Getting your kids to eat healthier

Kids aren’t born liking broccoli. Fruits are easier, because they’re sweet, but getting our kids to eat more vegetables and fewer processed snack foods is a universal parenting struggle.

Here are some strategies that have worked well for our family:

Avoid saying “try it you’ll like it”: Because they probably won’t.   It takes kids as many as 20 times trying a new food to develop a taste for it.  (Google this phenomenon, you’ll get varying numbers.)  If you say they’ll like it, and they don’t, they won’t trust you next time you say that.   I tell my kids the truth – “you’re learning to enjoy this food, and it’ll take some time.”  While they’re learning, they get a very small amount on their plates.  One piece of broccoli gets licked the first night, a small bite the second, until gradually they work up to eating more.  I haven’t found a food they won’t at least try, and by continuing to offer additional foods, they gradually add to their repertoire of “accepted” foods.

Pick whole foods for snacks: It’s tempting mid-afternoon to just give them the snack foods they’ll eat quietly, but processed, refined crackers get converted to sugar quickly, leaving them vulnerable to an energy crash right before dinner time.  I made a rule for myself – only whole foods for afternoon snack.  My kids now expect a sliced apple with peanut butter, banana, dried fruit (raisins are great – kids love eating them, and they have enough fiber to regulate their sugar content), or nuts for snack.  Will has started to eat sliced orange bell pepper and cucumber slices with hummus, too.  Snack time is a great opportunity to get another serving of fruits and vegetables in.

Give them choices: Would you like flax seeds in your oatmeal, or chia seeds?  Broccoli or carrots or both? I’ve made Will frozen corn and Andrew frozen peas for lunch because they each chose a different vegetable when we were planning, and I gave them that power.  (This is different from letting them choose a different vegetable once one is on the table and being served!)  I offer them similar choices for foods they love, so they’re used to getting to pick their foods.  When we have oatmeal, they pick their “sweetener” (maple syrup or vegan chocolate chips) and their seed (chia or hemp) and they can have as many kinds of fruit and nuts they want.  They see choices as a positive thing, and are so used to the routine that they aren’t yet saying “neither”.

Smoothies: Do I want my kids to learn to eat the whole vegetable?  Absolutely.  But if I relied on a 3 and 4 year old to consume all their vegetables in their whole form, they’d probably end up with a vitamin deficiency.  So while I make sure they have at least one vegetable on their plate at dinner time, I shamelessly throw leafy greens and other vegetables into smoothies for them.  They have 1 or 2 smoothies a day, and I make sure there’s always a serving or two of vegetables in the smoothie.  Bananas, dates, and cacao powder will get kids to drink more vegetables than you’d expect!

Offer all good choices: If you don’t have junk food in the house, your kids won’t eat it.  Yes, sometimes they eat a large portion of whole grain pasta with sauce, and only a few spoonfuls of peas, but they’re never filling up on crackers or oreos.  With such little stomachs and growing bodies, the more nutrient dense calories they consume, the better.

Involve them in food preparation: They’re more interested in trying a food that they picked out in the grocery store, washed, helped slice and prepare.  It’s a lot of work to involve young children in food preparation, but when you can take the time to do it, especially with a new food, it definitely increases the likelihood that they’ll be excited to try it.  That’s how I got Will to drink his first kale smoothie.

Skip dessert or make it fruit: We eat dessert on special occasions in our house, so our kids don’t skimp on their evening meal and expect to fill up on dessert.  Sometimes we’ll have homemade chocolate doughnuts or cookies on a weekend at snack time.  If we do offer dessert after dinner, it’s often sliced strawberries or another sweet fruit.  That way our kids still get the occasional cupcake or cookie, but they’re never under-eating their dinner in anticipation.

Don’t make them special kids meals: This is the hardest, but it’ll take them much longer to learn to eat healthy, balanced meals if you’re making them peanut butter and jelly whenever you have a dinner you know they won’t enjoy.  It’s a cycle – you don’t want to listen to them whine because they don’t like vegetable stir frys, you make them their own dinner instead, they never learn to eat vegetable stir fries.  Sigh.

Try a bite: We are in the try a bite camp.  The professionals are split on this issue.  It works for us.  If they lick a food and gag, we don’t push it, but that’s happened maybe once.  Other than that, if it’s on the plate, you eat at least a nibble before you get down.  Otherwise, they never get those 10-20 exposures to learn to eat new foods.

Good luck!