Tricks of the Trade to Get Finicky Kids to Eat

Providing a well balanced diet for your child's health is a challenge in and of itself. Getting them to eat what you have cooked is a whole different ball game all together. The ability to provide clever, fun and tricky alternatives can assist you in making this horror a reality and much easier to conquer.

There are many things that we, as concerned parents, can do to ensure that our kids are eating right and experiment with different, even exotic, foods. This can be done without the aid of a multi-vitamin supplement as well! Alot of the success that you have, or don't have, is portrayed by how well you are able to get your child involved in the shopping and creativity involved in the food preparation. Combining this with possible benefits and history of the particular food, facts about the food such as nutritional info and how it relates to your child's growth and health while having some patience and praise.

A nice idea in the education of a child and expanded food list that can be realized is to bring the child to the supermarket with you and have the child help pick out nutritious foods and offer some info regarding nutrition, where it is grown or how it is prepared and grown, plus it can be as simple as allowing the child to pick out a piece of fruit or vegetable that he/she would like to try. This is a fun way of getting the child involved. My child loves it when I bring her shopping and I have her locate and pick out some apples, a can of corn, or hamburg...it can be as simple as that to help get your child involved with experimenting with different foods.

One thing that is not advisable and should be shunned at all cost is the power struggle and using food as an end all punishment. Using food as a punishment tactic is not a good alternative! Saying if you eat your peas, you can have desert, or, you better eat your meat or you will sit at the table till you finish. I know all about these guidelines as I have had them given to me as a child and I am just as guilty of saying these as a way of getting my youngest child to stop being so finicky. Pizza, spaghetti, apples, juice, pop tarts, and cheese sticks are her primary staples and I get so aggravated when I prepare such an assortment of healthy entrées and she doesn't eat it.

Another thing that I feel is detrimental in evoking a negative response is when I say, try this and if you don't like it, you don't have to have anymore. I basically put my foot in my mouth before the situation even got started and gave my daughter an out, so to speak. Most times, this will end up coming back to bite you in the face as your child will try it and say they don't like it as a way of sweeping that food under the rug. By offering a better, and more creative way, you will be better able to handle and change the end result by your child. By saying, I want you to try this sweet fruit that comes all the way from Florida, or this tastes so good and will help you to build strong muscles, or try this and if you dip it in ketchup, or barbecue sauce, it really tastes great. This is where creativity comes into play! By taking a vegetable such as peas and combining it with a vegetable or other food, say carrots and preparing it on a plate so that you create a smiley face or design to make it more dramatic and enticing to eat. Taking a couple pieces of bread, adding meat, cheese, peanut butter and jelly and placing it in a cookie cutter to produce fun shapes also will help to draw out interest and enthusiasm in the food. In regards to seafood, maybe all it takes is instead of just placing a slab of salmon on their plate, maybe try grinding it up in a food processor and add it to another dish, make a soup or place it in a soup stock. The sky is the limit in creating diversity and variety while opening up the eyes of your child and getting them to increase their circle of comfort foods and advancing their nutritious needs as well.

We need to get out of the habit of being short order cooks and offering a list of suitable alternatives to what you are preparing for the meal at the time. You can incorporate a food that you know your child enjoys and build off of that. Like tagging a quarterback as the franchise player for the team and building around that player, the same can be transferred to the eating problem. Avoiding making the mistake of preparing a meal for the rest of the family and offering to prepare something totally different for the finicky child. This places extra work, time, stress and burden on you and isn't really helping the scenario of getting your child to expand their eating habits and foods that make sense.

I know that I am always thinking in these terms of freaking out because my child doesn't eat a meal or two that I have prepared. But you can not really visualize it in this time frame. It is better to view the eating habits as a bigger picture, by encompassing the foods the child has eaten in the past week or two. This will present a better picture of the nutritious foods your child has eaten on a grander scale. Creating a planner or log book is also very beneficial in allowing you to see what foods your child has eaten in a given day, week, month or further out than that. Keeping track of the foods that your child liked, disliked, how much the child ate or how long it took for your child to eat it. Writing down the recipes, amount of spices and condiments you may have used, what worked and what didn't will allow you to dismiss what has failed or repeat good responses.

The fact that children have smaller stomachs than us, enables us the ability to offer smaller amounts to get nutritious foods into them. It may be as simple as incorporating two baby carrots with a low-fat ranch dip, apple slices with peanut butter spread on them, or grilling the cheese on a ham and cheese sandwich. Offering sample sized portions will allow you to get nutritious foods into your child without overwhelming them with a huge amount of a food that they dislike and expecting them to eat it. Smaller is better and variety helps. Your child may not like spinach, but may like romaine lettuce, or turnip greens. Get creative and allow your child to add spices that may spike their curiosity and interest and possibly try the dish. It is amazing what you can do with yogurt as a healthy way of cooking and preparing a different approach to the same old plain chicken entrée or piece of fruit. Practice, being creative and offering a unique way of preparing or even just the representation on the meal on the plate, may make all the difference in the world.

One last thing that is very crucial to the outcome and behavior of the child is offering praise for the actions provided by your child. It could be bragging rights to a neighbor or friend, in the company of the child, that simply acknowledges the feat and accomplishment displayed by the child. I am so proud of Matt because he tried peas, or ate all of his vegetable at dinner time, or even tried something new for breakfast. Just feeling that his accomplishments were recognized and he was acknowledged in his efforts could open up his eyes and lead you to a better chance of expanding his food pyramid and all that it entails. Don't get upset when you child offers input or voices his displeasure for a particular food. Instead of that use it as constructive criticism and ask the child what you could do to make it more appealing. Just listening may make all the difference in the world by showing you care and that proper diet is essential and important to his/her health now and in the future.

invite your child to help out in the kitchen. teach your child about safety, preparation, enhancing the flavor of various foods, different ways to cook chicken for example. Educating your child about different spices and where they are found, what they taste like and what cultures use these spices, like cumin and cardamom for India, garlic and olive oil for Greece and Italy, peppers, chocolate and cilantro for Mexico. These will help to spur the interest and get your child involved. Also their are numerous television shows on TV that show how to create and prepare different dishes. Rachel Ray, Andrew Zimmern and Emeril are just a small sample of people who have their own show that deals with the many aspects of cooking and preparing a vast array of meals, appetizers and desserts.

Hopefully this will help to offer some insight and open your eyes to produce a much more favorable result with your finicky child.