One thing I try to do ever so often is teach a cooking class at my daughters school. I really enjoy these somewhat haphazard cooking experiences, and hopefully the kids do too! I am a big believer that getting kids into the kitchen from an early age helps them with making good food choices, to try new foods, and makes them excited about preparing their own food, which are all positive things.
These skills from my limited experience seem to be especially important for this young 3-5 years age group. Anyone who has a toddler or preschooler may have experienced the joys of a fussy eater, I know I have.
So how do you deal with a fussy eater, it is challenging! It wears you down, you get frustrated, you get cranky, and you can give up hope. That is the really hard bit, you cannot completely give up hope. Giving up means accepting that dinner is a plate of plain pasta with grated cheese, so you have to keep fighting.
So, what do you do? Obviously, each child is unique, and each family has its own limitations, but some mealtime guidelines I find really help are…
- make sure there is one thing on the plate they do like (this may be pasta, brown rice etc)
- then make sure there are at least 3 different veg on the plate
- also make sure there is some sort of protein (this could be an egg, some fish, chicken, nuts etc) as well
- I do NOT believe in you must eat everything on your plate, but I DO believe in you must have a little of everything on your plate.
- only introduce one new food at a time. If you present a dinner that is all new foods, things can get ugly.
- you need to make the experience ‘safe’…. with just a little ‘challenge’.
- dinner is dinner. Do not cook something else if they don’t eat it, and do not let them snack after dinner if they don’t eat it.
Involving kids in the kitchen is another really valuable way to get them to try new things. Even better, getting them to try new things with friends (such as at kindy) also seems to be more effective. Do not underestimate the benefits of positive peer pressure!
Eating with them at mealtimes (whenever possible) is also critical. They learn by example; how can we expect them to eat foods that we are not eating too.