Picky Eaters? Not in this house :)

I must admit, the thought of a picky eater drives me crazy. Before I even had kids, I vowed that mine would be 'well-rounded' when it came to the food category. There is nothing that makes me feel sorry for a child more than when they won't eat anything but hot-dogs and mac and cheese. (Okay, maybe there are a few things that would be worse than that, but you know what I mean) So far, I have been blessed with healthy, happy 'eaters' There is not much that my children don't like or won't eat. Maybe this is just a genetic type of thing, but I'd like to think that maybe Joel and I did some things right to help it along. So far, the only 'yuck' foods in our house are--

1. Brussel Sprouts. Neither child likes them--they're too strong tasting, I guess
2. Kiwi--Eli loves them, but Cosette doesn't. She says they sting her tongue.
3. Skin on potatoes. Cosette prefers to have it taken off.
4. Tomatoes--Eli can't stand them. But then again, I don't care for them much myself, so I don't really blame him.

Other than that, our kids pretty much eat whatever we sit in front of them. Here are some basic guidelines that I think may have helped this along.

1. I eat a wide variety of foods while I'm pregnant---this is supposed to help them adjust right from the start, right?
2. I don't really avoid many foods when I'm nursing, unless I see they're clearly bothering the baby. For instance, I once had some OutBack bloomin onion, and Cosette WOULD NOT nurse after that. So, no more onion :) But, in general, they're exposed to many different food tastes whle they're nursing.
3. Right from the start, we expect them to at least eat small amounts of any kind of food. If the baby doesn't like the mushed peas, fine, don't buy twenty jars of them, but do insist that he at least finish several spoonfuls of this jar. Next time you try them, he'll probably be able to eat more.
4. When they move on to regular table food, our kids eat whatever we're eating. For instance, if we're having stir-fry for dinner, I don't make an 'alternative' dinner like chicken nuggets for the kids. I simply serve them stir-fry, and they are expected to eat at least a little of it. This has seemed to work, as my kids never complain about the food we are having. Obviously, I try to stay away from anything too spicy or awful for their little tummies, but that's about it. They both have a wide variety of foods they like. Eli loves grilled salmon, salad, roast beef, hummus sandwiches, and my olive oil/vinegar dipping sauce. Cosette especially enjoys her daddy's fried egg sandwiches, orange slices, spaghetti and sauce, corn on the cob, and blueberry pancakes. So you see, even at two and three years old, they can quickly develop a taste for lots of different, healthy foods.
5. Also, I don't cater to their 'wants'. I know this sounds heartless, but food takes a long time to prepare! Cosette has, on occasion, sat down to lunch and said "But Mommy, I didn't want a tomato sandwich! I wanted a cheese sandwich!' Well, rather than make her happy, I simply explain that Mommy took time out of her day to fix that sandwich, and that is what's for lunch. If she'd prefer to skip it, she may get down, but there will be no more food until dinner. She has never once opted to skip lunch!
6. And lastly, We try to be reasonable with the amount of food they are expected to eat. For instance, any two year old will have problems if you are insisting he eat an entire bowl-ful of salad. Their taste buds quickly get tired and their tummies get full! But, when we give Eli just a smaller portion, and cut it up into bite-size pieces, he happily eats it and moves on to the next thing.


Well, I hope I didn't make this sound like we have the 'perfect eaters', because we do still have our battles every now and then. Cosette declared the other morning that ' I am never going to eat oatmeal again!' Well, I don't know about that, but I will be kind and leave it off of our morning menu planning for a little while, at least. Everybody's allowed to get tired of a food every now and then :)

I hope this has been helpful in giving you some ideas for helping your picky eaters. There's nothing nicer than to see a child happily spooning in mouth-fuls of healthy, yummy food!