8 Tips To Get Your Picky-Eater Child Try New Foods

Children can be picky in their food choices. You would know your child is a picky- eater when they mostly insist on skipping the meal when you try to feed them, saying that they do not like what is being served. They prefer eating only a few, selected foods that they have their taste buds set over. This can be challenging for parents since ensuring optimum nutrition for the child includes getting the latter to try foods which are new to them. Here are a few tips to make it easier for you to feed new foods to your child.

Set An Example

Kids follow what they see, simple as that! Seeing you eat something might work as a catalyst for your child to try the same food. Like kids pick up certain habits they see their parents practising, the same applies to eating behaviour. Hence, you would need to set an example to help your child and yourself.

Also Read | 6 Personal Experiences You Must Share With Your Teenager

Take Them Grocery Shopping

Plan in advance about what you are going to prepare for your child’s meal before you go grocery shopping. Make sure that your child accompanies you and picks up that particular raw food themselves. This way, they will look forward to preparing, cooking, and eating what they’ve bought from the market.

Let your child explore what all foods you usually buy for home and which are eaten in your family. This would not only lead them into eating healthy but also develop knowledge and awareness about foods commonly and not-so-commonly available in the market.

Let Them Watch

What’s better than watching the food you bought getting cooked in front of you? Children would love to see the foods they themselves picked up and put in their shopping carts, getting cooked right in front of their eyes. All you have to do is keep building some excitement around cooking the newly-bought ingredients. Let them see how the food takes a different form at each step. If possible, carve a narrative around it to sustain their engagement in watching the process. Serve the meal in your kid’s favourite dish and watch them enjoying the meal whole-heartedly.

Let Your Child Watch You Cook And Serve The Food In Their Favourite Dish

Timing Is Important

Try serving new foods to your child when they’re the hungriest, for instance, after play-time. At this time, your child will most likely be willing to eat whatever is served first, owing to excessive hunger. However, make sure that the meal looks good and is served well.

Also Read | How Can Extracurricular Activities Be Transformative For Your Child?

One At A Time

Introduce one thing at a time, so that your child does not feel overwhelmed with too many things to try. A picky eater is always difficult to convince, so do not go hard on them. A step-by-step, hit and trial method works best when experimenting with new foods with a picky-eater.

Meals With Family

Children often are more accepting of different sorts of food when they eat with family. To teach them practically would be a better approach than to just explain or lecture about a food item. Eating with family in a happy environment induces happy hormones within the participating members, hence eating is more likely to feel nicer and more fulfilling to everyone, including the child.

Present It Well

It is said that a person eats food with their eyes first before their mouth. On the same lines, children are more likely to consume foods which look tempting. For example, beetroot in the form of a beautiful pink beetroot sandwich is likely to catch more of the child’s attention than beetroot simply sliced and served as salad.

Also Read | How Does Your Food Affect Your Mental Health

Cook A Food Story

Try cooking up a story by connecting the new food to your child’s favourite television/cartoon character. For instance, hearing their favourite cartoon character ate spinach and became powerful is likely to make them more curious to try eating spinach. This is a good way to teach your child about the nutrition value of various foods and help them form a connection with them.

However, all the ways we’ve just discussed would work best only when you as parents do not lose your patience. Getting your child to try new, healthy foods can be a time-taking process, and you might have to feel let down a few times. Nevertheless, keep trying. Teach your child, but do not force it. Weave food stories, but not induce fear. Cherish your little successes in this journey while learning from each little failure.

Chesha Kukkar is a Chandigarh-based dietitian with extensive experience in the field, and has helped 1600+ clients of varying age groups in achieving their health goals. She holds a postgraduate diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics from Govt. Home Science College, Chandigarh and an internship in Govt. Medical Super Specialty Hospital, sec-16, Chandigarh. She can be reached at http://www.dietitianchesha.com/