Guest Guru- Piera Jolly of JollyMom.com Shares Ideas for Getting Kids to Eat Healthily

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Getting your toddler to eat healthy

My son, Lucas is 21 months old and I have had on and off food battles with him pretty much since he started solids. Sometimes he eats a lot…like more than his dad…and sometimes I can barely get a bite into him. One day, he loves his veggies and hates chicken. The other…well, you get the idea! I’m sure I am not the only mom who goes through these food battles so here are some tips I have picked up over time on how to get your toddler to eat healthy:

1. If your child is still a baby, then now is really the time to begin healthy eating habits. Feed your baby a variety of healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

2. Teach your children to eat healthy by showing them that you eat healthy too. Grab a piece of fruit or a veggie and enjoy it in front of them. Tell them how good it tastes. Offer them a bite.

3. Pretend you are a sales person and “sell” healthy food to your kids. For example, tell your child that when they finish their lunch or dinner you have a delicious treat for them. Serve them a piece of fruit.

4. Keep offering rejected foods to your child. Set it on their plate or tray along with a food your child does like. If they reject it, do not stress out and definitely do not react to it. However, if your child does take a bite, then give him/her a lot of praise.

5. Hide fruits and vegetables into other foods. Grate carrots or other veggies into a pasta sauce. Grate apples into mealoaf.

6. Be creative with the foods you serve. Think outside of how you would normally eat a certain food. My son hated creamed spinach, but loves spinach nuggets.

7. Don’t assume your child won’t like a certain food. I thought Lucas would hate olives (because I hate them), but he loves them. He also loves onions, peppers, chick peas, lettuce, and many other things I never thought a toddler would like.

8. Limit convenience foods as much as possible. Make your own “lunchables”. They will be less processed if your buy your own block of cheese and deli meat and cube it yourself. Try healthier convenience foods such as cinnamon rice cakes, yogurt covered fruit, whole grain crackers with a fruit spread, or raisins as “sweet treats”.

9. Don’t give in to food strikes! Children like to use food as a way of showing their independence, but they will not starve themselves.

10. If all else fails, a little bribery won’t hurt either-LOL! Of course, this option can only be used sparingly!

Truthfully, some days NONE of these things work at all and I just have to take a deep breath and know that it is ok.

If your child is not eating enough then try to avoid these common mistakes:

Drinking more than 16-24 ounces of milk each day.

Drinking more than 4-6 ounces of juice each day.

Letting your child fill up on sweets and snacks.

Forcing your child to eat when he isn’t hungry.

Giving servings that are too big. The average toddler serving is going to be about 1/4 of an adult serving size. Don’t go by the serving size listed on nutrition labels, as these are mainly for older children and adults.

Click here for a list of toddler friendly snacks and meals.

Piera Jolly is the owner of JollyMom.com a mommy blog with lots of Product Reviews, inspiration, and giveaways.

www.jollymom.com

Posted by Alicia on May 11, 2009 print article e-mail to a friend

http://www.gograhamgo.com Felicia

Thank you Piera for all the fabulous tips! I love the idea of being a sales person and really “talking up” the good food!
http://growingababyinseattle.blogspot.com Carrie

Those are good tips- this is definitely something we struggle with at our household. My son would live on peanut butter crackers if I let him, and it’s a fight to get him to eat anything else!
Beth

Very good ideas. I think that they will be a definite help to anyone with a toddler. I like the pointers about what to do when your child is not eating enough and the common mistakes made.
Tia

I really like the section of the article that includes common mistakes to avoid and the list of toddler friendly snacks and meals.
http://www.goodtrueandbeautiful.com Sharon

Good tips!

I have also found that letting my 1 year old eat on his own with finger foods helps. He might not like the first bite, but after a few minutes he starts to eat it. He even tried some salmon on Mother’s Day! If I had reacted to the first bite (which he took out of his mouth and put back on the tray) I would have lost the chance to see him devour it a few minutes later!
Ann

I totally agree with you about putting the rejected food on the plate over and over. It’s almost like they become desensitized to it and start eating it after a while. Your tips are great!
renee

Great tips! I am going to show them to a friend who is having food battles with her daughter–I think she may be making the too much milk mistake and it’s causing her daughter not to eat.
http://www.kcbechers.blogspot.com Casey Becher

I have twins and one is picky eater and the other is an eating machine, so don’t beat yourself up if you have a fussy eater. Sometimes, that’s just who they are. Some tips that have worked for me:

1. Let them pick out their own fruits at the grocery store. He’ll be much more excited about eating his apple that he picked out himself.

2. Play Fancy Restaurant. Pretend you are the waitress and use a funny French accent. “How wuz zee carrot? Did you like eet?”

3. Make funny faces out of the food or cut in into cool shapes.

4. Let her help make dinner. Little ones can measure and pour.

Obviously, no one has the time or energy to do this stuff all the time. For me, it just seems like my son (and I) need the occasional reminder that eating can be fun. Even with a picky eater.
http://jennbeeler.blogspot.com Jenn Beeler

Wonderful post! My baby is 5 months and I made the decision to make all of her baby food so the transition would be easier for myself when it came time to offer her fresh, yummy foods as a toddler. It’s been great and she eats so many foods that you can’t buy as pre-made baby foods–avocados, mangoes, papayas, kale, rutabaga…all kinds of things (plus the more obvious pears, carrots, etc.).
Sara

My daughter is 10 months old and we are already trying so hard to start her off with healthy eating habits. I loved your tips and I do notice that she wants to eat everything we eat so I make sure to eat healthy in front of her and share the fruit and veg I am eating. This is such an important foundation for her future. Thanks for all your suggestions!
http://www.debthompsonphotography.com/blog Deb Thompson

Thanks for sharing these wonderful tips
http://www.getbuttonedup.com Sarah Welch

What a great article Piera! I have a picky 2 1/2 year old eater at home, and I think your tip #8 is so spot on (as is your #11 – we have a few of those days where we just have to remember to let it go!).

One tough thing for working moms is policing what caregivers sneak into their tummies when you’re not looking. We found that we had to stop buying any frozen yogurt for me (even though I’m 6 months pregnant and craving it) because our nanny couldn’t resist Will’s pleas for frozen yogurt and he was getting a bowl of it before dinner! No wonder he wasn’t eating his spinach.
http://frugalfrontporch.blogspot.com Jennifer at Frugal Front Porch

I use a lot of these techniques and they work rather well. I learned them the hard way after my oldest became a super picky eater once she started school. My youngest two are great eaters and aren’t picky at all.

I can testify it’s so much easier to raise a good eater from the start rather than trying to convert a picky eater down the road!
http://ourjacobsenfamily.blogspot.com AJacobsen

Great tips! We were firm believers in starting them early, and it seems to have paid off so far. My kids all love fruit (although I think most kids do), but they do great with veggies too, esp my middle child. She LOVES broccoli and carrots. =)
Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook has great (and unique) ways of “hiding” veggies in foods. It’s amazing the things she’s come up with!
http://ourjacobsenfamily.blogspot.com AJacobsen

Oops, spelled reasonable wrong. =)~