I would like to welcome Laura, from the blog Born To Be Styled, a fashion and beauty blog. Her newest venture is a food blog titled Eat It Up. Laura has kindly offered to share with us her personal success with a picky eater. Laura is mom to a wonderful 6 year old boy named Logan, who used to be a notoriously picky eater. This kid had a rep. When he was 3, he would only eat Grandma’s cooking! Go figure, right? Nowadays he will try anything.
Here is what worked for our family:
1.When serving a new food that your kid is afraid to try, tell the child that they need to try a few bites. We tell Logan that he has to eat more than just one, because it’s hard to tell if you really like something just on the first bite. If they don’t like the food at first, don’t traumatize them by making them eat the whole thing. That might make them never want to try that food again. Just pat them on the back for being brave, and being such a good sport for trying something new. Logan always looks so proud when we tell him that.
2.Don’t give up. A child may need to try the same food SEVERAL times before they like it. Just keep offering the food. Yes, it’s annoying for both us and the child, and is very daunting, but it works. Which leads me to the next one:
3.Try different variations of the food in a flavor that you think that your child may be more apt to try. Logan had to try yogurt about 10 or so times in different flavors before he finally liked it, and the same thing with many other foods. Once he found a flavor he liked, he became willing to try other flavors of that food.
4.Serve the new food that the child is afraid to try with one of their favorite foods, and tell them that they can’t eat their favorite food until they try a few bites of the new food. Once Logan understood that he couldn’t eat his slice of home baked bread until he ate the other food, he was very willing to try the other food.
5. Expose your kid to many different varieties of food. Variety really is the spice of life. I think its so important for children to try many kinds of foods. There is a whole world of flavors that your kid is sure to love!
I hope that these tips will help meal time be less painful, and help your child shed the picky eater label. I knew that Logan lost his when he asked me not to tell anyone that he loved carrot cake, because he still wanted everyone to think that he was still picky. Little did he know that he already wasn’t one anymore. Logan’s happy, and now I’m happy, because I don’t have to make 2 sets of meals every day.
To learn more about Laura, please visit her blogs Born To Be Styled and Eat It Up.