How do you get good food into picky children?

As a mom of two grown sons who would try just about anything (and was a daycare mom for 8 years) I have to say that it's okay to not make an issue of food. I found the best result was to make whatever it is you want (healthy food), put some of everything you are eating on their plate and just let it go. If they eat the green stuff great. If they didn't, they almost always tried it later after seeing it on their plate twelve times previously. No emotional harm done in exposing them to food and giving them the choice. My one son hates mayo the other likes it. One loves apples, the other doesn't. Everyone has different tastes. The key is variety and exposure. Let them figure out the rest and get a vitamin for them. We certainly don't need to develop emotional issues over food with our children, I think our generation and the generations before us had enough of that.

That being said, my neighbor let her children squirt their own catsup and allowed them to never drank milk unless it was chocolate. Certain things should be kept a "Treat". Chocolate milk should not substitute white (if they don't like white milk then get a different way of getting calcium in them rather than adding sugar). Offer only the right stuff. They'll learn to either like it or not, but at least you gave them the opportunity to.

Hello, I have had three kids with various preferences for eating veggies. I take one shopping with me and
ask him/her to pick 1-2 veggies they would like to try that night or later that week. I ask them to pick it,
measure/weigh it, and bag it and mark their name on the bag. It usually works to atleast to get them to try it.
It works really well when they are pre-school and elementary age. The youngest eats broccoli, spinach, peas, jicama,
butterbeans, red lettuce, green lettuce, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and other stuff and she is now 13.
I wish all of you the best of luck.
Just try to involve them in small ways that aren't too stressful and hopefully enjoyable to them and you.

My 3 yr old son is very picky but he's learned that he has to have at least one type of vegetable for dinner. I know I can always count on him eating raw carrots and the rule with my kids is you eat what your age is. So my son has to eat 3 baby carrots for dinner and my daughter who's 7 eats 7.

I've found out that he loves a recipe that my aunt makes which is spinach balls. So I make a double batch of them and freeze them. Then I can just pop them in the microwave just before dinner is ready. He also loves corn on the cob so I buy the kind you steam in a bag in the microwave.

He also loves honey roasted chickpeas which is a great snack and high in protein for him.

Your grandson is sooo smart and cute - microscopic heh...I had the same "vege" problem with my youngest -- now he is 11 and still refuse leafy veg unless I make him gobble them in front of me..

My daughter is 8 and is a picky eater. I feel your pain. Especially since my 12 yr old son will eat anything that is put infront of him. Sigh.

So... I am not above bribeing her. She is a junkfoodjunkie... and likes everything white. So, I keep in mind the size of her stomach (about the size of her fist I'm told), and load up her plate that way. A palm full of protein, one fist of veggies (she hates them), sometimes a fist of fruit.... if I can manage it, and something starchy carb related, again about a fist full. Depending on how the day went nutrition wise, I tell her that if she eats all of her protein and her veggies and/or fruit, she can have dessert after dinner. This is usually a serving of ice cream (yes I weigh it out... because I weigh it for me too), or a cookie.

Sometimes she earns the sweet treat... other times she doesn't. I have noticed that on the days that I am on the ball and offer her healthy food every 3 hours, she will actually eat some, if not all of it. If I am being lazy, or too busy, she'll manage to get junk out of me. I wish that I wasn't so slack on this side of things... but as a busy mama, sometimes I just need to pick my battles. She is at the 50% for height and slightly under that for weight, so things are not out of control.

In addition to the protein/veggie/fruit rule, I also have the "you have to try one bite" of something. The other night she was offered bread pudding (which makes my husband gag), so I told her she could have dessert if she tried just one bite that was about the size of a dime. She did.... and didn't like it... but she tried something new, which was the goal.

I think sometimes instead of trying to be sneaky, you need to just be honest. Let her know how good vegetables are for her body. That they contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients for her body and that you want her to be healthy. Take her shopping with you and play a game with her about new foods. Let her pick out some new fruits or veges to try, it is okay to stick with your same motto of if she does not like it she does not have to eat it. But any thing she does pick out she does need to at least try. There are so many benefits to kids in the kitchen use this as an opportunity to teach her and for her to learn. Maybe even let her know what veggies you haven't tried and maybe together you can try them. Kids are more likely to eat what they pick. Check out this site:

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/preschoolers/picky-eaters.html

good luck! Julie

It takes extra work, but make it the "fun" plate, i.e. decorate it up. For the adult, use edible flowers, a fancy plate, or place a lace doily on a serving tray underneath. Garnish does wonders.

The only two lies I tell my daughter -

Santa exists.
There's only tomatoes in the spaghetti sauce daddy makes.

Seriously, it's almost impossible to get her to eat veg. I don't want her to have a bad relationship with food, so I don't force her to eat. I have only one rule around food - you try it when it's put in front of you, if you don't like it, you can leave it. I then will serve things multiple times, hoping that one of these days the old "it takes ten tries to like something" theory will actually frikking work.

What sneaky strategies do you have to feed your kids vegetables without them knowing?

I make my kids "kiss goodbye" any food that they don't eat. so they don't have to eat it, they can give it to me or their daddy instead, but they have to give it a kiss goodbye first. I got this idea from a TV parenting programme where a child psychologist recommended it. Basically, by kissing the food, they're getting used to the idea of the food being next to their mouth, without having to commit to eating it. Apparently it's easier for kids to go from it being next to their mouth, to in their mouth, than it is for them to make the transition from looking at it on their plate and putting it in their mouth. It's interesting because with new foods they're quite reluctant to give it a kiss at first. Whether it actually works or not I don't know, my younger one's (nearly 3) still in a very fussy phase but my older one (6 and a half) is willing to try new foods and is a lot less fussy than she was at age 2. It's one of those things that can't really hurt, so it's worth a try.

I also do hidden vegetables. My kids refuse to eat spinach leaves, I think it's the texture that they don't like, so I use finely chopped spinach instead and I've never had a complaint about that (they don't seem to know it's even there), even from the younger one who will pick out small pieces of onion and sweetcorn from her food and totally refuse to eat them.

I agree with you about not forcing kids to eat, I was forced to eat food as a child, all it did was give me a very strong, almost phobic, aversion to certain foods that it took me years to get over and even be able to see those foods without wanting to vomit, never mind actually eating them. I know a few other adults who have similar food aversions because of being forced to eat those foods as children. IMO it utterly defeats the object of what you're trying to achieve. Mealtimes should be relaxed and fun, and small kids tend to be fussy, but the right atmosphere and encouragement makes them grow out of it. Forcing them to eat makes it 100x worse, IMO.

BTW - when they refuse food, they don't get alternatives. My kids eat what's on the table, or they can choose to not eat it, but I won't give them something extra, otherwise then kids do take liberties. However I will not force them to eat something if they don't want it. It doesn't hurt a child to go without one meal because they were too fussy to eat it. They'll eat more at the next meal.

It's easier to control what they eat when they are younger.
Once they are teenagers and young adults they can buy and make their own food.
I have come to the conclusion that the best way is by example.