Top Meals for Picky Eaters

Here's the advise we followed from my son's Pediatrician:

1. Cut out all snacks(no crackers, cookies, cereal bars, muffins ect) and have your child only eat at set eating times.

2. Cut out all fruit.

3. Serve vegetables with every meal.

4. Your child must eat whatever the family is eating-no substitutes.

5. At mealtime, set a timer for 20 minutes. Your child has 10 minutes to take a bite and 20 minutes to finish the meal. If no eating has occurred in 10 minutes time, the meal is now over and the food is taken away.

6. If your child doesn't eat their whole meal, serve the left overs for snack along with vegetables.

Ask any parent out there, we’ve all been through many food battles with our picky eating toddlers. It’s frustrating for us because when it comes to feeding our kids, we can’t force them to eat. Food for picky eaters is impossible! The power is in the hands of your kids and that just makes us feel, well a little crazy, right?

After almost completely giving up on feeding my toddler all together and after beginning to give in to his particular food demands I came to a realization. I realized that my toddler was becoming the one who was calling the shots, at least in the eating department. And when you have a toddler in charge of what's being eaten, there will most certainly not be any vegetables and meat being consumed by him. My boy was eating a very unhealthy diet of bread, cheese, crackers, fruit and peanut butter. There wasn't a way in hell I could convince him to even try a bite of a vegetable or a morsel of meat. Healthy recipes for picky eaters, like my little one, can certainly be made but there's no point if your child won't actually eat healthy food.

Now that you're hopefully making some progress with getting your child to eat a variety of foods with the new "starve or eat what I serve you" plan, let's talk about preparing some healthy and nutritious meals for picky eaters. When it comes to preparing food for picky eaters, it's important for you to have a succinct, well laid out plan for what to feed your little one/little ones. Remember, you're the one in charge, right? Here's a mantra I remind myself of daily:

1. You (the parent or caregiver) are the one in charge of what food you're serving to your kid/kids.
2. Your child/children's job is to decide how much to eat and at what pace. (Of course, use timers if you need to as many kids are gifted in the art of stalling.
3. You are not a short order cook. Your job is not to make separate meals for your kid/kids. Your kids should be eating what you're eating.

When it comes to food for picky eaters, sometimes texture does matter. One thing that has saved us around here is adding vegetable purees to the main course or dish. Especially spaghetti sauce. You can put anything in spaghetti sauce, and in smoothies.Our go to cook book with kid and family friendly recipes, Deceptively Delicious, advocates heavily the idea of adding in veggie purees. In fact, keeping a well stocked fridge/freezer full of a variety of blended vegetables is a great way to get in the essentials into your kids.

Our favorite healthy recipes for picky eaters (aka, our pre-schooler) are pumpkin blueberry pancakes, zucchini muffins (dairy free, sugar free), oatmeal with fruit and homemade pizza.

When it comes to providing food for picky eaters, it's important to set your child up for success. When it comes to dinners for picky eaters, or breakfast, or lunch or snacks, here are some guidelines that may increase the likelihood of healthy eating:

• Always serve one thing that your child actually likes.
• Don't bribe your child with dessert if they eat all their food. They have enough pressure as it is.
• Don't instantly praise your child after taking a bite, be neutral or don't say anything at all. Remember, no pressure.