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Can’t hurt to get help. It’s also very very common for kids to exert their prefs at meal times and become “hot dog or bust” picky.
I have 3 kids, from 2-6.5 and have seen a lot. Weekend lunch at home tends to be Mac and nuggets or similar. Otherwise, we never stop putting real food (the same as we are eating) on the plate at every meal.
Some tactics that have worked/lessons learned the hard way:
- Hybrid with “real food” (not just kid food) that we know are favs (tacos are always a hit, so is broccoli) + variety of sides.
- Dont be afraid to work healthy favs. We have broccoli or raw spinach (effing weird) almost daily because the kids will crush it.
- Talking about importance of balance. The 4/6 year olds know the difference between proteins (meat, egg, yogurt), fruits/veg, and “bread” (inc Mac and cereal). No need to run through the whole pyramid or complex macros.
- Giving then as much choice as you can. For breakfast, we almost always let them pick their protein/fruit/bread. Dinner they just get what they get and don’t get upset (Daniel Tiger FTW)
- Have then cook with you, try every ingredient, do some knife work (see below for our kid knife), adjust the spices to their taste, etc. They feel ownership/pride about the meal.
- Have them meal plan with you and do your haggling there. Pasta side 1 night, green side another.
- Have a policy of “kids pick healthy seconds.” If they make a “happy plate” at dinner they can pick what they want for seconds. Cantaloupe and yogurt to chase pesto pasta? Sure.
- Give them lots of avenues for choice outside of meals.
- Be a little sneaky. Beyond some veg into red pasta sauce. Make some smoothies.
- Be ok tossing out some food. It’s the cost of presenting them with real food.
- Be patient. Lots of kids don’t eat veggies. Few get scurvy. Few end up as hyper picky adults.
- Keep it positive.
To save your sanity:
- Don’t serve only kid food at family meals. You’ll never break the cycle.
- Don’t negotiate bites with them. You will lose your ever-loving mind.
- Don’t link meal completion to dessert/treats. Have dessert be a random occurrence independent from good eating. Otherwise it becomes a painful quid pro quo.
- Don’t link meal “performance” to physical attributes, not even positive ones. Eating to be healthy and strong is fine. Needing to eat to grow tall or not be fat/skinny is NOT and will set them for unhealthy relationships with food and their body.
Kid knife:
Loved this post
It’s common to change taste preferences as they get a little older. As toddlers you can feed them a whole lot of stuff and now he’s realizing he has choice. There are two approaches here
- hybrid/ incentivize- give him what he likes + something nutritious.. eat your carrots first (small portion) and then you can have your quesadilla. Increase portions over time
- military style - cut snacking so he’s hungry at meal times and eats what is given to him..
We tried hybrid with our kid and it worked. Took time.. have to be patient. We also made special days like Thursday and Saturday he could eat whatever he wanted.. but rest of the week he had to eat healthy.
Don’t give up! Keep trying.. joys of parenthood
P1 and BCG1: thanks so much for your advice. I know it sounds trivial but we’re pulling our hair out here especially with our younger son now eating like everything.
Will try your tips. We’ll try anything at this point
for protein- try cottage cheese. worked really well as a meat replacement for my kid. It has much higher protein to carbs ratio than the other things you mention. It doesnt replace some of the vitamins, etc so you may need to supplement with a kids vitamin. But protein helps with cell replacement and growth, so take it seriously.
sweet potatoes are a good starter vegetable. You can also blend up veggies and fruit and try giving in smoothie form. Sometimes kids change their mind when the food looks different.