How do you feed the kids when they don't eat what you cook?

First answer this: If your kids are having tantrums do you turn around and mirror their behavior?

No. So why do parents of picky kids change their diets and limit their own nutrition? I see it often. I hear it often, "I don't want to make two meals so I eat what they eat."

Let me remind you: You are the parent, YOU are the role model, you need to eat healthy, diverse, quality, balanced foods and someday, because of your example, your kids will too....hopefully.

Here's a picture of a typical picky kid meal or snack at our house...

Here are some tips for feeding picky eaters (I know, I had two, and now my oldest will eat anything):

• Be accommodating--to a degree. Pull out or separate the basic ingredients from complicated meals.


• Give them what they'll eat. Give the kids the option of the family dinner, or a cheese sandwich/cheese quesadilla/plain cheese and bread/or PB and J--and teach the kids how to make themselves so it's not more work for you. The caveat is they have to have at least one bite of everything we, the adults eat, and often its more like 4 to 5 bites. (see above pic for a typical kid meal.


• Provide nutritious items, even if its limited. Make sure their dinner always comes with fresh, seasonal fruit and whatever veggies they like. This is true for all meals/snacks.
  
• Don't go crazy and force the food issue. Why not? Meal time should be a time of peace and togetherness for a family. Most of us have enough stress, why add more? Also, Kids naturally test our wills, by not making food an issue we are taking away "the power" that food gives them.
• Make the food-mood connection. Are they cranky, tired, irritable? Make the connection with poor food choices. On the flip side, do they have a ton of energy, happy, and focused? Point out the good food choices.

Here are some more examples of what a parent of a picky kid can do to make life a little easier:

Example 1: Dinner is chicken enchiladas. Your kids don't like.

Before rolling up your enchiladas, reserve some of the chicken, corn, rice, beans, corn tortilla...whatever you put into your enchiladas. Give them the individual basic ingredients. See
what they eat.

Example 2: Dinner is Chopped Cobb Salad. Your kids don't like. Before tossing the salad reserve some chicken, ham, hard boiled eggs, anything else that they might eat. Serve with a bowl of fresh berries, an apple, banana or all of the above.

Example 3: Dinner is Shepard's Pie and the kids would rather die then take a bite. Tough, they have to take at least one bite, and then they can eat their cold cheese sandwiches. They're in heaven...a basic cheese sandwich is their fav, and it took me less than a minute to hand them a slice of bread and a couple of slices of cheese. They already have fresh fruit because that's a staple here. So whats the big deal? Still relatively balanced.

I know I get grief from the "I make one meal and if they don't like it tough" crowd, but
that's okay. I feel good about not running through a drive thru and not popping open a box....it's still high quality even limited. And besides, I empathize with the picky kid. When I was their age all I ate was turkey, butter, and noodles.


How do I know this food philosophy works? Because I had two picky eaters and now I have one.



This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday and WFMW.