7 Ways to Get Kids Eating Healthier

Years ago, when my two oldest children were still little, I went to a seminar for parents of picky eaters. The teacher explained that at dinner time, she served her kids a small amount of something healthy they disliked. She then put a food they really liked on the table, and told them they could have the thing they wanted after they finished what was already on their plate. She said her kids always ate the first thing she served so they could get the thing they liked better.

I came away from her seminar excited to try this simple, logical approach to transforming my kids’ diets. Unfortunately, I hadn’t reckoned with the fact that two year olds are not logical creatures.

Our Brief Veggie War

I forget what I put on my son’s plate that night, but I distinctly remember him wailing through a long and cheerless dinner. No matter how much I tried to explain that a quick bite of that vegetable would earn him the thing he wanted more, he just couldn’t wrap his little mind around the fact that food he liked was visible yet unattainable, and Mama kept telling him to eat something he hated instead.

I tried the same thing again the next night, with similar results. My longsuffering husband supported me through two more nights of misery, then I pulled the plug on the whole operation. Maybe this technique worked for the seminar lady’s family, but it was doing more harm than good in mine. I needed to figure something else out.

The Slow and Steady Approach

Fast forward several years, and my son who once screamed through dinner over a single bite of veggies now eats most things I put in front of him, and often asks for seconds. I wish I could say that I found one easy trick that made him start gobbling things he once shunned (alas, there’s no such magic wand). I think what really made the difference was:

He gradually matured, and became more open to trying new foods.
I found ways to invite him to branch out, instead of pressuring him.

While I can’t make your kids grow up faster, I can share the strategies that I’ve found helpful as I’ve worked to persuade four little people that broccoli, tomatoes, and mushrooms are their friends. I often touch on these strategies in my recipe posts, but this Adventurous Eater series will examine each one in depth, with links to recipes that put them into practice.

Most examples in this series will focus on dinner, because that’s where I try to expand my kids’ culinary horizons. Breakfast and lunch tend to be loose affairs where I give my kids simple, healthyish options they already like, and as long as they eat some combination of whole grain, protein, and fruit/vegetable, we’re good. Dinner is where our whole family sits down together to build healthy relationships with each other and with the endless, wondrous variety of food this world has to offer.

And now, without further ado, here are the 7 Adventurous Eater strategies we’ve found helpful in our family.