want peanut butter or almond butter?”. This is a great compromise—you can ensure your child is eating healthy and your kid ultimately gets to choose what type of fruit vegetable, protein they want to eat.
Snack time and packing lunches for school is when I try to give my kids the most choices. Choices aren’t free range either its not an apple or chips, and sometimes you have to redirect them back—”no, we are having fruit or veggies for a snack, you can choose apple, oranges, blueberries, snap peas…”.
One of our favorite dinners is buddha bowls—basically brown rice and tofu bowls, with lots of veggie toppings. My kids can pick any combination of veggies they like, but they have to put at least two veggies in their bowl. This dinner is always a hit. I think it is more about my kids being able to choose their toppings than the meal itself. They feel in control. it’s their personal creation, and that always tastes better! Tacos, and pitas with falafel are also great meals where kids can customize their toppings.
Raising Non-Picky Eaters Step 3—Serve a Variety of Foods
Everyone has different preferred tastes, favorite foods, and dislikes. The most amazing part of this is our likes, and dislikes, can and do change. Which is why it’s so important to reintroduce foods to your kids. They may not like peas today—but they just might next week, they may only like green cabbage—but not purple. They may like onions in onion masala, but not in baked beans—true story. You get the idea. My youngest son for the past year has despised feta cheese. Then, just last night while making homemade pizza he asked for feta on it. We all looked at him shocked and he proceeded to tell us he loves feta cheese. Literally a complete reversal and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this happen with my kids.
We aim to try all the food on our plate at a meal. My kids don’t have to eat everything, but they do have to try it. Then we talk about what they like and don’t like and we respect how they feel about it. We also try to get everyone involved in meal planning for the week, so kids get to choose what we are having for dinner. When we make something new I always ask them if they like it and if we should have it again. If they don’t love it, that doesn’t mean I’ll never make it again, just maybe less often. Moral of the story keep trying new foods, you never know what they like and dislike!=
Raising Non-Picky Eaters Step 4—Everyone Eats the Same Meal
Sharing a meal together is a bonding experience and a great time for families to have a conversation. As already busy parents, making a separate meal for kids is just more than we need to do, you have a choice not to go down that road! Plus, going back to serving a variety of foods—kids sometimes need a nudge to try new things. Eating the same meal together as a family is a great way to simplify dinner and ensure they are eating a healthy variety of foods.
Often times when kids have a separate dinner it ends up being a less nutritious version of the grownup food—for example, parents eating spaghetti, kids eating noodles with just butter. Treat your child just like a visiting friend, serve them the same food as everyone else and if there is something they don’t like they can politely eat around it or put it on the side of their plate. They can still choose what on their plate they want to eat and what they don’t.
Raising Non-Picky Eaters Step 5—Rethink Dessert
Dessert should be a treat, not an everyday part of the meal. We have so many opportunities for sugary sweets throughout the day in our modern life. Our kids certainly aren’t deprived of sweets! Plus dessert doesn’t have to be cookies or a piece of cake, it can be as simple as a bowl of berries, or some “nice cream” with frozen bananas. I try to squeeze in at least a couple weekdays where we just don’t have dessert. It is not always necessary.
Most importantly dessert should only happen if your child eats their healthy meal. Period. You can, however, frame this in a positive way “you can have dessert after you eat your dinner, your choice.” This puts it back on your child to choose what they want to do. It may take some getting used to, but be firm! Even when dining with guests. Your child just might need to be the only kid who doesn’t get a popsicle to learn that they need to eat their dinner first. Don’t feel bad, you are teaching your child to eat healthy, this is a great gift! I see so many kids snacking all day long on ultra-processed sugary snacks, pick at their dinner, and then want two desserts. Take a look at your child’s eating habits, and disrupt the cycle.
Step 6—Make food fun!
Cooking and eating is ultimately something we do every day. So why not make it a joyous task? Even if cooking is not your jam, you can still add a little fun and humor to dinnertime. For example, let kids play with their food. Yup you heard me. Call food silly names to make them more exciting. Let them put raspberries on their fingers and poke at weird textures. Get covered in flour rolling out pizza dough. Smell strange or delicious smells. Turning cooking and eating into a fun playtime makes it a positive experience.
Plus, everything tastes so much better when you make it yourself! Get your kids involved in prepping the meal, adding ingredients, and talking about nutrition. When my oldest son was about three, he wasn’t sure about eating quinoa, but when we jokingly told him it was baby fish eyes, oh he had to try those! Weird as it sounds it worked.
Our family also loves to try different types of cuisine, from Banh mi sandwiches to an Indian veggie korma, we all get excited about something new. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t but we enjoy the fun of something different and a taste of different cultures. Find your families way to incorporate new meals.
Lastly, play around with food games like eating the rainbow. We all know that eating a colorful assortment of fruits and veggies are good for us, so why not make it into a game? Ask your kids how much of the rainbow they ate today. Find different colored veggies at the grocery store to make colorful assortments. If it’s snacktime, challenge your kids to find a purple veggie to eat, or blue fruit. You get the idea!
That’s it! Only six simple to raising non-picky eaters. The best part is if you implement these steps when your kids are young, just starting solid foods, you will never have to deal with a picky eater. If your children are older, it is never to late to help your children learn to eat a healthy diet, just know you may need to start small. Choose one of these steps at a time, let them get used to things and then layer in another. You’ll get there! As a parent, teaching your child how to eat a healthy diet is a wonderful gift you can give to your child that will help them throughout their entire life.