How can you get a child who wants white bread, milk, cheese, and chicken to eat a healthful diet you ask? Well, we start by having no unhealthy foods in the house. We also take effort to prepare meals that she’s used to like spaghetti. She doesn’t even notice the whole wheat pasta, but she does notice the lack of meat. Rather than the missing meat being a problem for her, it leads her to making requests from the items she sees us eating.

children model your behavior

At our most recent meal we made her a simple tomato based whole-wheat pasta dish with some broccoli and peanut sauce (no-salt peanut butter) dip that we know she likes. For ourselves we added kale and onions to the sauce to make a real treat. Several minutes into the meal my niece made a delightful, yet simple request, “Can I have some of that green stuff?” I replied telling her that she was asking for the kale that we had bought at the farmers market together earlier and gave her a little to try. She ate it with a happy, “I like kale!”

substitute for old favorites

When she won’t eat what we have, we offer her choices that are familiar to her like, “milk” (soy or rice which she happily drinks as milk) or eggs (scrambled tofu). We will soon tell her that these favorites of hers aren’t actually milk and eggs.

when all else fails

When she’s feeling picky or unhappy with the choices on her plate, or my haphazard cooking ability, I open the fridge and the cabinets and let her choose something she likes to eat. Since all the food in our house is healthy, no matter what she picks, she will get a healthy meal.

No related posts.

I’m currently reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book, Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right, and I came across a passage that Dr. Fuhrman refers to as his “program” for getting picky eaters to eat healthy foods, but it is so simple and straightforward that it’s just great advice for parents and non-parents alike. Dr. Fuhrman was consulting a mother as a family physician. The mother said that her child would only eat foods like cookies and french fries. Dr. Fuhrman writes:

I explained to Mrs. Tenenbaum that if I took her son home with me for a few weeks, where cookies and pretzels would not be present, he would not starve to death. She disagreed. She believed Billy had to be given what he wanted or he would not eat. I finally convinced her that if she removed all the unhealthy food from her refrigerator and cupboard and instead stocked up with raw nuts, fresh vegetables, corn, sweet potatoes, peas, and fresh fruit, Billy would have no choice but to try some other food to relieve his hunger. Mrs. Tenenbaum agreed to give this a try.

Billy was distressed for the next twenty-four hours and he did not eat. He complained and threw a tantrum. His mom, frantic and unhappy with my advice, phoned me. I convinced her to stick with it a little longer. Billy eventually tried one or two healthy foods that were available, starting with an entire banana and a fresh corn on the cob. He hadn’t touched these foods since he was in diapers. Of course, Billy’s mom was still nervous that he was eating so little, but he ate enough food to maintain his body weight. Within a few weeks he was consuming larger amounts of food, and within a short time, he was consuming the same number of calories as he had before, only now he was eating a healthy diet.

Related:

• Getting Kids to Eat Healthy
• Vegan Kids
• Eating Junk Food