Deal With Your Picky Eater the Correct Way

Life is quite stressful when you have to deal with a picky eater at home. Daily you stand in your kitchen wondering what to prepare and if they will eat it. The power battles during meal times are driving you one step close to the grave too. Having little children that are picky eaters is not unusual. Many parents are in the same boat. I've heard that children will grow out of this problem. I'm sure sitting around and waiting for it to end is not the solution you are looking for. So, take a look at some of the ideas below:

1. Let them plan meals and go grocery shopping with you. By giving them the liberty to select the dinner menu, you raise the chances of them eating it.

2. Watch the before-meal snacks. You can't blame them if they say no to meals when they just had a snack to filled them up. Apart from the snacks, limit the drinks too. Don't underestimate the filling power of juice and milk.

3. Don't pile their plates with too much food. Give smaller portions and if they can eat more, let them have seconds. When you do this, they are not intimidated by the food.

4. Let them be kitchen helpers when you are cooking. The fact that they helped to cook it, motivates them to want to eat it. For instance, while preparing dinner, I persuaded my daughter who is 7 years old to help me chop up the broccoli and cauliflower. Guess what? She actually ate them when she wouldn't have before.

5. Present to them 2 types of foods to choose. Make them feel the decision is in their hands. Why not ask them if they prefer noodles or rice, carrot sticks or grapes, etc....

6. Learn to make snacks that are nutritional. Fruits and vegetables are simply the best. Turn them into finger foods that the kids can enjoy such as fruit kebab.

7. Point out what other children eat, especially their friends. Do you notice that your children are always more interested in eating other people's food then yours? It doesn't matter if their friends are eating food that is alien to them, as long as their friends are eating it, they are more likely to try. Maybe you should consider inviting your children's friends over more often. Of course, make sure you team up with the parents first so there's no junk food.

8. It could be your picky eater has a problem with the food's texture rather than the food's taste. If you suspect this to be so, try to prepare the food differently like making fruit juices instead of fruit slices or chopping the vegetables finely a hiding them in your dish.

9. Avoid giving them the label of a picky eater. If they hear you say it all the time, they may just accept that to be who they are.

10. Never go out of your way to cook them a separate meal. Yes, you suggest a choice of foods to them but it's not something different from the family menu. If you do this, you will just defeat the purpose of getting them to eat more types of food.

Goodness knows you need a lot of patience to handle picky eaters. The most important thing you must do, and also the hardest, is to let go of the power struggle during meal times. List down rules and adhere to it. One thing that will also help is to search out easy recipes for picky eaters. It definitely helps to get a little creative in preparing meals.