This post is contributed by Orlena of Snotty Noses.

Have a Picky Eater?  These Tips Will Help!

It can be such a struggle to feed your kids a healthy diet, especially if you have a picky eater. Some children will eat anything. Others will not. As parents we try hard, but when kids constantly refuse to even try our efforts, it’s easy to loose heart and resort to those good old favorites, like mac and cheese. Ever day. For a month!

Let me help you out.

The best way to deal with a picky eater is with patience and persistence.  But here are some more tips that might help…

This post may contain affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy.

5 Simple Tips to Help Your Picky Eater

1. Variety

Variety is the spice of life. More importantly, the more variety your children eat, the more likely they are to eat and try new foods. It’s really important to keep offering them new foods.

It doesn’t matter if they don’t try the new food. Chances are that they won’t like it even if they do. It takes time to get used to new things and before that it’s automatically rejected as ‘unknown’. On the other hand, if you don’t even offer it, they definitely won’t try it.

Be patient and persistent. You don’t have to offer new food at every meal time, but do it frequently.

2. Regular Eating Times

Have regular eating times when healthy food is available. An example would be breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. If they don’t like what is on offer or don’t want to eat, that’s fine. There will be another healthy eating opportunity around the corner. You decide what you’re going to offer. Don’t be persuaded into giving cookies if you’ve chosen yogurt and fruit.

Moderate hunger is not to be feared. It’s important not to teach our children to over eat.

3. No Pressure

This is easier said than done, but it’s important not to put any pressure on your children to eat food. They need to feel in control of what they eat. No one likes to be coerced into doing things, not even kids. That means no bribery, no “just one more bite” no “you can have pudding when you’ve finished your veggies”. Allow them to decide what they want to eat.

4. Give Them Some Control

I don’t mean let them choose spaghetti every night for a week. You can offer choices between things. Or you can allow them to choose dinner one night a week.

You can take them shopping and let them choose some new vegetables. Or the fish from the fish counter.

You can get them to cook, not just help you but they decide what you’re going to cook. It’s their meal. My son and I made Spanish Chicken last week. He chopped up all the green peppers and didn’t even pick them out at dinner time!

Whatever you decide to do, allowing them some control will reduce the stress at dinner time.

5. Offer Healthy Food (AKA Vegetables)

People often get confused about what is healthy and what isn’t. Just think fruits and vegetables. Half of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables. Easy right?

Treats are fine in moderation, but moderation is the key.

Picky eaters can be very stressful but if you stick to these simple tips you’ll find joy will return to your family meals. By the way, the majority of children grow out of picky eating by the age of 8. So, hang in there and keep offering them healthy food without any pressure.

Do you have a picky eater? What tips would you add to the list above? Join the conversation in the comments below!

Orlena is a pediatric doctor, mother of four young children and founder of the Healthy Eating for Children Course. She writes and blogs at Snotty Noses about developing healthy habits in children and has recently published her debut book “Crunch! Put a Stop to Picky Eating and Teach Your Kids to Love Veggies.”

More Resources for Parenting Your Picky Eater from Snotty Noses:

    

More Resources to Help Your Picky Eater from B-Inspired Mama:

    

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This post may contain affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy.