Picky 7 year old!

16mixingbowls

I was just listening to a child psychologist speak about a book he wrote about kids. He spoke about the brain's ability to aquire new flavors easily, but that the nest way to achieve this is to alternate bites of unknown foods with known foods. You can also make a game out of it. Kids are learning at school about patterns (red block, blue block, red, blue. I know, I'm a teacher.) So make a pattern with his food. Literally, on his plate, arrange a bite of chicken nugget, a bite of grilled chicken, chicken nugget, grilled chicken, etc.

Then, on another plate, have a bite of macaroni, a cooked carrot, a bite of mac and cheese, a cooked carrot.

Having a known flavor/texture mixed with the unknown allows his brain to expect what's coming, as well as quickly swallow the unknown/disliked flavor quick and get back to what he likes. In the process, though, he will learn the new flavor/texture.

The psychologist also MIXES foods. His daughter loves ice cream, so he literally mixes in cooked veggies so that she gets the flavor of ice cream and the texture of the veggies. He gradually decreases the ice cream and ups the veggies, over a period of a few days. Finally, he sets a small portion of ice cream across from his daughter so she sees her motivation.

Lots of parents mix veggies INTO the food they make. Puree carrots/beets/spinach and mix them into your pasta. (Please just get dry pasta and a jar of marinara. It has much less sodium and additives than Spaghetti Os.) Or cauliflower mixed into mac and cheese. Yeah, you can't do Easy Mac, but you don't want to take shortcuts when it comes to you child's health, right?

There is a great cookbook called Deceptively Delicious, by Jerry Seinfeld's wife Camille. It's written for parents who want to incorporate a more diverse food menu into their cooking.

Unless you live in a food desert, which I know exist in many inner-city communities, you can definitely get fresh foods and veggies. This week, at my local natural-foods store, I got 5 types of in-season veggies and all were on sale for under a dollar per pound. That's like 5 big zucchini for a dollar, and a beautiful acorn squash, and 6 crowns of broccoli, and at least 10 carrots. That's enough veggies for a week and it was less than I could have ever spent on processed convenience food. (Yes, the same store can charge $6.99 for a single serving of precooked mac and cheese, and they offer steaks for $24 a pound, and their cookies/crackers/cereals are all spendy, but I don't eat those foods anyway. I stick to the outer isles and bulk bins.)

Good luck!

Mmmary212

I am working on eatting smaller portions and adding new foods. I am and always have been a picky eater, but my palate has grown over the years. My son is extremely picky. These are the only foods he will eat: Toast (jelly no butter), grilled cheese, pizza, hot dogs, spaghetti os, pb&j (warmed 10sec only, not cold), Spam, candy, strawberries, buscuits, snack cakes, candy, and peppered turkey. He refuses to try anything new. Do any of you have any suggestions on how I can get him to try new foods?

He only eats spaghetti o's? Hot dogs? pizza? SPAM? candy? snack cakes? WTF?

No, this is what he eats because this is what's provided for him. SMH

Shake your head all you want. When you spend 7 years on $200 a month food stamps and 8 of those months homeless that is pretty much all that you can get.

He used to be way more open to different foods. As a baby he loved anything green: spinach lasagna, chicken and broccoli, ect. He used to love steak and pork chops. The older he got the less he was willing to try. I have tried the "you can only eat what I cook foods" and that resulted in him sitting at the table for 3 hours not eatting anything. I am not the type of person to force a child to do anything. Not for 3 hours at least. Don't think that he gets away with what he wants and doesnt have to do anything he is told, that is not true. His Dr has told me not to worry too much about what he eats because right now he is perfectly healthy and not over weight at all. He is 50 inches and only weighs 60 pounds. He is not a big child. He is very active as well. I am just wanting tips on how to get him to add healthier choices to what he already eats. I could care less if he eats hot dogs and pizza, but I would love to get him to try some celery or carrots with some peanut butter or maybe try eatting a small salad with me a few times a week.

Your excuse is being on food stamps? So? Food stamps are not stamps for junk food. Make better choices and you'll actually spend less because yeah healthy food can cost more, but you actually end up eating differently and it stretches farther. I spend more per shopping trip, but I shop less often. I spend less per month buying the right stuff than I did buying 'whatever my kids liked'

I'm sorry you were homeless for a time, but you're not homeless now and you can talk to a 7 year old and they can actually understand what it means to eat healthy vs unhealthy.

If they are hungry enough, they'll eat. Why are you wasting 3 hours of your day? If he doesn't want what you made for dinner, then run along child...you can wait til the next meal. It's rough at first, but if he gets hungry enough, anything will be good enough to fill that belly.

ninerbuff

I am working on eatting smaller portions and adding new foods. I am and always have been a picky eater, but my palate has grown over the years. My son is extremely picky. These are the only foods he will eat: Toast (jelly no butter), grilled cheese, pizza, hot dogs, spaghetti os, pb&j (warmed 10sec only, not cold), Spam, candy, strawberries, buscuits, snack cakes, candy, and peppered turkey. He refuses to try anything new. Do any of you have any suggestions on how I can get him to try new foods?

Yep. Don't buy the stuff. He's picky because you give him those options to eat. Kids will eat anything when hungry.

ChantalGG

My son is 7 too. Remove it all from the house, serve him what you want. You are the boss. My son is picky but i make him eat 95% of his plate and he must taste everything even if he doesnt like it. By making him taste everything he has started liking mushrooms and other veggies that were on the gross list before.

Qarol

Few kids are stubborn enough to starve themselves...

Yup...he will eat something pretty soon.

b00b0084

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

cramernh

Easy - you need to make a game out of it where one day per week he has to try something new. Put a bunch of different types of foods on a piece of paper, put it in a hat... he grabs one and that is the mystery item to try. OR, grab three hats: one hat is vegetable, the other starch, the other is protein. Grab one from each and you have to come up with a meal with those items. This could be your own little version of Food Network's "Chopped"... and it can be fun. Let your son be part of the prepping process.. you can take this opportunity to teach him about cleaning the vegetables before working with them, teach about washing your hands and work area... get him involved!


To be honest, if you dont start kids with different foods from a young age, they end up being picky like your son.... That was something I avoided with my daughter altogether and never had a problem with her trying new things. She is 18 now and she still explores trying new things to this day.

Our kids learn from us, so you will have to work with your son on trying new foods as a fun thing to do... Come up with a special prize or special thing to do at the end of the week, if you do this, say, three times per week... Have a goal at the end of the week for being a 'grown young man' trying new foods...

b00b0084

I was just listening to a child psychologist speak about a book he wrote about kids. He spoke about the brain's ability to aquire new flavors easily, but that the nest way to achieve this is to alternate bites of unknown foods with known foods. You can also make a game out of it. Kids are learning at school about patterns (red block, blue block, red, blue. I know, I'm a teacher.) So make a pattern with his food. Literally, on his plate, arrange a bite of chicken nugget, a bite of grilled chicken, chicken nugget, grilled chicken, etc.

Then, on another plate, have a bite of macaroni, a cooked carrot, a bite of mac and cheese, a cooked carrot.

Having a known flavor/texture mixed with the unknown allows his brain to expect what's coming, as well as quickly swallow the unknown/disliked flavor quick and get back to what he likes. In the process, though, he will learn the new flavor/texture.

The psychologist also MIXES foods. His daughter loves ice cream, so he literally mixes in cooked veggies so that she gets the flavor of ice cream and the texture of the veggies. He gradually decreases the ice cream and ups the veggies, over a period of a few days. Finally, he sets a small portion of ice cream across from his daughter so she sees her motivation.

Lots of parents mix veggies INTO the food they make. Puree carrots/beets/spinach and mix them into your pasta. (Please just get dry pasta and a jar of marinara. It has much less sodium and additives than Spaghetti Os.) Or cauliflower mixed into mac and cheese. Yeah, you can't do Easy Mac, but you don't want to take shortcuts when it comes to you child's health, right?

There is a great cookbook called Deceptively Delicious, by Jerry Seinfeld's wife Camille. It's written for parents who want to incorporate a more diverse food menu into their cooking.

Unless you live in a food desert, which I know exist in many inner-city communities, you can definitely get fresh foods and veggies. This week, at my local natural-foods store, I got 5 types of in-season veggies and all were on sale for under a dollar per pound. That's like 5 big zucchini for a dollar, and a beautiful acorn squash, and 6 crowns of broccoli, and at least 10 carrots. That's enough veggies for a week and it was less than I could have ever spent on processed convenience food. (Yes, the same store can charge $6.99 for a single serving of precooked mac and cheese, and they offer steaks for $24 a pound, and their cookies/crackers/cereals are all spendy, but I don't eat those foods anyway. I stick to the outer isles and bulk bins.)

Good luck!

I will have to check out that book, and I like the idea with mixing known and unknown foods on his plate I will have to give that a try. My sons loves pickles, so I tried the whole "a cucumber is just a pickle out of the juices" thing and he looked at me like I was nuts for trying to get him to eat a cucumber slice.

kateroot

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

Why would anyone want to feed their kid garbage? I'm not judging, but I'm curious. We ate junk food as kids maybe once a month as a "treat." We didn't expect spaghetti-o's every day. Junk food is not supposed to be part of your everyday diet, especially as a growing child. Processed junk on a regular basis is just setting a kid up for an unhealthy future.

vim_n_vigor

You can start by adding to the stuff he is eating. Puree some real veggies and put them in the spaghetti os. Upgrade the cheap hot dogs to chicken or turkey brats, maybe try some items from the vegetarian isle for replacements too. It will look and taste similar.

Put together a try new foods booklet - you may be able to find ideas online for this, or actual books to purchase. Give him stickers or stamps on the pages like a passport booklet each time he tries something new.

The other piece is that you have to take control. Kids will eat what you allow them to eat. As long as you cater to these food demands, he has no reason to change.

rbryntes

I heard someone once say to make a game of foods for picky eaters - like, you could have an "orange food night" and put mac and cheese, carrots, oranges, something else on a plate. Or a red food night and have a hot dog, cherries, whatever. Or something.

dls06

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

You asked for help. If you don't want it then don't ask.
A childs unhealthy diet will make them an unhealthy adult. You decide.

zenchild

As kids we could always make requests for meals. It helped having some say in what we ate. Spaghetti was pretty common. Pizza was once a week, homemade. If we didn't like a certain food we had to have a "no thank you" portion, usually just a bite. And no amount of whining or crying would get us out of eating that single bite. And if we were hungry later, we could have more of what was served for dinner.

engineman312

i bribe my nieces and nephews. you know "i'll give you a dollar if you try the asparagus" or "i'll let you have an extra dessert if you finish all the veggies." and by TRY i mean that they have to chew it and swallow at least one big piece. no touching it to their tongue.

Aegelis

I disagree with the 'eat it or else' mentality. I was raised this way and it caused me to hate many foods and refused to try new things. Once I was away from home for a while, I tried real Chinese food (not La Choy in a can/box) and discovered I loved it! Trying new things should be encouraged, never enforced. Perhaps exposing him to new smells or going to a dinner where the ingredients are listed. You can read off the ingredients and ask, "doesn't that sound good?" and see if you can find something he'll agree to try. My daughter was exposed to Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, etc. from an early age and she loves all foods, but none of them I made her try. People's taste buds change (die off as we get older) so that onion and limburger sandwich grandpa likes probably isn't suitable for children.

vim_n_vigor

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

I am happy you are looking for a change for your child. You do need to take responsibility for letting him eat the way he does. You do not need to give him this stuff on a daily basis because it is what he wants. Of course, if you are eating pretty much the same way, he has no reason to try and change.

The truth is, you are setting him up for a lifetime of unhealthy behaviours. His body needs the nutrients from real foods. I have a 3 and 5 year old boy. I know how hard and exhausting it can be to get them to eat properly. It is your responsibility as a parent. As long as your outlook is that you will feed him what he likes regardless, you won't change his current habits. He is old enough to know you will cave to what he wants instead of forcing a change.

b00b0084

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

Why would anyone want to feed their kid garbage? I'm not judging, but I'm curious. We ate junk food as kids maybe once a month as a "treat." We didn't expect spaghetti-o's every day. Junk food is not supposed to be part of your everyday diet, especially as a growing child. Processed junk on a regular basis is just setting a kid up for an unhealthy future.

I was raised on "garbage" so to me it was fine. I just over ate it growing up. I dont let my son over eat it.

b00b0084

Easy - you need to make a game out of it where one day per week he has to try something new. Put a bunch of different types of foods on a piece of paper, put it in a hat... he grabs one and that is the mystery item to try. OR, grab three hats: one hat is vegetable, the other starch, the other is protein. Grab one from each and you have to come up with a meal with those items. This could be your own little version of Food Network's "Chopped"... and it can be fun. Let your son be part of the prepping process.. you can take this opportunity to teach him about cleaning the vegetables before working with them, teach about washing your hands and work area... get him involved!

I like this, I will have to give that a try!

b00b0084

Few of you are helpful, but the majority of you seem to think that asking for tips means judge my choices. I will feed him what he likes regardless, but I asked for tips to ADD healthier foods, not replace with. Thank you, but no thank you.

You asked for help. If you don't want it then don't ask.
A childs unhealthy diet will make them an unhealthy adult. You decide.

Exactly, I asked for help (tips, Ideas, Pointers). I did not ask to be told that I am making horrible choices and setting my child up for failure. HUGE difference. Thanks.

tiedye

You could google "bento box lunches for kids" or something, there's a whole community of people who make cute lunch boxes for their kids. It might be too soon for your son though, as those have a lot of whole foods in them like fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc. But it might be a way to make food more friendly to him.

These have a ton of pictures both of "adult" and "kid" looking meals:

http://www.laptoplunches.com/photo-gallery.php