5 Tips for Picky Eaters – Child

You may be at your wit’s end with your child if he or she is a picky eater, and you cannot figure out what to serve him or her for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as snacks. There are ways to get your picky eater to eat without always relying on one go-to meal or one restaurant. Your child does not have to eat the same meal over and over again even if that is what they insist. You should not feel bad if that is the case, it can be difficult to overcome challenges that come with picky eaters. To overcome your child’s picky eating, try using one of the five tips that can be found in the information that is provided in the points below.

1. Consider Meal Delivery Services

You have probably heard of meal delivery services for adults or that have the ability to feed a whole family, but there is something you may not know. There are meal delivery services available for children as well, with many of the meals incorporating a child’s favorite foods like chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and more. Use kids meal delivery services to feed your child of any age with foods that seem like their favorites, but that use nutritious ingredients. All meals are fresh as well and use clean ingredients that have been approved by a chef and by a registered dietitian. By ordering some of their favorite meals from a meal delivery service, you can order some different foods as well that you would also enjoy so at least if your child does not want the different food, you will be able to have a good meal while saving yourself time and energy. Also, if your child sees you eating the meal they may want to try some as well.

2. Make a Routine

One way that meal delivery services can help your picky eaters as well is that it creates some sense of a routine for your child. You can create a system of when meals are given to your child to create this routine your children can get used to. One other way to make sure your child will eat with this routine though is to try to eat each meal around the same time every day. Do not just let your child get full off of snacks and dairy products throughout the day. A routine is key.

3. Be Patient

When first starting the journey of helping your picky eater to eat more foods and to feel more comfortable eating certain foods, it is so important to be patient. Your child probably needs a bit of exposure to any new foods before they are comfortable eating if they are a picky eater. Let them touch, smell, and taste only small bits of the new food to determine if they are comfortable eating it. Talk about the food and the way it looks and smells, and try to integrate the new food with those that your child already enjoys eating.

4. Incorporate the Food

As mentioned, it is important to incorporate the foods with the foods that your child already enjoys eating. If you are serving a new vegetable to your child, for instance, allow him or her a dipping sauce that they can use with the new vegetable that you know they enjoy. Try to add vegetables to spaghetti sauces if they enjoy spaghetti, for instance, and make sweet potato fries instead of regular fries. You can also make one-pot meals or casserole meals that you can slip new foods into and your child does not have to know until he or she enjoys the meal.

5. Skip Dessert

Do not offer dessert as a reward to your child after he or she tries something new. It is important to not incorporate these new foods with a dessert every time they choose to eat something different, or he or she will make these desserts the only thing they want to eat. It is okay to serve dessert a couple of times a week, but do not overdo it if you have picky eaters. If you want to still serve something after dinner though, consider a fruit or yogurt.

Final Thoughts

It can be difficult to try to find a process that works for getting your picky eater to eat. Try incorporating meal services, however, that will bring you nutritional foods that look like your child’s favorite foods. Start bringing in new foods in meals and with your child’s favorites. Try to eat at the same time every day as well and avoid giving out dessert every day in order to make your child focus on the new foods. This will make the whole process smoother for everyone so that everyone can enjoy what they are eating.