FTC Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by Arkansas Better Beginnings. I was selected to be a brand ambassador because of my shared commitment to their mission of providing our children with better beginnings. Everything I write on my blog are my true sentiments.
Oh, how I long for the days when my son would eat just about anything I put in his mouth. It didn’t matter if it was meat, fruit, or veggie. He loved them all! But as he grew, his food preferences changed. Now it is a huge chore to get him to try anything new. And then there are the times when he willflat out refuse to eat something that I KNOW he loves. Oh, and those times when he insists on eating the same few things day in and day out for a week. It can be frustrating trying to figure out a way to feed your pick child a balances meal.
I tell you, as someone who loves food and who loves eating a variety of food, this is difficult! I feel like I have to prepare dishes for each meal – one for me and one for him. And, being honest, that just isn’t viable. I need for him to become more open to different foods. So I have gone on a hunt for ideas on how to entice a picky eater to try new things.
Of course, I have tried a few things:
1. Dicing up veggies into really tiny bits.
2. Mixing veggies and meats into his sauce.
3. Begging him to try just a spoonful to see if he would like it.
4. Tasting something and pretending like it was the best tasting thing in the world.
5. Letting him watch a dvd called Copy-Kids that is based on the premise that kids will do what they see other kids doing.
6. Letting him help me cook, with the hope that if he made it he would be more willing to eat it. I even bought him a Junior Chef set from Barnes & Noble
7. Starting a garden where we grew fruit, veggies, and herbs. Again, with the hope that if he had a hand in what we ate, he would be more interested in eating it.
I have had some success with each of these methods, though they do not work every single time. However, I wanted to see what other techniques or recommendations are out there. So I turned to Arkansas Better Beginnings to see what they had to say.
Here are the tips that they have for all of us parents and caregivers out there who have to deal with picky eaters. Hopefully you find a tip or two that you can implement.
http://www.arbetterbeginnings.com/sites/default/files/pdf_files/Tips%20for%20the%20Picky%20Eater.pdf