A few weeks ago, I promised to share some of my secrets to get a picky eater eating more than 2 foods. This is what came of that: The Sneaky Mama’s Guide. I welcome questions on your picky eating problems and I will share a one or two recipes each week until I run out of all my picky eating ideas! I hope it is helpful.
I cannot pretend to have all the answers for getting your picky eater to eat. I do hope however, that over the course of several weeks you find at least one tidbit in this guest blog series that might help you in feeding your picky eater. With that said, I will also say that this blog is not for the mama of the occasional picky eater. You know, the one who kind of doesn’t want this today or would prefer pizza instead of a ham sandwich. You too may find some nuggets of wisdom, but you may find it hard to believe why a mama would go through so much trouble to sneak in some healthy foods. Why? Because you only have an occasional picky eater.
No, this blog is for the mamas of SERIOUSLY picky eaters. This blog is for the parents of children who survive on 2 or 3 foods–EXCLUSIVELY. This blog is especially for parents for whom the old addage, “Just try a bite,“ won’t work. Why would a parent go through so much trouble? Read on. . .
Our Picky Eater Story
Like a good mother, I tried to feed my daughter solid foods at six months only to be met with dismal failure. She puked. Not gagged, not spit it out and let it slide down her chin. Puke. Full blown, projectile type vomit. She happily nursed, was gaining weight and so we put the baby spoons and jarred food away. Then we tried again, and again, and again, and again until finally at 13 months and 6 teeth later she was able to do what I had begun to think was impossible: my daughter swallowed her first bite of baby food!
Fast forward to two foods later and several days and weeks of vomiting at the dinner table and we finally figured it out: we could not make her try things. This was not a case of your normal picky eating. This was a case of severe sensitivity to texture and smell–everything made this kid gag. Equally important to her learning how to eat, was her learning how not to vomit when she gagged.
I know–yucky stuff to talk about in a food blog. But my point is this: she is a seriously picky child. She doesn’t like fruits. She doesn’t like vegetables. She doesn’t like meat–except for lightly breaded and seasoned baked chicken fingers (that yes, I make from scratch). She likes baked French fries without the skins, but not corn, carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes–nothing. She also doesn’t like candy, cake and she only likes plain chocolate ice cream. What’s worse is that if she has a bad experience with a food–if it makes her gag or is anyway associated with something unpleasant–she can’t eat that food anymore. That’s how we lost spaghetti in our list of acceptable foods: she gagged on one of the long noodles.
She will eat: pizza, chicken, fries and chocolate milk shakes. This does not leave a lot to work with.
She was recently diagnosed with something with a very fancy name that basically means that her taste buds are really sensitive as is her gag reflex, and her ability to upchuck is better than her ability to keep foods down. All of this leads me to tip #1:
#1. Have Your Child Medically Evaluated
It could be that there is something medically wrong. Knowing this will not help you get more fruits and veggies into his system. But it will help you know how to approach the problem.
#2. Avoid a Power Struggle
You cannot force your child to eat anything. Ultimately, in the end, it is he who chooses whether or not to swallow. Telling your child they must sit there and eat it until it’s gone won’t work. (Note: This is one distinction between the picky and the seriously picky eater. This strategy will work for the normal picky eater.)
What we have always done is allowed our daughter to choose between some reasonable options after dinner if she didn’t want what was being served. Not only that but she had to sit at the dinner table with us and watch us eat. This has had the advantage of encouraging her to try a few new foods here and there when she’s really hungry. Now that she’s older, we ask that she take care of making her own food (if necessary) as well as cleaning it up.
#3. Embrace the Advice of Mary Poppins
Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. . .
I’m not advocating feeding your kids tons of sugar here. I am merely pointing out that in the case of the seriously picky eater, you can use a little sugar to help coax a try. Try covering something with applesauce, honey (for toddlers only), and yes, even some brown sugar. (You can use plan old granulated sugar if need be too but brown sugar is “healthier” if you can describe sugar as healthy.) Freeze a fruit with a little sugar to make popsicles. Try mixing fruit or veggies into a milkshake! Don’t ever give your kids sugar without any redeeming nutritional value. (Even ice cream is a great source of calcium!)
#4. Pass the condiments please!
Ketchup and lettuce? Hey, whatever works with these seriously picky eaters is worth the effort. B-B-Q sauce, mustard, ketchup, honey, peanut butter–you name it! Be careful with both honey and peanut butter–consult your pediatrician first before offering these foods. In most cases, it is fine to offer either to children older than a year.
#5. Juice It!
You’d be surprised what kids will drink but won’t eat. It’s a texture thing. Even my daughter, by-the-way, will drink V-8 splash. One glass of that counts as a serving of fruits & veggetables.
It’s important when you’re looking at juices to make sure that it doesn’t have a ton of sugar and is 100% real juice. You may also want to consider a juicing machine if you think you’ll use it. We love ours and make all sorts of interesting and kid friendly things out of it. (Carrot soda anyone?)
#6. Maximize the Nutritional Value of What He Will Eat
So your little one will only eat mac ‘n cheese? So find a home made recipe that he’ll eat. Even if you have to buy the cheese sauce, you can still use whole wheat pasta. So he’ll only eat sandwiches? Find the best multi-grain bread you can, use peanut butter without sugar–whatever it takes. Chicken nuggets? Make them from scratch so your kid is eating real chicken instead of “processed chicken parts”. Do the best you can to cut down on the processed foods your child will eat.
#7. Keep trying
It is o.k. to repeatedly offer foods and it is o.k. for your child to repeatedly refuse them. Especially if the issue is medical, or even if your child just has an overly sensitive gag reflex, or is sensitive to texture–getting over it will take some time. My daughter gets her eating issues from my husband, who according to my mother-in-law, was almost 13 before he started to grow out of gagging on his food.
#8. Don’t create pickiness by your attitude
Have you always cut the crusts off of bread for your child, or had to have your own food just so? Your kids pick up on your attitudes and it only makes things worse. Remember that just because you don’t like a food–doesn’t mean that your child won’t. Case in point: my husband and I both hate lima beans. I cannot think of a grosser thing to cook for dinner. Then one day, while my children were at gardening class, they got to pick some lima beans fresh from the garden. Proud of their booty, they wanted me to fix them for dinner. Guess what? They like them! Who knew? My face cringes even as I write this. But the point is: don’t assume your kids won’t like something just because you won’t. You just never know.
#9. Sneak it in.
You can grind up all manner of green vegetables and add them to the batter. Spinach biscuits anyone? Rutabega pancakes? Carrots especially, are suitable for grinding up and sneaking into things because they are naturally sweet, as are rutabagas. You’d think they’d notice some ground up spinach. . .but they don’t. My seriously picky eater doesn’t like hamburgers, but I have a friend who grinds up broccoli and spinach and adds it to her hamburger mixture. You totally can’t even tell it’s in there! And yes, it still counts–even though it’s ground up.
Are you suffering with a seriously picky eater? Look for a few recipes next week to try out on your little picky one.