Eating Healthy For Children

Eating healthy is important for your children, you know that already, but if you have a picky eater, you might be worried about the nutrition they are getting. There are a few things that you can do to help your kids eat better, and help you feel more confident that they are getting the nutrition that they need to grow and stay healthy.

I never tried it. I don't like it.

One picky eater problem is the child who won't try anything new. They turn their noses up at absolutely anything you offer them that they've never tried before. It doesn't matter if you and all the other people around the table make appreciative noises, this picky eater won't touch that stuff.

The first thing to do is to realize that this is actually a survival mechanism that has served our species well. By hardwiring children not to eat things they don't recognize, generations have managed to avoid horrible poisonings while playing amidst the bounty of wild berries and leaves in the great outdoors. So don't get too frustrated with your children. Remember, they come from a long line of children who survived!

Try it, you might like it!

Some families have a tradition of "3 scout bites". Any new food, or any food that you haven't eaten in a while, deserves three bites to scout it out. It may be horrible! But it may be good! You don't know until you've investigated properly.

Frame it properly and you will have less trouble convincing stubborn kids to give it a try. This is science. Or maybe it's spy work like in Spy Kids or Harriet the Spy or G-Force. Maybe those 3 scout bites are a grand adventure - if they turn out to be terrible, they'll have a good story to tell! You know your kids best, so you can find the best way to get them over the "eww" hurdle.

If your child takes the three scout bites and is certain that they don't want more, don't fret and don't push it. You'll only make them hate that food even more. In a few months maybe they'll be ready to scout that food out again. In the meantime, give them some other alternative.

More than one way to feed a child

So your child refuses to eat pasta with red sauce on it. Hold some pasta out of the sauced batch, and put something else that your child will eat on it. You might discover that they love pesto sauce or olive oil, dried basil, oregano, and Parmesan cheese. These things can be easy to prepare along side of the meal that everyone else is eating.

You may be concerned that you'll end up with 6 or 8 different things you need to make for the various tastes in the house. The way to avoid that is to find a way to "recycle" your cooking across the spectrum of family preferences. In the pasta example, you don't need to go to great efforts to make a bunch of different toppings. Just make one main topping, but keep it separate from the pasta. Then, cut up some fresh herbs and vegetables, and allow people to customize their dish at the table.

Eating healthy for children means listening to their cues and being clever about having them try new healthy foods, even with picky eaters.