Picky Eaters: Fun Ways To Keep Your Kids Eating Well

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As a parent, it can be pretty frustrating when your kids are fussy with their food. Not only do you want to make sure that they’re healthy, but it can be pretty hard work to try and organize your groceries and cooking when you have no idea what they’ll eat. Some days are always easier than others. Because some days they’ll eat certain things, then others they just won’t. And it can be pretty tiresome to keep on top of. But when you get to a point when you just want them to eat, and eat well, you should try the fun approach.

Because sometimes, trying to force things as the parent, or allowing everyone to get stressed out, is just not going to work. Instead, you have to try a tactic that could either fool them or just be a lot of fun for them to get involved with. So whether you’re getting tired of trying to find a solution, or you just want to take a different approach, we’re going to look at some ways that you can keep your kids eating well, especially if they’re picky. And when you find that one or all of these ideas work, you’ll finally be able to get creative with your cooking once again!

Focus On Color

As you’ll know, kids can get really creeped out when it comes to different foods. So, where you can, you need to try and make it more of a game for them. If you can try and make things feel fun, they may forget about the fears they have about certain foods or the way they taste or feel in their mouths. Color can help with this. So pull together a rainbow plate of foods for them. You could even make it feel more magical too, so that they appear more interested in the plate than afraid of it.

Have Fun With Presentation

You could also consider playing around with the presentation a little bit. Just take a look at these creative food for kids ideas to inspire you. Because you may find that working with faces on the plate, or creating different animals can make food and mealtimes fun for them and encourage them to try new things. It will be a game of trial and error to see what will work for them and what might creep them out, but in general, fun presentation seems to win them over.

Get Them To Pitch In

Sometimes, the reason kids get picky in the first place is that they have no idea what they’re eating. And that’s often enough to put anyone off. So why not think about letting them see how things are made - and even help out too. From helping you to plan meals to wash vegetables and even sprinkle on seasonings, there’s a lot that even your youngest kids can help out with.

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Educate Them About Food

Next up, you should definitely think about educating them more about food. From what certain things are to where they come from, they may find it interesting to learn it all. So you should definitely look to learn more about the different ingredients you could use, from seafood to exotic vegetables. Because sometimes, these can actually appeal to your kids and not freak them out.

Grocery Shop With Them

Letting them help out and cook with you is definitely one great way to make sure that they become more educated about good. But you can also do it when you take your kids grocery shopping too. This can be a stressful event for some parents, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it can be great to help them learn about food, and become more interested in meals right from the start. You just need to make sure you prepare yourself for the experience, and time your visits well too.

Play Around With Sauces

You could also try working with different sauces too. So they say they don’t like broccoli? But what about if it's served with a healthy homemade dip? Then, they may be able to get on board with it. Then, as they get older, you’ll be able to take away the sauces, and they’ll soon realize that they do like the food itself after all.

Try Different Cutting Styles

You could also try out different cutting techniques to mix things up a little. From slicing in different shapes and using cookie cutters to make foods more fun, you could find that a little creativity is all it takes to make them want to try new things. Plus, if they are helping you out to do this in the kitchen, they may be more excited to eat the fun things they made too.

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Switch Up Meal Times

Another idea that can work for a lot of kids is to mix up your mealtimes. Sometimes, they don’t want dinner, but will find it super fun to have breakfast food at this time of day instead. So serve up pancakes, bacon and eggs if it means they’ll eat it all up. And then the next day do something lunch-like for breakfast. It could be just silly enough to work!

Let Them Write The Menu

Why not let them choose what’s for dinner every now and again? This isn’t giving them full control, but by letting each of your kids pick their favorite meal for dinner a few nights each week, you should find they get more interested in the idea of cooking and eating. And it also removes the idea of force and control from the equation too.

Grow Your Own

Finally, you could also think about growing your own vegetables too. This is another super fun way to get them more involved in food and cooking. Kids love to grow veggies, and they can get interested in picking them out of the garden, preparing them, cooking them, and seeing how well they did by eating them too. It’s simple, but effective.