Picky eating kids can drive a sane mommy crazy. though it pains me to admit: after having three children, I’ve learned that I can not really control what a child will and won’t eat. but I do have influence over the options that are available, and so I focus on that. At the end of this post, I will share my battle-tested methods for taking care of picky eating children.
Pozadí:
Before I try to boss you around, I want to share my picky eating credentials. Kid 1 was a pretty good eater and we were very neurotic, dedicated first-time parents (not that there’s anything wrong with that), hell-bent on getting him to eat every bite blob of food on his spoon. He ate a very healthy balance of fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins. as of age ten, he won’t eat cooked fruit (apple pie – WTW?!) or plain cheese pizza, preferring vegetables on his pizza to the point of pouting at parties where only cheese is available. He’s a little bit picky but mostly a excellent eater of lots of foods. and yes, we are those food a**holes who serve kale salads to our kids on the regular. kid 1 eats them with relish and wants to make sure we are appropriately massaging each leaf. (Not actual relish made of pickles.)
Kid 2 was also a pretty good eater from the start. rather than force the “clean your plate” mentality of our own childhoods, we had progressed as parents to encourage a “Try-It Bite” for every new food, and then left it up to him as to whether he would eat more. He was a frequent eater of frozen waffles and plain yogurt but also ingested a healthy combination of other foods. If anything, he opened up our eyes about a broader range of possibilities for nutritious foods. He prefers plain pizza to veggie, but he always eats the broccoli we offer on the side.
Kid 3 has been a picky eater from the womb. He was a voracious nurser that required formula supplementation nearly immediately. I must have known that we couldn’t rest on our good experience. He developed a penchant for dairy and carbs (plain cheese quesadillas and cheese pizza are his best foods) such that I couldn’t even get him to eat fruit without disguising it as a cracker (thanks to Trader Joe’s freeze dried strawberries, he now eats the real thing). The “Try-It Bite” has devolved into the “No-Thank-You Lick”. It took us 3-5 times of using ice cream before he would even put it to his lips. I’ve caught myself doing a delighted dance when he ate his first dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget, because he had never agreed to try chicken before!
Because our picky kid was our third kid, I had no choice but to accept this as a thing about HIM rather than a thing about ME. I am positive if my first child had been the one to turn up his nose at a grape or carrot, I would have blamed myself.
Having experienced two kids who will eat anything and one who will not, I have some mantras and reminders I give myself and my spouse to help us stay sane.
Tips for parents of selective eaters:
Remove all pressure around eating. I practice acting like I don’t care if the meal or dish is finished because I know my child will not go hungry. (See banana idea below.) say — and believe — “You don’t have to eat it.” You wouldn’t force me to eat a cilantro leaf, so don’t force your toddler.
Offer one safe food with every new food. We make sure that there’s a familiar dish on the table. Our dinner times typically include a seemingly random banana or waffle option for this reason. The kid might not try the new thing, but he won’t starve.
Only allow food at specified meal and snack times. Truth be told, I’m delighted enough if my kids fill up on healthy snacks. An apple ideal before dinner? Pokračuj. but hell to the No, you may not eat a snack after the dinner if you just ignored it. The kitchen is closed and you will make it until morning.No candy and treats for children who don’t eat their real food. Opravdu. I am hardcore this way.
Encourage good manners. With some meals — like the white bean chili I plan to serve tonight — I know that only my spouse and I will actually eat it willingly. It is my job to prepare healthy meals (every flipping day) and it is their job to be polite about it. They can sit without making faces and say “No thank you”, or “Just a little please.”
Be curious, not furious. If they do taste an icky food, I encourage my sons to become little scientists and check out further. I want them to think about why they didn’t like it — would cheese sauce make it better or worse? Is there a cilantro problem here? would you eat red sauce on the side next time? — and not be jerks.
Find creative ways to serve fruits and vegetables:Â Pinterest can be your pal and enemy when serving sandwiches that look like spiders or hummus-guacamole crocodiles but a little inventiveness can go a long way. two of my kids love roasted broccoli; Whitney served frozen peaches instead of popsicles with terrific success; little crispyFreeze sušené hrášek diskutují o úžasném s mým batoletem, který nenávidí vegetariánské cracker; Některé děti prostě milují ponoření, takže jim dejte mrkev s hummusem; Zelený koktejl může být Hulk Shake; Nasaďte meloun nebo sýr na párátko; Pokuste se předat banány jako dezert se strojem na ovoce Yonanas. Zde je mnohem více nápadů pro vybíravé batole. Mohl bych pokračovat, ale nebudu slibovat úspěch některého z těchto projektů produkce, protože to, co pro mě funguje, může nebo nemusí fungovat pro vás.
Zkuste různé teploty. Spolu s experimentováním na aspektu formy (tip 6) jsem se dozvěděl, že ne každé dítě chce horké nebo studené jídlo. Mám jedno dítě, které jí zmrazené hrášek zmrazený a další, které je upřednostňuje vařené. Snadné peasy. Whitney byl šokován, když zjistil, že její Kiddos měl rád Tortellini Cold (yay, něco nového v poledníku). Moje dítě si myslí, že studené smoothies jsou příliš chladné, takže omezuji chlazené předměty a používám banán pokojové teploty, když s ním sdílím.
Přemýšlejte o velkém obrazu dne, týdne a fáze života. Nutričně vyvážená jídla nemusí být používána při každém jídle. Vyváží se to při delším tahu? Je váš lékař znepokojen? Můj není, takže se na to jen rozhodneme.
Zapojte je. Vaše dítě může být mnohem více připraveno vyzkoušet nové jídlo, které roste v zahradě, vybírá si ze supermarketu nebo pomáhá připravit se. Nebo ne. Moje dítě doslova zpívalo zkoušení nových jídel, zatímco si vybírala cherry rajčata z našeho dvorku a pak by ho ochutnali. posouvat se.
Vytvořte si seznam toho, co dítě bude jíst. Místo toho, abyste se zaměřili na negativní, uveďte ano potraviny Ano. Jsem vždy šokován, když rodiče nazývají své děti vybíravé a pak chrastítky ze seznamu potravin, které bez problémů klesají. Dnes ráno jsem slyšel: „Ano, jí rýži, fazole, bobule, nudle, hrušky, ale ne maso.“ Byl jsem tak potěšen, že mají Bean Eater.
Dejte Kiddos vědět, že se v průběhu času mění chuť. Dnes se mu nemusí líbit pizzu z houby, ale když je starší – hurá – bude. a řekni to s úsměvem. Rád visím tuto možnost jako další odznak být velkým dítětem, takže je to něco, na co se můj malý může usilovat. Kdo ví, jestli to funguje. Zeptejte se mě za deset let!
Sečteno a podtrženo:
Jak říká Ellyn Satter, rodiče ovládají to, co se podává, a dítě ovládá, pokud to sní. The moral of the story for our family is to continue to offer healthy foods that the kids like mixed in with new foods that I like. I also have a back-up food that they can politely prepare for themselves (hummus and pita with fruit).
ps never depend on a person telling you how to fix picky eating if they do not have one. If a two-year old is harvesting vegetables from her garden and eating them, she is NOT picky and her parents shouldn’t be bossing me around!
