Recently, I talked a little about the struggle we experienced while trying to get our 6-year old son to try new foods. For most of his life, his preferred foods could have been counted on the fingers of two hands: Chicken nuggets, pizza, bread, peas, corn, apples, and a few other items.
A couple of months ago, though, that changed. My husband and I were watching an episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution – you know, that show where he went to a town in West Virgnia and tried to get the people there to change their eating habits. As we watched, we realized that we’ve been dropping the ball on the kid’s food; that we’ve become lazy, and have given up trying to get him to eat a more rounded diet. So that night we made a vow to start introducing more, different foods to him.
It started the next night, with some cheeseburgers on the grill (I swear, this is the only kid in America who has to be begged to eat a cheeseburger!). Accompanying the burgers were c ouple of salads, including a tossed salad. We told him to try the lettuce (I think we mentioned that rabbits eat lettuce), and to our shock, he ate it – and liked it (for the record, it was Boston lettuce, which is tender and a bit sweeter, so that probbaly helped). Then, without being asked, he took the tomatoes off his father’s plate and ate them. And liked them!
We viewed this as the opportunity of a lifetime, and ever since, have been insisting he at least try everything we make for dinner every night. We no longer make him chicken nuggets or noodles with butter when we are cooking a meal we know he might not like. Instead, we simply tell him that he has to try everything (telling him he can spit it out if he doesn’t like it seems to do the trick), and that if he doesn’t eat what we made for dinner, he’s not going to get anything else. He’s resisted, of course, like any good 6-year old, but for the most part he has liked 99% of what we’ve made. I do make some concessions for him; I don’t put dressing on his salad, because he doesn’t like the sour taste of vinegar, and if we’re having a very spicy dish, I leave the spices off of his food. But other than that, he’s tried (and liked) almost everything else.
I know a lot of people struggle with ways to get their kids to try new foods, so I’ve come up with some ideas for you to try. I hope at least one of these works!
1. Start from where they are. Whenever anyone tells me their kid doesn’t like ANYthing, I ask them to list the things they like. Usually the list is a little longer than mom and dad realized; a kid who “only eats toast and noodles” turns out to actually like oranges, peanut butter, green beans, and cucumbers too. If you find yourself saying “my kid only eats X and Y”, sit down with a pen and paper and list EVERYTHING your child eats. Nine times out of ten, I’d bet the list is just a bit longer than you realized. Make sure that you include “forms” of food too; sandwiches, fried stuff, and “anything with a crust” should all be on the list. Then, start introducing foods that are “related” to the ones they like. If they like sandwiches, make them a sandwich with slightly different foods than they’re used to. Include some veggies, or different meats and cheeses. If they like soup, try different flavors of soup. Doing this will give the new food some sense of familiarity, because it’s mixed in with foods (or in a form) they already know.
2. Let them participate in the cooking. I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love to help out in the kitchen. Take advantage of that natural attraction, and let them help you make some of the meal. Of course, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. The wrong way is to let them help on a night when you’re in a rush, or expecting important company, or stressed out about something. The right way is to pick a night when you have a little more time, when the results of the cooking don’t matter quite as much, and when you can give them the attention they need. Read my article on this topic for more tips.
3. Insist they try EVERYTHING. The rule in our house is, he has to try everything at least once. If it’s an item he’s tried before, we STILL make him try it. It can take 15-20 times of kids trying a new food before they’ll realize they like it, and sometimes preparing it a different way can be all it takes. We do have a couple of exceptions to this rule: we don’t insist that our son eat most very sour or spicy things, because we feel that’s not just picky eating but rather an age-related preference. He’s never been one of those kids who eats pickles or hot sauce, so we’re willing to forgo those tastes for now. And the one thing we do that makes this rule work is this: He can spit it out if he doesn’t like it. That way, he knows he won’t be forced to eat food he legitimately dislikes, as long as he gives it a shot (and “giving it a shot” doesn’t mean spitting it out immediately, but rather giving it a couple of chews first). Oh, and try to avoid saying, “S/He won’t like it” when talking about your kids and new foods. Kids pick up on those negative messages. Even if it’s something you know they probably won’t like, be positive – after all, three months ago I would’ve said “he won’t like it” when asked about most of the stuff my kid eats today.
4. Let them know they have choices. Kids (especially as they grow older) need to feel they have some sense of control over their lives. Giving them choices during mealtimes is an easy way to let them have a semblance of this control. I’m not saying you should let them pick the menu; rather, let them pick a side dish, or let them decide how it should be prepared. For example, let them decide between peas or corn, or let them pick whether to have mashed potatoes or oven-fried. All the choices you offer can be healthy ones. Another option is to let them pick a meal one night a week. You can have certain rules about it; for instance, there have to be two veggies in the meal, or it can’t be chicken again because you just had that last night. But giving them options when it comes to their food can be a way to bypass their resistance, and maybe get them to try more foods.
5. Respect those choices. As I said above, it often takes several tries of a new food before kids will discover they like it. But if your child is willingly trying new foods, and decides that there are certain foods they just really don’t like, respect those choices – at least for now. For example, I find that food preferences tied to texture (such as slimy mangos) or very strong flavors (such as very spicy or sour foods) are ones that I’ll not push the kid on. We’ll revisit those foods in the future; I like to give him 6 months or so for his tastes to evolve, but for the most part I won’t force him to eat them. However, if he’s refusing to even try something that he’s never had before, that isn’t in that category of foods I know he doesn’t like, or that he’s had but in a different form (such as sweet potatoes, jicama, or radishes), I’ll make him try it.
I know this is a challenge for a lot of parents – us included. But don’t give up – the day will come that they’ll come home and say, “Hey mom – I tried sushi, and I like it!” And that’s the day that makes all this worthwhile.
Experiencing your own challenges in getting your little ones to try new foods? Have some tips for getting kids to try new tastes? Share with us in the comments!
(thanks to @BoneDaddyKing on Twitter for being the inspiration behind this article)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
These are excellent suggestions! I’m glad you included No. 2 because we’ve done that with great success in the past, but as often happens, we tend to forget about little tricks like that in the midst of our busy lives. Looking forward to sharing these with my wife.
P.S. I’m honored to have inspired a post on your blog!
I’m glad this article will help
I know that this is a struggle for most families (even ours, most nights) but I wanted to write this as a sort of “starting point” for people to try to get their kids to try new foods. I’m not saying these are magic tricks, of course; more times than not, the kid might refuse to try the food. But I feel that the more we push them to try foods, and the more we “reframe” them as adventurous eaters instead of picky eaters (our kid is quite proud that he’s “very good at tasting foods” 
) the more success we (and they) will have. This isn’t a quick process, but then what in parenting is? 