For families with a picky eater in the house, serving up fare to fussy little ones can be akin to presenting food scraps to a professional food critic.
Their blunt refusal to put a morsel in their mouth can feel incredibly disheartening if you’ve spent hours planning, shopping and preparing family meals.
Thankfully, local registered dietitian Kavanagh Danaher, of Peak Diatetics, has some advice and strategies for families facing such food fights.
“Picky eating can be quite a natural thing for kids to exhibit and often something they will grow out of. But there are definitely things you can do as a parent to set them up for success,” she said.
The first is recognizing that it can take up to 20 exposures to a new food before a child will even put it in their mouth, she explained – a number that surprises many parents.
“Previous generations have been taught not to play with their food but touching, smelling and even just looking at food is considered an exposure.”
To make it fun, you could pretend to feed carrots to a toy bunny or horse, or create artwork by dipping vegetables in paint and using them as brushes.
“If you want to make potato stamps, pair it with a visit to the farmers’ market where you can purchase a potato still covered in dirt and spark a conversation around where potatoes come from. It will help your child become more connected to their food,” Danaher said.
Deepen this connection further by encouraging children to become involved in food preparation. It can be as simple as washing lettuce, dressing the salad or measuring out ingredients, she suggested.
“Another good one is going to the grocery store and asking them to pick out something they’ve never had before, then have them help you prepare it. Or instead of purchasing granola bars, make your own. Getting them excited about seeing whole ingredients and in producing things from scratch is a really positive experience,” she said.
Also, try growing food with your children in containers or in a community garden. Peas, for example, are easy to grow and eat, without any cooking involved.
One thing to avoid, she said, is pandering to picky eaters. Cook one family meal within which there’s at least something you know they like in addition to less-favoured foods because simply seeing those other foods counts as an exposure.
“They need to come to the conclusion of trying new things on their own, and watching those they trust enjoy it will help them get to that point. At the table, create an environment in which there’s no pressure to eat.”
If all they eat is bread, that’s OK, she said. Instead, try and create opportunities within the day for additional nutrients, such as vegetables or fruit and yogurt for afternoon snack, so that you know overall consumption will round out.
“It will also help remove the stress at mealtime,” she said.
As for trying to hide veggies among pancakes and blended sauces, it’s controversial, she said.
“Yes, there’s a short-term nutritional benefit by adding butternut squash to pancakes, for example, but for your child to enjoy butternut squash in the long-term, it’s better for them to know it’s in there… consider instead serving different fruits with the pancakes, or nuts to sprinkle on top or plain yogurt or peanut butter. When they can see all the ingredients, it’s a positive. By hiding things inside, it’s just an acute solution.”
Finally, she said, try to avoid using dessert as a treat for good mealtime behaviour.
“It can generate in a child’s head two lists of foods: treats that are exciting and rewarding, and food you have to eat at mealtime,” she said, which can be very damaging in the long-term.
“You want to set children up with a healthy relationship with food because this helps them have a healthy relationship with food when they’re adults. It’s not to say that rewards can’t be there, but non-food rewards are the way ahead.”
