Encouraging Your Picky Eater to Eat New Foods

Many kids are picky eaters. Whether your child won’t eat anything but chicken nuggets or your child has issues with texture so he won’t try new things, it can be difficult to get your child to eat the healthy foods they need to grow. Here are some tips for encouraging your picky eater to try new things.

• Offer choices: Some kids are just never going to eat asparagus. But taking your child to the store with you and showing them a variety of green vegetables, and asking them which they want to try may help to broaden their horizons. Make a big deal about what a good choice they made and let them know their decisions count. Being involved in their options can help kids get excited about new foods.
• Make them Help: Kids who help make dinner may be more willing to try the food after they’ve seen it being cooked and helped with the process. Encourage them to be proud of their contribution and tell everyone about how they helped to make them feel special. Kids who help will be excited and may be more willing to try what they made. While they are in the kitchen helping, you also might discover what is causing some of your child’s aversion to foods. Maybe your child loves tuna, and they just don’t like the celery chopped up into it?
• Make Fun Snacks: Sometimes presenting food in a fun way will make your child give it a shot. Use a cookie cutter to cut their sandwich into a dinosaur and stand up the broccoli like little trees. Offer a plate of colourful raw fruits and veggies with peanut butter or yoghurt for dipping. It may seem like playing with their food, but if it gets your picky eater to try something new, it may be worth letting them pretend to be a dinosaur crunching down on trees. They may just find a new favourite!

Sometimes it requires a little creativity and a lot of patience to get your picky eater to broaden their horizon, but it can be done. Just remember, children go through phases, and what they won’t touch today may be their favourite tomorrow!