EVERY FAMILY HAS ONE—a child who is extremely picky about the foods he or she is willing to eat. For some kids, this pickiness may simply be an assertion of independence. For others, it may stem from prior experiences with certain tastes or textures that they find disagreeable. Whatever the child’s motivation, parents of picky eaters often worry that their child isn’t getting enough to eat or isn’t getting adequate nutrition for proper growth and development.
However, parents needn’t be overly anxious if their child is highly selective about food—and there are some simple steps they can take to encourage their finicky feeder to embrace healthier eating habits. They include:
1. Don’t spare the snacks
It may seem counterintuitive, but in-between-meal snacks can be a picky child’s parents’ best ally because they can help make up for any nutrients missed at mealtime. Of course, it’s important to offer healthy, nutritient-dense snacks, such as fruits, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, or granola bars, rather than snacks loaded with empty calories, such as cookies, candy bars, or potato chips. Also, snacks shouldn’t be offered too close to scheduled mealtimes so the child isn’t already full before lunch or dinner is served.
2. Consider presentation
Kids are very sensory-oriented, and the shape and color of their food can be just as important to them as the taste. Making meals fun and visually appealing, by making a smiley face out of peas and carrots, for example, or cutting certain foods into interesting shapes with cookie cutters, can entice children to sample fare that might not appeal to them otherwise.
Texture also has a significant influence on many kids’ food preferences. A child who has no aversion to eating tuna, noodles, and peas separately might find these same foods intolerable when they’re all mixed together in a soupy casserole. Younger kids, especially, seem to favor keeping their foods separate.
Offering foods prepared in different ways can also be helpful. For example, a child who doesn’t like cooked vegetables, might have no objection to raw veggies, such as carrots or celery sticks.
3. Vary your food offerings
Without even realizing it, many parents offer their kids a relatively limited number of food choices based either on convenience or their own food preferences. However, introducing kids to such a limited menu can set the stage for future finicky eating. Beginning at a young age, children should be offered a wide variety of foods so they have an opportunity to expand their palate beyond burgers, chicken nuggets, and macaroni & cheese. The same applies to veggies. Don’t limit their choices to broccoli, peas, and carrots. A child who can’t seem to stomach broccoli might surprise you by showing a preference for asparagus or Brussels sprouts. You won’t know unless you experiment.
Also, notwithstanding the importance of variety, keep in mind that persistence often pays when it comes to picky eaters. Kids who repeatedly show no interest in a particular food will often come around and try it eventually if you continue to offer it on a routine basis.
4. Help them recognize their hunger cues
Kids will typically eat better when mealtimes correspond with their natural hunger cues—the body’s mechanism for telling us whether it needs more food for fuel or has had enough. Take care not to undermine these natural cues, for example by telling an already-full child to clean his/her plate or postponing mealtimes until long after the child’s hunger cues have already kicked in.
5. Be on your best behavior
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it’s also the way kids develop many of their food preferences. In other words, if they see their parents routinely eating fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods, they’ll be more inclined to try them, as well. On the other hand, if parents are “all talk and no action” when it comes to healthy eating, they shouldn’t be surprised to see this same attitude reflected in their kids.
6. Remember, this, too, shall pass!
It’s important for parents to keep in mind that it’s normal for kids’ dietary preferences to change as they grow. For example, it’s not unusual for kids to eat everything on their plate and ask for seconds during growth spurts but then eat less and become much pickier when they reach a growth plateau.
In most cases, picky eating in kids is no cause for alarm. If you’re concerned that your child may be at risk of a nutritional deficiency—for example, if he or she refuses to eat any fruits or vegetables and is likely missing out on certain key nutrients—a talk with your pediatrician would be in order. Otherwise, keep in mind that we all had our likes and dislikes growing up and most of us turned out just fine—even if we still hate broccoli.
