Tuesday, October 1, 2013

3 Tips to Get your Kids to Eat Everything


Around here we have a spirit of adventure about food. Quite a few times my friends will express disbelief that my children actually eat everything that I prepare and post here. They absolutely do - sometimes with a little more urging than at other times but I can assure you that we all eat the same meal. I am not saying that I never have meal time battles, I am just saying that we are progressing towards where they happen less often. Enough people have asked me how I get my children to eat the food that I prepare so I thought I might share a few things that work for me.

First off, this did not happen by accident. When my children were babies I had a very clear philosophy about food that I wanted them to embrace. You see, as a child I was a picky eater.  However I grew into an adult that loves and appreciates a wide variety of food and I wanted the same for my children. I grew up thinking that I did not like a lot of things until I realized that I needed to train my palette to appreciate certain foods. Upon reflection, I realized that most of the what that I hated were foods with a bitter taste such as watercress, melongene, bhaji (amaranth) and caralli (bitter gourd). The other category of foods on my hate list were those with an earthy flavour, such as beets and liver. I recently had the displeasure of tasting arugula. Arugula definitely falls into the earthy category, ugh. Could someone not have warned me that the thing tastes like manure?!!! Peppery manure but still, gah!


Start early. Train children's taste buds to appreciate sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami tastes. My mother-in-law thought I was crazy when I led with pureed spinach and not mashed bananas. My thinking was that babies are a blank palette without any preconceived notions about food. They take their cues from the adults in their lives and can be taught from a very young age to love a wide variety of things.

I chose to start with what I considered to be the more difficult tastes to acquire. After all no one really needs to learn to like sweet. It seems to me that we all have an innate tendency to like sweet and salty things, don't we? Thus, I introduced those tastes last and in moderate amounts. When considering new foods you should also offer a variety of textures. I didn't do as well on that. As a result my children are more likely to balk at a strange texture more than a foreign taste. Can I tell you that peanut butter is a difficult sell around here because of that.

Expose your children to a wide variety of food. More importantly let them see that you are excited to try new foods. Of course we couldn't afford to eat like this everyday but once I see something new, you can be sure I get excited to bring it to the table at least once. I have never had asparagus before. It doesn't grow here and I have only ever seen canned asparagus in the supermarket. Naturally when I saw fresh asparagus for the first time, I immediately brought some home to try it.

  
Introduce new foods alongside something on their plate that they like. Our table rule is that you don't have to like it but you DO have to TASTE it. You must take at least 3 bites before you will be allowed to push it aside. I  point out to my children that there are foods that I do not like but in order to be healthy and have a balanced diet I still have to eat them.

Having stuff on the plate that you know they will like, ensures that they don't leave the table hungry and the entire meal is not a huge battle. Don't make a big deal of the uneaten portion. In the early stages my husband and I let them see us eating their leftovers. When they were toddlers we would ham it up a bit and say things like. "You don't like carilli. No problem, that just means more for me. Yum!'

Nutritionists will tell you that it takes 10 to 15 tries - possibly more for a child to start eating and eventually like a new food. The key here is not to stress and have lots of patience. In the mean time I suggest you dish out a smaller serving for yourself so that you can be prepared to consume the leftovers and not have it go to waste.

As the months went by, my children became less resistant to new foods and we encouraged more bites. I have read that the French attitude when someone doesn't like a particular food is to say, "You just haven't tried it enough times." I don't know about that. I grew up not liking liver and I am of the opinion that it was offered to me too often. Groan, I still don't like liver - let's not tell the kids! However I do now enjoy all the bitter foods that I once hated.
 
What is your personal philosophy about food? Are you yourself a picky eater? Are there foods you avoid?






18 comments:

  1. Great tips!! With such palatable recipes, which kid would dare to resist? ;)

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    1. On occasion mine do resist Kiran:-) Not this one though, they liked the squid and the asparagus.

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  2. I have been fortunate not to have too many food related battles at home with my twin boys too. Though they have different tastes and palette, they actually eat everything. A lot of people refuse to believe me but it is true. I totally agree on your philosophy especially the second one. I also involve my children while shopping for ingredients and if possible while making something new. That creates excitement and it works for me.The fettucine looks amazing!

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    1. It's great plan to involve them in shopping Sugar et al:-)

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  3. this is an extremely well thought out and useful post! even though i don't have kids yet, i'll be filing these tips away for future reference. :)

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  4. These are great tips! And I wasn't so much a fussy eater but I hated foods that I now love! :D

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  5. Just knowing how picky I was as a kid, I can't even imagine raising and feeding children of my own! I'm in awe of anyone who manages to breed a youngster with an open mind and adventurous palate.

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  6. wow....these tips are sure going to be implemented in our home...especially since one of our niece has been growing more and more fussy about veggies....thanks for such a beautiful and helpful post :-)

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  7. Like you I was picky eater personified and so I had a healthy fear of my kids being the same.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips. Here are a few things I've done:

    1/ Put it on a stick. My kids will eat almost anything skewered:-), from fruits and veggies to meats
    2/ Make it into a 'mini' shape. This works a treat - from silver dollar pancakes, to rice shaped in moulds, and sandwich cutouts, they love shapes
    3/ Make it into a salad. 2 of my 3 kids hated eating bananas on a platter. Tossed in a salad with apples and strawberries, it becomes a whole different story. They now demand fruit salads with pancakes, french toast and in between meals.
    4/ Wrap it - my children adore wraps of all sorts, from tortillas to chinese pancakes and crepes. They stuff and fill and eat things they wouldn't otherwise when wraps are present.
    5/ Build your own - this works well with meals like tortillas, tacos when I have a 'buffet' spread of a wide selection of vegetables, herbs, meats. They love to create their own dishes - I guess it gives them control....
    6/ Get them to cook with you - this has been instrumental in showing my kids that there isn't any mystery to some of the things they eat.

    Thanks Wizzy

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  8. A splendid dish and tasty combination!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  9. You and I have taught our children similarly when it comes to food. Mine too must try everything on their plate. They both get excited to try new exoctic and different foods.

    The pasta looks flavorful and delicious.

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  10. You have great tips here! I was very serious about introducing many kinds of kids to my children from young age (before they even start asking questions!). In Japan most kids eat veggies and all types of food and moms spend effort and time to make sure the kids eat properly. Although everyone here knows and aware what's right thing to do, a lot of the kids eat mac and cheese for dinner almost everyday and I've seen sad cases. A post like this is so influential and you did a great job!

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  11. Thank heavens I don't have to worry about this anymore. :)
    Love this seafood dish..it's beautiful too. Octopus is a favorite in our house. I use it in lots of salads.

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  12. Love your food philosophy! We started out with something similar in theory but man, seeing Little Man not eat broke down my resolve. We're now firmly entrenched in a mac n' cheese phase but are still pushing veggies (unsuccessfully) :)

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    1. Don't give up.We started out that way. It may seem like he will never eat anything else and you will always be eating his rejected veggies but it get's better.

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