Relax. As parents our job is to serve a variety of healthy foods and get our children exposed to them-it is not our job to force them to eat. Take your child shopping. Let them pick two new fruits or vegetables. Children have to be exposed to a food for an average of 15 times before they decide whether or not they will incorporate it into their diets. That means exposing them to a new food over the course of months. Exposing means maybe just simply looking at it on the plate!! Create a thumbs up/thumbs down chart. Every time your child is exposed to the food, they get to check off thumbs up or down. This is yet another way to make them part of the process.
Involve children in the food preparation process. Studies show that involving children in meal preparation is the first step in getting them to try new foods.
Studies show that pressuring children to “take a bite” backfires later. Stay neutral. Put a new food on the plate and talk about it. If the child tries it, great, if not, no worries-just relax. Even if the child asks you to remove it from their plate, that is ok. Then after dinner, go to the thumbs up/down chart and let your child document the experience.
When introducing a new food for the first few times, make it in addition to the meal being served. For example, if the new food choice is carrots and normally your child eats corn, make the corn and carrots. If you serve just the new food, your child may only look at it for the first few times and will still be hungry. This only sets everyone up for an argument.
Serve only water with dinner. Serving milk with dinner only helps fill the child and will prevent them from consuming healthy fruits and vegetables. They will be basically drinking their calories.
Don’t use a sweet treat as a reward for eating “good” food. Kids have proven to show a dislike for the “bargained” food.
Fussiness about food is a normal part of a child’s development.
