Raising picky eaters can feel like an emotional roller coaster at times. As a parent you want to ensure your child receives a healthy variety of foods, but sometimes you’re simply too tired to have the same fight over and over. So, once again, you make your child’s “safe foods” to keep the peace and ensure your child eats something.

Breathe, my mama friend. You’re not alone. Lots of moms, myself included, have been there!

My youngest son barely ate anything more than saltine crackers, pickles, and pizza until he was five or six. He wouldn’t even eat a hot dog weiner that had lines on it from the grill! It was frustrating, disheartening, and exahusting. We eventually had to put him on PediaSure just to get some minerals and nutrients into his system. 

So, believe me when I tell you I understand what you’re going through. 

Thankfully, after opening a childcare program and feeding more than fifty children from all different walks of life in my home for fourteen years, I’ve learned a few tricks.

Here are 7 Ways to Encourage Your Picky Eater to Try New Foods:
1. Let them participate in the planning. Let them help you create a menu and then go with you to shop for the foods, so they’ll learn what foods look like in their original form – before we bake, fry, poach, or mash them into something else. Teach them how to choose quality produce and how to compare prices (if they’re old enough to understand).

2. Let them participate in the preparation. This doesn’t mean to hand your three-year-old a knife and tell them to start chopping onions. But there are jobs in the process young children can safely do – washing produce, stirring, mixing, measuring, pouring, scooping, handing you items so they learn to identify them, and, of course, the best part….taste testing!

3. Offer one new food at a time and present that food in a variety of ways. Some kids may not like the texture of mashed potatoes but enjoy french fries. Okay, that was an easy one. But even vegetables such as carrots. Some kids, who won’t eat them cooked will eat them raw if they have some sort of dip, like ranch or hummus. Perhaps your child doesn’t like the mushiness of green beans from a can but might be able to tolerate string beans sautéed in a bit of butter or olive oil and salt.

4. Keep portions of new foods small. The goal isn’t to get them to love the new food and clean their plate, simply to introduce them to a new food in a non-threatening or overwhelming way.

5. Make it fun! Cut foods into shapes or arrange them to make animals on the plate. Use hummus or a dip of some sort to make smiley faces on top.

6. Set an example! When your kids see you trying new foods, they’re more likely to follow suit. Don’t make a big deal about it. Simply state the rule of ONE to set a precedent. They must take one bite of the new food each time you offer it. No begging, bribing, threatening, or coercing involved. And be sure to offer foods they DO enjoy on the plate as well.

7. Keep offering the new food without any drama attached. It can take up to seventeen exposures of a new food for a child to start liking it. I always told my kids and the daycare kids that our taste buds change all the time. One day we might not like a food, but the next day our taste buds decide they do like it. Make it a matter-of-fact part of life. 

Remember, progress with picky eaters takes patience and time. It happens in baby steps. It might start with a lick or a sniff and eventually turn into a microscopic bite. But every step is a win. The goal isn’t perfection–it’s to build a healthy curios relationship with food.

Give yourself grace! You’re doing better than you think, my mama friend.

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Meal planning and preparation was one of the toughest parts of my job as a family childcare provider. I also had to follow state guidelines in the foods I served, so I had to ensure to include a variety of healthy foods. If you’d like assistance in planning healthy meals and snacks for your children, feel free to send me a message at traci@tracisanders.com or connect with me on my social accounts. 

How do YOU encourage your kids to try new foods? Comment below.