Picky Eaters!!!!
WOW! It is such a struggle! I am not alone in this struggle! This is a common complaint among my mom friends. How to get the kids to eat??? Especially when you must figure out how to get more than one to eat and they are opposites on what they like (right this second)!!! I feel like a short order cook some days! Let’s face it, the last time they ate what was given to them was in utero! Unless they were feisty then and sent back up what they rejected!
There is hope, my oldest grew out of his picky eater faze by 4 (he’s 19 now)! In hindsight he wasn’t overly picky. That was saved for the middle one! My middle dude is still going strong as a picky eater at 15! Thankfully the youngest (9) has never been really picky. (Insert big sigh of relief here) He does have his moments and suddenly he doesn’t like something. Ummm you liked it last week!
One thing to keep in mind before we go much farther is if it might be a texture issue? Do they not like lumps in their food? Smooth the best or do they prefer crunch? Let’s take an apple for example. All my boys like the apple flavor but Ninja #1 likes apple sauce but not apple slices. Ninja #2 likes slices but not apple sauce. Finally, Ninja #3 likes both!
Let’s turn my ninjas into dinosaurs for the moment. In our home there is a herbivore turned omnivore, a carnivore and another omnivore. Dino #1 started as herbivore then turned into an omnivore. He loved (still does) veggies! Yes, you read that correctly. I said vegetables, those multi-colored things that are good for you! It was a blessing; it was easy to get him to eat those veggies especially raw ones! Meat was his issue. SO, after trying all different airplanes coming into hanger, trains in the tunnel, cars racing to the finish line and (when older) please just one bite and can have dessert (this worked well) I finally stumbled onto a few “magic tricks”.
Magic Trick #1: The special “hot dog pokers” as we called them. Of course, they are versatile and can become chicken or fruit pokers or anything they can poke or stab as my boys liked to say! They’re good like that! They are just plastic drink stirrers or toothpicks or popsicle sticks. We didn’t use toothpicks very often since, well they’re sharp and can stab things with them lol! They do have some that are not sharp. Make sure your victim of choice, I mean meat or fruit are in bite site pieces and they can then poke. You know dipping into sauces is a great idea too. I’ll get to those next.
Magic Trick #2: DIP! Yep ketchup; ranch; honey; BBQ sauce; honey mustard; melted cheese. Whatever they like, use it to your advantage! Better they eat something than nothing. In my opinion at least. This also works great with veggies.
Magic Trick #3: Cookie Cutters! Yep, that’s right, get out those slices of bologna, cheese or sandwiches (really anything that can be cut by cookie cutters) We started with a dinosaur one. We cut it out and I said, “pretend you’re a dinosaur and bite his head off!” Ok, sounds a bit harsh but he got a kick out of it! He thought it was the funniest thing and even roared as he did it! I would let them pick out different shapes each time. Yes, I was encouraging violence, for those of you who are opposed to the violence of children biting dinosaurs heads off I offer that you get over it! It worked on all three of my dinos!
Magic Trick #4: Make It Fun! Cut up cheese and lunch meat into shapes to create faces. Have you ever made a hot dog octopus? Cut legs into the hot dog ¾ of way down it and then it can sit on the plate. Make it even more fun by making noodles and add food coloring to noodles to make green and he’s sitting on seaweed! I’ve done this with ramen noodles. Funny faced toast. Spread peanut butter then add in banana slices for eyes and strawberry slices for mouth. Be creative with it. 
photo found online
Magic Trick #5: Be sneaky! Sneak it in, deceive those dinos! Hide the veggies in food. Pulverize those raw veggies. Add pureed vegetables to ground meat. Pureed carrots work well in taco meat and spaghetti sauce, bonus it makes it go farther and my dinos did not notice! They do make it juicier, just FYI. Use similar colored food to help hide them.
Another sneaky thing is feeding them off your plate. I know, I know I can hear it from those grumbling out there but hey, do what works. This worked especially well with dino#2 my carnivore. He wouldn’t try things if it was on his plate but if it’s on yours or handed to him from a Costco employee it was safe to try!!!!
As I mentioned, Dino #2 is my carnivore. Meat, meat and more meat are for him! Surprisingly he will eat fish! No veggies other than raw carrots with dip! At one point mac n cheese was too cheesy but grilled cheese wasn’t! Yeah, thankfully that only lasted 2 years!!!! So, he is what brings us to Magic Trick #6.
Magic Trick #6: Bribery! Yes, you read that right. I am not above it. We have the 2-bite rule in our house. You must have 2 bites of whatever it is they are turning their nose up (or making gaging noises) at to get dessert. Yes, gaging noises! Dino #2 would often plug his nose just to swallow whatever it was that was so disgusting, you know like corn!
Dino#3 has been easiest so far on pickiness! He’s willing to try any kind of food. My biggest struggle with him is suddenly he’ll stop liking something that was great 2 weeks ago! He’s my feisty one. He’s been making his own sandwiches for a few months now and thinks he’s hot stuff for doing that. Until….. the other day when my hubby told him to make a sandwich if he was hungry. His reply….. “I’m under a lot of pressure at school so making my sandwich would be too much added pressure.” He’s 9! How much “pressure” is he under? He cracks me up!!!
Hopefully something here will help you. Give yourself some grace in the matter. We’ve all fed them chicken nuggets and fruit snacks and called it good!!!!!
Do you have any magic tricks that work for your kiddos? I’d love to hear them!