Does your kid ask for the same thing at every meal?
Does she refuse to eat if her fruit is touching her chicken nugget?
Maybe it would help to understand why children are reluctant to eat new things.
If we left our picky eaters to survive in the wild, they would bemore likely to avoid poisoning.
Expect children to go througha slow, iterative process before fully accepting a new food.
Over the course of several exposures, they might first only look at the new food.
Think of any interaction with the food as progress.
make a run at understand how bizarre and scary a new food experience may feel to your child.
Remember the first time you tried raw oysters?
Oh, you have never tried raw oysters?
Well, why not?
Because they are terrifying and weird?
Thats how some kids feel about vegetables or meat or lumpy things.
(In theory, anyway.)
Maybe its impossible to get the whole family to eat at the same time every night.
Two dinners a week?
Even eating most meals with one parent or sibling can help.
She needs to touch it and smash it to learn to accept different textures.
Allegedly,kids like frozen vegetables.
I cant wait to try this tip.
Turn thewitching hourintoveggie happy hour.Let your kids dress up and then pass a plate of crudite.
Just thinking about it makes me want to eat vegetables.
Use ataste platefor new foods.Sometimes a full serving can be intimidating.
Dont force it
Creating negative feeding experiences will only backfire.
That is not to say we as parents are to blame for picky eating.
But it is good to know what actions can help or make it worse.
Again, I am not an expert, just another mom trying to figure it out.
Finally, relax
As Pashman told us, Dont stress so much about it!
We just did an episode of The Sporkful podcast called In Defense Of Picky Eaters.
Provided your child is growing and the pediatrician says theyre okay, its pretty normal.
But do trust your gut.
Problems that extend beyond normal choosiness include OCD, anorexia andavoidant/restrictive food intake disorder(ARFID).
