Parents of picky eaters, I get it. After watching you struggle with your "yellow foods only" eaters, even when your first kid will eat anything, I get it. You are doing your best, and your kid just CANNOT ABIDE certain foods.
My kid has always been somewhere in the middle: Not super picky, but he won't eat just anything. Most of the time I can get him to take one bite of everything, and I refuse to make separate dishes for him, but I've still faced the gagging NO monster.
Which is why posts like drive me bonkers: 15 Foods Kids Hate to Eat and How to Make Them Change Their Minds. Oh really? Let's see what you've got.
First of all, some of these foods aren't really that hated. I mean, really, chicken?!? I've never met a kid who hates chicken. Most kids love peaches. Kids don't like beans? Since when? (Hiding them in a burrito isn't going to work, anyway.) And under-sweetened yogurt? Whatever. That's small potatoes.
But the suggestions for changing kids' minds just made me, as a hard-core food-obsessed mean mommy, just laugh. I mean, all the stir-frying, maple syruping, roasting, braising, whatever in the world isn't going to make kids accept Brussels sprouts before they're ready to. That's one bitter veg that takes time and maturity to appreciate.
And if your kids don't like avocados, they're sure as hell not going to like guacamole, i.e. yucky avocado mashed with 100 objectionable foods which should never touch each other on the same plate, according to most toddlers. Hiding thin slices in a sandwich? Hah, nice try. And I've never seen the "melt a lot of cheese on it" or the "add a tasty dip" methods work for my kid.
A while back I wrote about Karen Le Billon's book, French Kids Eat Everything. For Karen, changing her picky eaters wasn't about disguising "icky" foods or trickery. It was changing her whole family's approach to eating. It was a complete attitude adjustment. And it only worked because everyone in her town supported it. That's why I think advice like this, while well-intentioned, cute, and creative, ultimately just makes parents angry. Maybe one or two of these tricks will work. But if you really want to change your kids' eating habits, you really have to go deep -- and then manage your expectations.
Would any of these tricks change your kids' minds about their least favorite foods?
Image via uberculture/Flickr
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Comments 11
Avocado chocolate pudding is GREAT! My kids prefer their fruits and vegetables raw and will turn their nose up at them if they have been cooked. Once I finally figured that out-they will eat just about anything.
I don't know. I'm not a fan of avacado by itself but I adore guacamole. Something about the combination with other ingredients make it delicious. And some of these are massively unfair to put on this list. A lot of foods on there most adults won't eat either. As an adult, I still hate brussel sprouts, cottage cheese, eggs, spinach, and plain yogurt. I couldn't even stomach the taste of yogurt until I was in my 20's, and it has to be Greek. And I'm not a very picky eater. And guess what? I don't force my kids to eat something they hate. If they truly don't like it, you're not doing anyone any favors in forcing them to choke it down. There are other ways to get the nutrition in those foods.
Why not say they have to try them but just make sure they get balance from what they do like? My son is a super picky eater and he comes by it naturally, his dad is so picky. The thing I've tried that works the best is to involve him at the super market especially in the produce section. I let him pick things he wants to try, and I let him pick things he knows he likes. He also knows the produce section is the one place I wont say no, and he seems to love that. I do make him try things but I don't make him eat things he doesn't like. At four he knows if he doesn't like what I'm making for dinner he will have to make something for himself(simple things he can handle) and sometimes that's the best way to get him to eat something he didn't think he'd like. Once they hear mom and dad going on and on about how good dinner is they will want to try it. Bottom line though every family needs to do what works best for them.
I generally go by the rule "You have to try a good spoonful". If, after that, son still doesn't like it I usually don't push him to eat any more.
I also just stopped catering to his pickiness and I've gotten him to open up his palette a lot more than just making things I know he likes already or putting up with a lot of whining. I make dinner that's good and balanced and I'm not going to let him turn down a veggie burger for his third peanut-butter and honey sandwich of the day or a few crackers just because he likes that more. And, as I've found, he now loves veggie burgers, shrimp (even unbreaded!) and lots of other things that he'd never have touched if I let him say that he didn't like it just because he hadn't tried it or didn't like the way it looked on the plate or the texture.