Help your picky eater enjoy healthy eating by teaching them to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables.
Struggling to feed a picky eater is exhausting. Most kids are picky about certain foods, but having a kid whose list of foods they will eat is longer than the ones they won’t eat is the worst. You have to feel bad for them, though, when you can tell that they are really not trying to be difficult. They want to like food. But they have a hard time finding things they like to eat.
Feeding a picky eater can be beyond frustrating. Many meals start and end in tears – both parent and kids. You are concerned that they aren’t being properly nourished because of the small amount of foods they will actually eat. If you are struggling with a picky eater, here are a few tips to make your life a little easier – and get them to eat a little more.
1. Take Advantage of Meals Your Picky Eater Likes
Whatever meal your picky eater loves, take advantage of it. If they love to eat eggs for breakfast, serve breakfast for dinner. School lunch can sometimes be a good time to get them to eat. All of their friends are eating and they are hungry. Take advantage of that and pack some fruits and veggies they love.
2. Limit Snacking
This is a hard one, but in order to tell if your kids truly doesn’t like a food, they need to be hungry at meal time. This means snacking needs to be limited. When kids are really, truly hungry for a meal, they will eat food they claim they don’t like. This also includes any food eaten after dinner.
3. Serve Foods They Like
If there is one healthy food your picky eater likes, take advantage of it and serve it a lot. If the only veggie they will eat is carrots, then serve carrots often. Most kids love carbs. Include carbs they like to encourage eating.
4. Let It Go
In the words of Elsa, you have to let it go. Don’t take it personally. Let your kids each make their own choice as to what they want to eat. Of course, you still control what is an option to eat, but in general, if they don’t want to eat it, let it go. When they get hungry enough, they will eat.
5. Help them learn to Eat A Rainbow
Young kids particularly love rainbows. Use that to teach them to EAT a rainbow. Make this a daily or weekly challenge to eat different colors of fruits and veggies. Of course, that means you have to have a bunch of colorful food around, too. This eat a rainbow idea is actually great for the entire family. It’ll help all of to you get out of a rut and try new foods.
This Eat A Rainbow packet is geared towards younger kids, but it’s great for the whole family. The food sheet will help kids get an idea of different fruits and veggies they can eat.
There are two different food trackers they can choose from to use depending on age. One they color in when they eat a certain color food. The other one gives your kids a place to list the foods they ate. That’s also a great tool for a little extra spelling practice.
The packet also includes info on why we eat foods of different colors; coloring pages; and a few other activity sheets. Sign up for our newsletter and get the packet for free!