Tips for Raising an Adventurous Eater
Kids’ menus are filled with mundane options: the ubiquitous “kid’s food,” such as pizza, chicken nuggets, mac ‘n cheese and fries. You don’t want your toddler to grow up having this limited eating experience. Refine his tastebuds so he’s willing to take risks with his palate. An adventurous eater enjoys new tastes and doesn’t turn up his nose if a food isn’t covered in ketchup.
But, how do you do right by your child and teach him to take culinary risks? There’s no right tactic, but the following can certainly help encourage a brave eating style:
Make Your Own Baby Food: Start your child out trying new tastes early on. Bypass the jarred foods; mash avocado, make homemade applesauce or finely chop homemade pasta with marinara. When your child can sit up, chunks of banana, soft peaches or cooked sweet potato make good snacks. Serving food in as close to its natural state as possible helps a child become “familiar with real foods and their texture. Things are not mixed together and blended up into a purée,” explains Cheyenne Victoria Woods, a professional childcare provider with a degree in Nutrition from the University of New Mexico. At the early stages in which you’re just introducing solids, still stick to “one food at a time so he doesn’t feel overwhelmed or out of control,” says Woods. It also gives you a chance to determine if any allergies exist.
Feed Your Kids What You Eat: Once you’re past the infancy stage and have introduced solid food, invite your child to have what you’re having. If you don’t make a big deal about serving him vegetable lasagna, Osso Bucco or Coq au Vin, he won’t think twice about eating it. Introduce new tastes with familiar foods – the veal shanks with plain rice or the chicken stew with roasted potatoes, for example. You’ll expose him to flavors – which he may not like right away – so the familiar ones provide comfort and reduce the pressure at mealtime.
Cook One Meal: It’s easy to get into the habit of making chicken nuggets for the kids, while mom and dad enjoy Pesto chicken. Make one meal and stick to it. You can adapt by serving the sauce on the side, so your child can try it, if he really has an aversion, can opt for plain versions. “We as adults don’t like everything, so why should we expect a child to like everything?” points out Neelia Miller, a Family Nurse Practitioner in Colorado. Your child might actually become less adventurous of an eater if he thinks of new food as an “all or nothing” venture.
Exercise Patience: Encourage, but don’t force, your child to taste one bite of everything at least. “It takes multiple attempts before a child can be ready to try a new food,” explains Woods. You may need to try offering it often for several weeks with other familiar foods, before he’ll even try it – let alone like it. When it feels like it’s not her choice, she might learn to associate new foods with negative emotions, or even fear it.
Don’t Force a Clean Plate: Never force a child to clear her plate. Children are often grazers by nature and large servings overwhelm a small stomach. Children also have very good hunger and fullness cues. As Woods points out, “we have to trust the child when they say they are full.” Making them eat more than they want disturbs their innate ability to determine food intake and could set them up for overeating.
Andrea Cespedes is a professionally trained chef and a Certified Nutrition Therapy Practitioner. With more than 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, she coaches cycling and running as well as teaches. She is an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer, ERYT-200 and has degrees from Princeton and Columbia University. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
