Tips For Getting Kids To Try New Foods!

You’ve brought home some delicious, garden grown tomatoes and cucumbers from your local farmers market.  If you’re like me, we wait all year like it’s Christmas for these seasonal offerings.  You just can’t get that flavor from the store bought ones.  You add these to salad, maybe cut up some for a sandwich, or make a veggie tray.  “Hey kids, look what we have!!”  That’s where Christmas ends.  This is usually where my excitement for home grown goodness becomes is met with frowns and dissapointment.  It now becomes a mission to spread this goodness among the young non-believers in our family.  Here are a couple tips that you may find helpful if you’re fighting this same battle.

1. Let them dip it!  Kids love to dip.  Sometimes a bit of ranch or … ketchup (what is it with ketchup and kids) goes a long way.  A bit of independence for them and makes food fun.

2.  Let them help prepare it!  My little one’s eyes light up when they can move from the ikea playset to the real deal.  Fancy apron, a butter knife, some encouragement, and patience with the mess that will happen make them more likely to try this thing they’ve created.  It’s a good way to foster in them courage and trust.

3. Play with it!  I know, we are taught at a young age not to play with our food, but … what fun is that?  We’ve had our daughter pretend she’s the plant eating dinosaur from her book, and she took right to eating some lettuce and carrots from her salad.  Maybe a carnivore for that steak.  Life is short.  Make it fun!

4. Let them grow it!  You don’t need a farm for this.  One plant in a pot on a porch or window sill does the trick (check your farmers market or supermarket for live plants).  There are so many lessons to be learned from this.  Responsibility of keeping it alive, consequences of ignoring responsibility (plant dies), reward of hard work (they grew food!).  Its a way to not only get them to eat things they might otherwise not try, but an education they will take so much from.

5. Rinse and repeat.  Sometimes, our kids just have their minds made up that they aren’t going to eat that strange offering, and that’s fine.  We never force our kids to eat anything (though that may mean no desert) but always encourage them to at least try.  Regardless, next time we have the same veggie or meat, it goes on their plate, and everytime we make, it goes on their plate.  We’ve had them try so many new things just by ensuring it’s an option and repeatedly presenting the same thing.  If suggestions 1-4 don’t work, think rinse and repeat.

Anyways, just a few ideas we have tried to get our kids to eat healthy or try new healthy options.  Kids are naturally curious, so tap into that when presenting a new food.  And if all else fails, they’ll at least see how much you are enjoying the dish and sometimes, that’s all it takes. 

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