Nutritionist Tips for Feeding Picky Kids
Feeding babies can be a challenge. When our children were young, my neighbor and I exchanged stories of the war on the kitchen table at 9 a.m. “I just made three different breakfasts,” she told me, “and he didn’t eat any of them.” The easiest way is to concede: “Here! Fine! Eat only dinosaur nuggets and dinosaur nuggets! “- you say, opening the next bag from the freezer. But kids really need “real” food — fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains — and getting them to eat is a process that should start early, at home.
Luckily, Registered Dietitian Jennifer Anderson of Kids Eat in Color has found several ways to make this process easier, and dare I say, delicious . Her Facebook and Instagram feeds are filled with tricks to feed even the pickiest kids. Anderson’s ideas are simple and realistic – no need to recreate the bento version of Starry Night. According to her , the goal is “to introduce children to as much real food as possible.” Soon, they may even be able to choose foods other than the spongy chicken, which they themselves sculpted from Stegosaurus. Here are some of my favorite tips.
Treat vegetables like toys
Sometimes it’s all about branding. Anderson writes that changing the words you use to describe vegetables can work wonders. Now, kids, go eat your broccoli – I mean, play with your tiny trees!
Play Exposure Game to Teach Your Child to Eat Vegetables
It can be a real game to play with the kids, or just a mind game to play for yourself. Instead of forcing the kids to eat a vegetable, see how many times you can expose them to one. You get a point every time you show them a vegetable or put it on the table, and they get a point every time they “see, touch, lick, taste, or smell it.” Your goal is to score more points than your child.
Let your child steal food from the snack box
On Instagram, Anderson shared that her son started stealing chocolate chips every day when he first woke up. She says she could have dealt with it in several ways – by disciplining him, hiding the chocolate chips, or getting rid of them all together. But she wanted to promote “dialogue, not secrecy,” so she got the idea to create a snack box with him. Together they put together a list of products to include and the time frame in which the box will be available. (For Anderson’s son, it was early morning when he was always starving.) This allowed her to set some parameters for snacks, giving her son some independence.
Prepare a bowl of “junk food” so your child doesn’t throw up lunch.
If you have a child who is tossing food, putting an “unnecessary bowl of food” on can make the meal a little less hazardous. Bowls with suction cups at the bottom are best for this (so they don’t throw over the entire bowl). “Take courage,” writes Anderson. “They grow out of this!”
Give them good beige food
Sometimes children only eat beige food. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck serving them pasta and potato chips. As Anderson explains, white foods can be nutrient-dense.
Turn hydration into a game
Parents may notice that their kids don’t actually drink a lot of water (until, of course, it’s bedtime and they ask for about eight cups in a row). If you feel like your child needs some liquid, try this rubber band game. Now this is not a routine job – it is a challenge .