Kids Nutrition and the Picky Eater

It Doesn’t Have to Be An Impossible Match. If you have a picky eater then you know how painful meals can be for both you and your child.

You’ve probably tried everything in your power to get your picky eater to eat.  Surely, you have tried these well known methods already…

• The “Choo-Choo” method;
• The “See me eat it” method;
• The “Eat this and you will get a treat” method; and  undoubtedly….
• The “Don’t eat this and you will go to bed early” method.

If this has been you then you know how exhausting, frustrating, and worrisome this can be.  And, the one thing that all parents with a picky eater wonder is, “How do I make sure my picky eater is getting a nutritious diet?”

There are a number of simple parenting tips I can offer you that will not only make your mealtime more enjoyable, but will also encourage your child to develop healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

Think Like a Child

In order to figure out what your child will eat…. you need to appeal to his/her taste buds.  But, in order to do this you need to think like a child.

What do Kids enjoy?
•    Bright colors
•    Silly
•    Cooking with you
•    Fun activities
•    Furry Creatures
•    The odd and Gross

Now, we just simply need to take this knowledge and figure out what can we do with food so that our picky eater (who likes all of the above) will eat it.  You have to think out of the box…. think creatively.

Kids Nutrition for the Picky Eater

Funky Dishes – Sometimes just getting your children to laugh will relax them enough that they will eat.  Your fussy eater is used to being very stressed during meals.  After all, if you are stressed during the meal then it is very likely that your child is stressed too.  No one likes to eat under stress.  This is sure to get your picky eater to smile…  Is it a Taco Sundae?  No, It is a Taco Tuesdae.

The above healthy meal was placed in the wrong dish making it a perfect recipe for a picky eater.  Kids will think it is hilarious.  Remember, think like a kid…. hilarious is good.

Colorful Meals – Nutrition doesn’t have to be bland and boring.  Make it more appealing…. add some fun colors to the meals.  This just might be enough to get your fussy eater eating healthy foods.

Or, put healthy meals for kids on a colorful fun plate that the child will see more of as the fussy eater finishes more of the nutritious meal.

Animal Food – No, I don’t mean feed your children your pet’s food.  But, instead make food into cuddly creatures and your picky eater might just eat it.  This Sandwich Bear is meant for the entire family to enjoy as a main meal.  Even the fussiest of eaters couldn’t say no to eating this cuddly creature.

Nutritious Food with Faces – Ever since your fussy eater was a baby he loved looking at faces.  Why not put faces on food for children.  Kids love funny faces and faces on food is just down right silly.

Take a look at this super healthy meal for kids that is not only yummy, but also a super funny face.  I can hear your child giggling already!!

Or, even let your child make a self portrait of himself on his food.  This is a great way to get him involved with the making the meal.  If he made it he will be more apt to complete the project by eating it.

Gross or Odd Looking Dishes- Nothing will get your picky eater to eat healthy food than to have it look gross.  Trust me on this one… I know it sounds ridiculous.  But, children are intrigued with gross.  They love to use their senses to experience life…. and they might even want to get their hands on and taste gross meals.  The best thing is even though they might look gross… we know that are actually healthy meals for kids. Check out this cute Eyeball Meatball Sub…. Even though it looks gross to the child we know it is healthy to eat which makes this meal so much more fun for child and parent.

Food Coloring – Something simple like food coloring can make a fun change to any food.  Fun is good…. kids love fun.  Fun might make your child eat.  Check out this tasty, healthy, nutritious bit of fun.  Mixing milk and food coloring makes a paint-like substance.  You can use this to let your child create art projects that are edible.   You don’t have to just stop at bread or toast… make the projects into a colorful nutritious sandwich.  Fun and nourishment…. gotta love it.

Shapes – Kids love shapes…. circle, triangle, diamond, star.  Kids love them all.  Imagine what changing the shape of a simple sandwich could do?  Changing the shape of the common sandwich is enough to gain even the youngest child’s attention.  Grab a finicky eater’s attention and you just might get them to eat a new healthy food.  Like this mom who got her son to eat carrots by changing their shape into animal figures.

Using simple cookie cutters you can make pretty much any shaped sandwich for your child. Or better yet, let your child make any shape sandwich for himself.  Check out this gorgeous meal perfect for any star.

Or, show how much you love your finicky eater with heart shaped sandwich.

Personal Size Nutrition – Personal Size the meals for your child to encourage her to eat healthy.  Sometimes the problem with your child eating healthy foods is not so much that she is picky about the meal itself, but it is just too big for her to handle.  Making meals for her size might alleviate this problem.  Using items like bagels, English Muffins, and pitas you can personalize meals for your child making it the perfect size nutritious meal for your finicky eater.

I love how the following English Muffin Creations combine the beauty of color with a personal size perfect for a child.  It looks like work of art, but the beauty is in the taste.

Or, how about something more traditional like mini pizzas that your child can help you make.  My kids and I love to make these.  Children feel like a chef and they LOVE to eat their masterpiece.

It might be a little messy, but oh so worth it.  Think of it as an art project, science lesson and a healthy meal in one.  And, because they created it…. they will want to eat it.

Change the Texture – Sometimes just making healthy snacks into a different texture is enough to get your picky eater to begin their travels to a more nutritious diet.  For example, a frozen snack such as a Raspberry Yogurt Ice Pops, or a fruit smoothie will get your child to start eating more fruit.  Ice pops and smoothies which taste pretty close to their high fat, high calorie counter parts such as ice cream and milk shakes, but are much healthier for your child.  Your finicky eater will have no idea that it is a healthy nutritious treat.

Or, how about a healthy homemade fruit roll-up.  Again, this changes the texture of the snack, but your child will be eating a healthy.

As you can see from the above tips the whole idea is to make every meal an adventure instead of a battle.  The stress of trying to get your child to eat makes meal time difficult for a picky child as well as the parent.
Instead think outside of the box.  Think creatively… think like a child and eventually mealtime will become fun and enjoyable again.

First Image Courtesy of Savannah Grandfather

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Kids Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.