Outsmarting the Fussy Eater

Today's Guest Blogger, Suzanne Brady MSW, LCSW, Counseling for Kids and Teens, has been helping parents with practical solutions for today’s challenges for over 10years. www.suzannebrady.com

Tired of catering to your child’s food whims? Wanting to stop “running a restaurant” in your own home? Looking for a way out of the power struggle surrounding food with your child?

To paraphrase a famous quote: “To eat, or not to eat, that is the problem.” We want our children to learn to enjoy a wide array of healthy foods, but how do we do this in a world where children are targeted to eat all sorts of fatty, highly sugared, and over processed foods. What’s a parent to do?

Here’s some tips for outsmarting your fussy eater:

• Offer a “tasting” of foods and ignore your child’s “I will not eat ____” dictates.. One or two tastes of a food will encourage testing the “yuck” factor. Don’t react if this means taking a bite and following that with a milk chaser to swallow it down.
• Get kids involved with the preparation and cooking of their food. Kids are more likely to eat something when they’ve been involved in getting it to the table.
• Pair up favorite foods with the not so favorite foods; Cheesy broccoli anyone?
• Grow you own or go to the farmer’s market together. Fresh grown just tastes better than frozen or grocery store bought and kids of all ages are much more likely to eat veggies if they’ve watched it grow or hand picked it from the stand.
• Last, and perhaps the most challenging, model eating for health. Fake it if you have to; kids pay much more attention to what we do than what we say.

Changing any habit occurs over time, so pick your best way to get started and look to make it fun. The pay-off for your time and efforts will be huge for the entire family.

If you have concerns about your child’s nutritional needs or eating habits, please consult with your family physician.