Fit Or Fat: Nutrition and Exercise

Picky Eaters: Getting Kids To Eat Well

Posting Date: 06/11/2001

Smart ideas for getting your kids involved:

• Take your kids to a farmer's market and let them have samples of whatever is big that week. It?s okay to splurge on things like organic cherry tomatoes and fresh peas in the pod.
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• In fact, you can generally buy whatever kids want to eat, in terms of fresh fruits and vegetables -- even if it is a bit pricey. It is cheaper to buy something they will eat, than to throw away something they won't! So, go for kiwi fruit, artichokes, yellow peppers and avocados. Even kids get tired of apples and baby carrots all the time!

Expand their food palette:

• Don't stick to "kid's foods." You may be inclined to feed bland and tasteless foods to your kids, but they often like garlicky or spicy foods. One woman?s daughter loves guacamole, and her younger one can "eat her weight in Caesar salad." Lots of kids love salsas, too.

• Eating out -- avoid those family restaurants where the only vegetable on the kids menu is French fries. Ethnic restaurants are great places to broaden kids diets, because they often have lots of vegetables cooked with meat or tofu, and they are flavorful and colorful. These restaurants are often the most kid-friendly, too!

Go with the flow:

• If one kid loves carrots cooked till they are soft, and the other loves frozen peas still frozen, go with it. Don't fight over methods of preparation. Most parents will agree: ?Anyway they want to eat a vegetable is okay with me?.

• Bring healthy stuff along when you go out to parks and playgrounds. Even the most stubborn non-fruit-and-veggie-eating kid will eat an apple or orange if they are ravenous when there is nothing else around to eat -- and the alternative means going home early!

What?s the bottom line?

Your kids are (hopefully) not going to starve. And they are most likely not going to suffer from vitamin deficiency. So, don?t force them to eat foods that they don?t like. The bigger deal you make out of it the more likely they are going to respond by rejecting the foods.

You have to find what works for you. For some, being sneaky works
-- for others, it backfires. One mom says, "The tricks -- faces made of carrot slices, sandwiches out of cookie cutters -- have never worked for me, and in fact can get frustrating if you go to a lot of trouble to prepare special food and they STILL don't eat it." Be creative, try new things. Allow your kids to give thier input and be flexible.

If you are still worried that your children are not getting sufficient nutrients, find a children's vitamin supplement that provides a balance of all the essentials.

If you are on a diet ?- stop. Instead eat healthfully and show your children that food is a happy, satisfying and nutritious part of our lives.

Need a refresher on the principles of smart eating? Click here

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