We all know the struggles and hardships that come from feeding our young kids something nutritious. More often than not, kids will gravitate towards fast food and less healthy options when it comes to meal times. Trying to combat so much fatty foods in their diets can be tricky, but there are some tips and tricks that can help keep your kids a little more healthy when it comes to food choices.
Understanding Their Pickiness
Knowing why your child doesn’t like a particular food can help you navigate towards something they do like. Kids may not like a particular food because of the taste, but it can also be a certain texture that throws them off of eating certain foods. For instance, they may like the taste of strawberries but don’t like the rough exterior of them. You can then blend some strawberries to make a smoothie so they can still get the fruit in their diet but they don’t have to deal with the texture of strawberries.
If it’s a problem of taste, it can be tricky working around that, but it also doesn’t hurt in trying that food a year or two down the road to see if their tastebuds change and they like the flavor after all. You can also retry foods that they don’t like the texture as this can change over time as well. They may grow out of disliking certain textures or develop different ones, so you can alter some foods around to keep them eating better and more regularly.
Variety
Kids will inevitably be picky when it comes to their food, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just more of an inconvenient thing. You’ll have to try a little more at meal times to find foods they like that are also a little more healthy, like fruits and vegetables. Since kids often enjoy sweets, having them try a variety of fruits can help them get a better, more nutritious form of sugar than candy and chocolate.
Trying a variety of foods in each category can feel like a pain initially, but can save you time and resources later on when it comes to meal prep. Keeping a good variety of food handy for each meal can help combat your kid’s picky tendencies by giving them more options. It can also help broaden them so that they may not end up being as picky since there are more foods that they do enjoy, and you can add them to your kitchen repertoire.
Katie Kyzivat