Does your kitchen table turn into a battleground, and your child into a master manipulator and/or negotiator every evening around dinnertime?

For many parents, getting kids to eat something other than chicken strips and french fries can be a daily battle. But how do parents encourage kids to eat healthily without turning mealtime into misery?

“The key is to start early,” says St. John’s dietitian Dana Nippes, RD, LD, who has taught a class on picky eaters for the Women, Infants and Children’s program (WIC). “It’s important to offer toddlers lots of different types of foods and let them see you eat and enjoy a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Although babies get a lot of fruits and veggies in their baby food, once they start eating table food, what you eat is going to be a big influence on what they eat.”

Persistence in serving different foods also is important. Try new foods over and over again, even if your child rejects it initially. It may take 10-20 tries over the course of many meals before a child eventually learns to like a new food.

Avoid fixing separate meals to cater to picky eaters’ tastes, but make sure to include in every meal at least one item the child likes. Don’t bribe kids with dessert or make dessert the focal point of the meal. Serve fruit as a dessert instead of something sugary, Nippes advises.

“Many kids go through a picky phase, and will even turn their backs on foods they liked as younger children, especially once they start school,” Nippes says. “But never coerce, bribe or make a big deal out of rejection of a food. Kids often use mealtime as a way to get attention or something else they want from their parents … but they know when enough’s enough and they need to eat. They won’t starve, even if they don’t eat anything on their plate at that particular meal. Meals should be a time for family bonding and catching up with each other at the end of the day, not a battleground or a hassle,” she adds.

TIPS

• Chop up or shred veggies and mix into pasta sauce, lasagna, casseroles, soup, chili, burritos, omelets, stir fry, or use as pizza toppings. For example, shredded carrots or zucchini are great in muffins, meatloaf, or meatballs.

• Serve veggies as an appetizer. If dinner is a few minutes away, have the family sit down to the table for the vegetable for the night; raw veggies and light salad dressing, or even frozen peas or corn are fun.

• Visit the farmer’s market and let children pick out a new vegetable or fruit to try.

• Offer “no thank you” bites. Each family member places at least one bite of each food on their plate, are required to try it and either say “no thank you,” or “thank you, more please.”

• Remember presentation. Sometimes the shape of the food and how it is presented makes all the difference. Think grape or cherry tomatoes or use a cookie cutter to make foods look more appealing or interesting.

• Be a role model. Avoid grimacing at the sight of vegetables or stating how much you dislike them in front of the children. Serve dinner at the table every night, not in front of the TV.

• Make the food taste good. Avoid overcooking, and use olive oil or a little margarine and herbs, spices, or kosher salt to flavor.

• Never coerce or bribe or make a big deal out of rejection of a food. Children love attention. Avoid reacting in a frustrated manner when a food is rejected.

• Let your child help. Kids love to help, and they may be more willing to try a few bites of a new food if they helped prepare it.

• Describe to please. Saying carrots are delicious and sweet, or milk is refreshing, may be more persuading than telling a child how good they are for them.

OFFER CHOICES ...
Offer kids a choice between two different fruits or two vegetables.


FUN WITH FRUIT
• Change things up, for an after-school snack mix fruit up into a delicious smoothie. Mix 1 cup of 100 percent fruit juice, half a ripe banana, a handful of frozen fruit like strawberries and half a cup of yogurt. Blend well and serve with whole grain crackers or graham crackers.

• Make fruit salad for dessert.

• Add fruit to sack lunch, or have available for snacks.

• Make freezer pops out of carrot/fruit juice blends.

• Offer fruit first in the morning, by itself or on cereal.

• Add one extra veggie and fruit serving each day. Instead of serving just the main course, always offer a vegetable or fruit, or both.