And now……back to food.
Do you ever feel frustrated over what your kids WON’T eat? Is it ever embarassing having dinner at a friend or family member’s house or leaving your kids with a friend during a meal? Will they eat? What might they say about the food your friend so lovingly made? How about restaurants? Do you have to choose a restaurant based on whether or not they have the very specific ONE food that your child is currently eating? What if someone else picked the restaurant?!?!
You are not the only one.
Maybe you’ve given up. Maybe it was just too hard and it’s not worth the fighting and worrying. Does it really matter?
I think so. Maybe not to the extent that your child has to eat everything in sight or have 3 perfectly balanced meals every day. I don’t think it means that junk food can’t occasionally enter the picture either. We have to choose our battles, but I think that the parents should get to choose the topic of the battle.
Limiting, but not eliminating, choice can be one of the main keys to success. For example, if you have made roasted chicken with broccoli and potatoes for dinner, your child might not be benefited by being given the choice between that and a tube of yogurt. But, when you are deciding on a menu, let them in on some decision-making. Would you prefer mashed potatoes or rice? Broccoli or peas? Also, do they have to eat it all? I wouldn’t say so. I ask my kids to eat something. They don’t have to like it all. They don’t have to eat it all. But they need to decide what (from the choices on their plate) they prefer to eat. And, I do make sure they at least TRY it before rejecting it.
This might not work right away if you already have some long-established habits in your home. It might be a real struggle at first. If you’re just starting out, do this from the very beginning and you’ll probably find that there won’t be much that they reject. They will usually be very honest about liking something that they thought they might not like at first. My wildest eater will put new food into his mouth first and ask what it was later. I guess he just has faith that it was edible.
Now, on to the next list of tips and tricks….
How to Get Your Kids to Eat What YOU Want them to Eat PART 3
- DO “prime the pump”. Sometimes when a kid is hungry but doesn’t get fed right away, the urge to eat will diminish or even disappear. In this situation, it can often work to “prime the pump”. Offer a bite or two of a favorite food. Make sure they only see that small amount on their plate and not the whole container. They will eat it because it’s tasty, then the hunger is restored and they will eat the rest of the meal. For my daughter, I used berries or raisins. A few of those on her plate would really get her started and she happily continued eating….. most of the time.
- DO put the foods you most want them to eat on the plate first. I would often put the protein on her plate while I finished preparing the rest of the meal and it would usually get eaten quickly. This prevents the baby from choosing and filling up on other foods before the ones they most need to focus on at that time. For some it might be the veggie or grains first.
- DON’T punish for not eating. Do your best to keep things positive.
- DON’T give in and offer less acceptable or unhealthy foods when what you originally offered is refused. Sometimes they really just aren’t hungry, but they will eat something extra yummy. Isn’t that just teaching them to do what most of us as adults wish we could stop doing? You’re also teaching them that all they have to do to get their favorite foods is refuse what you offer first. What Mama makes IS what’s for dinner. And be consistent or it doesn’t work. Imagine you are a farmer in a previous century and all you have to eat is what you produce. There are no grocery stores or restaurants. What do your children eat then? WHATEVER THERE IS!
- DON’T force kids to clean their plates. Neither you nor a baby or toddler is a good judge of portion sizes. They can’t tell you exactly how hungry they are, and you can’t predict it. When they stop eating, let them be finished. Don’t get concerned that they didn’t eat enough and start offering other foods or get angry or punish. They really just might have had enough. It’s also possible that they are distracted, so try some of the tips in the first 2 parts. If nothing works, let them be finished for now. They may want to eat again soon after, so don’t throw the food away. Offer it again a little later as a snack. My kids sit at the table about 5 times a day when we’re home…..3 meals, 2 snacks.
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