Anyone have a picky eater in their house? Or maybe YOU’RE the picky one! Sometimes it’s a challenge to get kids to eat anything healthy! Here are a few tips I found on how to get those kiddos to eat a little better.
Keep the ‘dislike’ foods on the menu
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That goes for serving kids the broccoli, peas and crust-on sandwiches. A new study published in the journal Appetite found that repeated exposure to foods in childhood is strongly related to liking the food later in life—even if the foods were originally on the “yuck!” list. Researchers asked college students to reminisce about how frequently they ate various foods in their childhood years, along with how much they enjoyed them. The students also reported their current opinion. The only items the students still didn’t like? Foods they never ate as a child. Even when parents had introduced a disliked food infrequently, the students reported currently liking it more than if it was never on the menu. Don’t give up! Take a deep breath and keep dishing up the sprouts.
Plate it like Picasso
Mashed potatoes, French fries, pasta: for many kids, only beige foods pass muster. But new research suggests children’s natural affinity for bright colors may help parents of picky eaters encourage a more nutritionally-diverse diet. The Cornell University study found plates with seven different items and six different colors were the most appealing to children.
Don’t utter the G-word
The idea that eating carrots can make you smarter may encourage you to snack on crudité, but a study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests mentioning the health benefits of food to children can have the opposite effect. Researchers found 4 to 6-year-olds were more likely to snack on carrots after they were read a story about a girl who regularly ate them than when the story included a health message that the carrots also helped her learn to count. To a kid’s ear, the words “good for you” sound a lot like “tastes bad.” Researchers say parents are better off staying mum on the health benefits, or emphasizing how delicious a food is instead.
Keep calm and get cooking
Reach for your chef’s whites more often and your kids may start reaching for more broccoli—even when you’re not around. A recent study conducted by Penn State University found that kids whose parents spent more time preparing meals at home independently choose healthy snacks like broccoli over high-calorie options like cookies from the same food spread. Better yet, hand over the whisk to your mini helper. A second study published by Public Health Nutrition found that children who helped with cooking showed a greater preference for fruits and vegetables.
Stock up on ramekins
Using small bowls or ramekins when serving up dessert and other energy-dense snacks like chips may prevent kids from overeating—and parents, too. A recent Cornell study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found bigger bowls (16-ounce versus 8-ounce) caused preschoolers to request 87 percent more cereal and eat 52 percent more than they would otherwise, regardless of their age, weight or BMI.
Hope you have a GREAT weekend!
