Is your little angel more of a devil come mealtime because of their picky eating habits?
Getting your kids to try new foods can be rough, but they won’t grow up healthy if they live on a steady diet of chicken tenders and french fries.
Kids need a variety of foods to get all the nutrients they need to develop.
However, traditional tactics often do more harm than good.
For example, methods like “you will sit at this table until you clean your plate” set up an unhealthy power dynamic that destroys your child’s sense of agency and leads to resentment and misbehavior.
Threats and fear only work when you’re there to supervise and enforce, and your job as a parent is to prepare your kids to face the world without your guidance.
How can you get your kids the nutrients they need without stuffing them with supplements or encouraging mealtime battles?
These three tips will get your kids to try new foods without any tears.
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Disguise Suspicious Foods
Perhaps the most common new foods kids hesitate to try belong to the vegetable category.
Does your little one balk at broccoli or peas? You might have better luck if you put on your Mata Hari hat.
For example, if Popeye doesn’t convince your kiddo to try spinach, hiding their greens in a chocolate muffin does the trick.
Eggplant might make them turn up their wee nose, but not if you hide it in a rich, tasty torte.
You don’t have to make your disguises sweet.
For example, sardines’ small size makes them among the fish lowest in mercury, but they’re still a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein.
Instead of leaving them whole, which could understandably give your kids the screaming mee-mees (those tiny eyes!), shred the meat for fish tacos, tucking it in amid the cilantro and cheese.
Throw on some lettuce for good measure.
What are some other ways to cleverly disguise healthy foods? Here are a few more ideas:
- Cauliflower Mac: What kid doesn’t love mac and cheese? Consider substituting pasta made with cauliflower or hiding small pieces of this veggie in the mix. You can also add other veggies like broccoli or peas, although your kids will spy those.
- Veggie “Sketti”: You can hide nearly any vegetable in pasta sauce if you mince it finely enough — it looks like another herb.
- Better baked potatoes: Instead of topping with butter, consider salsa or a low-calorie cheese sauce with minced vegetables inside. You can even use cashews to make it vegan.
Let Your Kids Help in the Kitchen
Your children will protest far less about eating a meal they helped cook.
It also gives them something to do besides causing distracting trouble on meal-prep day.
Instead, let your little ones help you whip up some vegan granola bars and overnight oats for healthy weekday breakfasts before school.
These preps don’t require an oven, meaning it’s safe for even tiny tots to help.
If your child shows an interest in cooking, inspire their creativity.
Could you consider letting them prepare the family dinner one night a week?
Doing so opens up oodles of teachable moments where you can share nutrition information without sounding like a schoolteacher. For example:
- Encourage healthier substitutions: If your child selects a recipe with questionable ingredients, discuss what replacements they could use that provide superior nutrition.
- Play the clock game: A good rule of thumb is to look at your plate as a clock, with a half-hour for vegetables and salad greens, 15 minutes for starch and the final 15 for protein. Introduce this concept to your child to use in their meal planning.
- Eat the rainbow: Plants have phytonutrients that play different roles in human health — science has yet to identify them all. They do know that various colors correlate to unique nutrient profiles, so encourage your child to combine at least three hues in their meal planning.
Make It a Game
Imagine someone asking you to eat something you find repulsive, like a butter-and-garlic roasted cockroach.
You might say, “heck, no,” if someone insisted you try it at the dinner table. However, what if you were on a TV game show and snarfing down that bug netted you a nice prize?
You’d probably develop a bit of an appetite — after all, they’re high in protein, and people in Asia dine on them all the time.
They’re not that different from shrimp when prepared.
Guess what?
The same principle applies to your kids. Sometimes, when nothing else works, a bit of bribery does.
Make trying new foods into a game, promising a small reward if they sample a bite or two.
Remember, Kids Are Human, Too
A final word to the wise: please remember your kids are human beings.
They aren’t miniature versions of you — they have unique tastes and preferences.
Just as you don’t like every dish you’ve ever eaten, neither does your child.
Respecting their autonomy and right to say no helps them develop a sense of agency, the idea that their input matters and their actions can affect positive outcomes.
While you should encourage your child to try new foods, please avoid using force and threats to compel them to eat what they don’t enjoy.
In extreme cases, some picky eaters might benefit from a liquid supplement to get the nourishment they need — talk to your pediatrician.
However, most children get plenty of variety using the above tricks to make unfamiliar foods less frightening.
Get Your Kids to Try New Foods
If your child is a picky eater, you might have to get creative to get them to try new foods.
Threatening, forceful approaches seldom work and can harm your child’s developing psyche.
Instead, try these tips will get your kids to try new foods. They’ll get the nutrition they need with fewer tantrums.
