Tips to Overcome a Picky Eater

If you have a picky eater, you know how difficult and stressful every meal can be. While it’s easier to let your child eat whatever and avoid the struggle, it’s not a long-term healthy solution. The good thing is it’s never too late to start working on getting picky eaters to try new foods. The following are some tips for parents to help broaden your child’s food palette.

Make Food Fun

Throw out the old saying, “Don’t play with your food.” In this case, it’s important to let your child play with. Provide small samples and make it visually enticing by cutting it into shapes and making it colorful.

Avoid Forcing your Child

Try not to force your child to eat new foods. You may get your child to eat it at that time, but it may cause them to avoid eating it in the future or even trying new foods all together.

Consistently Offer New Foods

It’s important that your child sees new food choices at the dinner table on a regular basis. When your child sees new foods regularly, the experience of seeing it won’t seem as strange.

Keep a Positive Attitude

It might take time and it can be frustrating, but it’s important for parents to keep a positive attitude. If you are negative, your child will only become more resistant to trying new foods.

Eat Family Style

When it’s dinner time, make sure there are no screens at the table or any other forms of distractions. Create a habit that when everyone sits down at the dinner table, it’s time to eat as a family. Serve one meal for the whole family and resist making a separate meal for your child. Do your best to include at least one food your child likes to eat with each meal.

Involve your Child

Make it an experience! When you’re at the grocery store, let your child choose new foods. When you’re in the kitchen, let your child help with cooking. Having made a contribution to the meal process, there is a greater chance your child will be willing to try it.

Don’t Give Up

While you don’t want to force your child to eat something, you also don’t want to give up. Research has shown that it takes 10 or more exposures to a new food before a child will try it. If they don’t eat it the first time, try again in a couple of days and so on.

Talk about Taste not Health Benefits

If your child doesn’t want to eat something, don’t try to persuade by saying it’s good for you or it will make you stronger. Kids don’t care about the health benefits of food; they care about the taste. When introducing new foods, describe to them the taste and how much you like it.

Avoid Bribes

While it may seem the right thing to do, bribing your child with treats to eat other foods will only make the treat more exciting and the food you want your child to eat an unpleasant experience.

Hopefully these tips will help turn your picky eater into a more adventurous eater and ease any tension next time at the dinner table.