“August is Kids Eat Right™ month. Kids Eat Right™ month focuses on the importance of healthful eating and active lifestyles for children and families. It’s a time to highlight the role that everyone plays in ensuring a healthy future for our nation’s children.”
Over this past year I transitioned to working in Cardiology. While I predominantly see adults, that’s not to say the topic of children and nutrition doesn’t come up. Many times parents are more worried about their children than they are themselves. So much so that I find parents are preparing something different for their kids to eat than what they’ve already made for themselves. Totally understandable that parents want their kids to eat, however, this starts the precedent that from now on you’ll have to continue making something different every time you cook. Read on for a few tips & tricks to make meal time a little more enjoyable.
Get Kids Involved
Will it be messy? Yes. Does it involve hard work? Yes. Later will it pay off? Absolutely! Preparing dinner sometimes falls on one person. With the hustle and bustle of every day life, not much energy is left for making dinner. Rather get the whole family involved from planning what’s for dinner, to setting the table, and clean up, dinner should be a TEAM effort. One idea is to have themed days, i.e., Taco Tuesday, Meatball Monday. Additionally, you could rotate your protein and pick meals based on the protein. For example if Monday is chicken, rotate and have chicken parmesan, BBQ chicken, etc. The easier it is to wrap your brain about ‘what’s for dinner’, allows for less stress. While it might seem basic and obvious to get the kids involved, this will change their outlook on food.
Consistent Exposure
Research shows that when children initially reject a food it can take at least 8-10 times for them to ultimately accept that previously rejected food. 8-10 exposures is a lot of rejection and just one more reason why mealtime isn’t fun. Your job as a parent is to expose children to the food. Children’s jobs are to eat the food you prepare and provide. It doesn’t mean they will always like what you prepare, however, the fact remains you have to keep exposing the kids so they can start possibly accepting them. Kids can look at the food, smell a food, and may still not choose to try the food. Not picking on anyone’s cooking skills, but if you’re always steaming broccoli you do need to offer broccoli in an alternative way to see if kids like it prepared differently. Might I suggest roasted broccoli. Let the kids know there will be no ‘ewww, yuck, or gross’, at the dinner table. They may like the food and they may not, but they will keep seeing said food being prepared/offered.
No Fighting at the Dinner Table
Once again this may seem obvious, however, it’s important that the adults are on the same page. Parent’s shouldn’t have to beg their children to eat food on the table nor should they try to force them to eat a food. It is the kids’ responsibility to eat and ultimately choose what they’ll eat. That’s why the preparation and having input into deciding what’s for dinner can make all the difference in the world. Kids eat when they’re hungry. Adults may have lost sight of their hunger cues, however, kids eat inherently when they’re hungry. You want a positive experience at the dinner table and not a negative one. As much as you may want them to eat what’s on their plate, many times they do the opposite since they know how much you want them to eat. Continue to offer set meals and snacks so they will continue to eat when hungry and not special meals you prepare because they know you’ll make them something if they don’t eat what was already prepared. You are not a short order cook. I repeat, you are not a short order cook.
Offer Variety
Variety is important in the food that’s being offered but also the form in how it’s prepared. While I mentioned this already, it really is important to offer a food many different ways to kids. While you might like raw carrots some people prefer their flavor cooked. Additionally, adults may like a more complex and combined flavor profile like these roasted carrots with goat cheese and garlic walnuts. However, kids sometimes like their food flavors separate and simple. You can always roast the carrots and leave the topping off (remember no short order cooks), however, offer the topping to kids to try and ultimately they’ll decide if they will or if they won’t. Kids eat with their eyes and having different colors and different shapes creates interest. It does not mean they will 100% for sure eat the food, however, remember consistent exposure (so that one day they will eventually try it!)
A Good Experience
Have you ever tasted something you know you like but had a time when it didn’t taste that great? Papaya is the food that immediately comes to mind. Papayas can be hit or miss and when they’re a miss, they’re a miss. Imagine a kid trying papaya and that’s their experience with papaya. Surely no one would like papaya. However, when papaya is ripe and ready it can taste as sweet as sugar. Yes, it’s that good. Trust me. Remember this when offering foods to kids. Ideally we want them to have a good experience/exposure to the food. Cooking skills aside, make sure the food tastes good and has flavor. These tips may seem obvious but they do bare importance in repeating. Have kids rank the food to let you know if they liked it. Thumbs up if it’s a go, thumb to the side if they’re not sure, and thumbs down if they didn’t care for it at all. This can help to guide you and create conversations about how to prepare foods and involving kids in finding a new recipe/way to try the food for the next time!
Stay Consistent
Consistency really is the key. Some children are more difficult than others and will require more effort and patience. Yes, you know which children they are, however, don’t let them know which ones they are. Kids are developing their eating habits from a young age and look to adults to model their behavior. It’s important to help kids create a healthy relationship with food versus creating barriers to being open to trying and experiencing new foods and flavors. These are just a few tips and tricks to help at meal time. More than anything remember to keep food fun. Stay consistent. Keep offering a variety of foods. And whatever you do, delete this page from your search history – we can’t have the kids knowing we were talking about them.
Recipes To Try With The Kids
- Easy Burrata Pasta – Cheese makes everything taste better. And whether you add the spinach or not, you can always add a few other veggies to the sauce. No hiding vegetables, but definitely a good way to puree them into the sauce if needed.
- Mezze Board – boards are a great idea for the exposure to different foods to try, but also a great way to provide dips. Kids love to dip foods in sauces and condiments.
- Homemade Trail Mix – They can create their own go-to trail mix to try with the different combination ideas!
- Instant Pot Chickpeas – Make or buy chickpeas. Use the chickpeas to make marinated chickpeas, hummus, and/or salad in a jar. Three different ways to offer chickpeas for kids to try. See how it goes! They even sell chickpeas roasted, which is sometime I buy vs make homemade (the humidity in Florida is no joke and they always end up going stale too quickly).
