Have a picky eater on your hands? Here are some ways to get your child eating like they should.
Picky eaters. So many parents have had to fight that battle it’s a wonder there is no cure yet. Every parent has their own method on how to deal with this problem from bribes to threats. There has to be a better way.
For the most part, as long as your child is getting proper nutrition, being a picky eater won’t kill them. And for most children, as they mature, they will develop a taste for foods they have previously declared “yucky!” So, choose your battles. If your kid does not like broccoli but will eat a mountain of spinach, don’t despair. Keep having them try broccoli, but keep that spinach on standby.
If you are worried about the nutrition your child is receiving, you can get creative. One option is to try adding things your child does like to the food they don’t. For example, there are worse meals than broccoli with cheese sauce on it. See if your child is more keen to see broccoli as a treat when served this way and then slowly ease off of the cheese until they are eating broccoli on its own. If you don’t think your child will fall for that, you can try a sneakier method of hiding the offensive broccoli in the food you’re feeding them anyway. Broccoli chopped very fine in a food processor will go unnoticed in a batch of spaghetti and loses no nutritional value.
The best advice of all though is to have patience. Nothing is more stressful to you and your child than the two of you fussing over a meal. In fact, you may make them less likely to eat a particular food in the future if they associate it with fights in the past. Remember, we all have foods we dislike, and for the most part, live just fine without it. So will your child.
