Mom-to-Mom Picky Eater Tips

Expert tip: The American Academy of Pediatrics® and the American Dietetic Association recommend that toddlers be given small portions of the same healthy foods that parents eat. Parents and caregivers exhibit a powerful force on children's dietary behavior, so support your child by modeling good eating habits. Regular family meals promote social interactions and food-modeling behavior.

Expert tip: Picky eating behavior is normal for toddlers transitioning from breast milk or formula to baby food and table food. Kids should be allowed to experience different tastes, textures, and smells, so go ahead and try offering a combination of baby food and table food.

Expert tip: Two planned snacks a day are an important part of your child’s overall nutrition. By the time your child is 2 years old, he should be eating two snacks along with three meals per day, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Snacks should contain at least two food groups.

Expert tip: Planning snacks and meals is the way to go. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends introducing structured meals when your child is 2 years old. This should include three meals and two snacks.

Expert tip: Great tip! Small portions are a great idea. Remember: When introducing new foods, it can take up to 15 tries for kids to determine whether they like it.

Expert tip: Praise can be helpful, but be careful not to go overboard. The American Academy of Pediatrics reminds parents of the following: “Pressure and coercion may have short term benefits, but will ultimately make feeding more difficult and eating less rewarding and pleasurable.”

Expert tip: Having your kids try at least one bite is good advice. Research shows it can take up to 15 tries for kids to determine whether they like a new food, so be sure to offer the same foods repetitively over time. You can even prepare the same food different ways — like preparing it raw, steamed, baked, or mashed.

Expert tip: This is good advice. Having a casual, matter-of-fact attitude toward mealtime behavior is important.

Expert tip: There is nothing wrong with combining well-liked foods with ones that are less familiar, but be careful not to get in the habit of “hiding” foods. Kids will get suspicious over time, which can lead to their refusing even more foods because they think something is hidden in them. Kids need to experience a wide range of food tastes and textures over time to make eating a pleasant experience.

Expert tip: Visiting local farmers markets and trying samples is a great strategy. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dietetic Association recommend avoiding giving excessive rewards for food-related behavior. Instead, help your kids focus on enjoying the experience of eating without expecting a reward. The overall farmers market experience might be enough to encourage their curiosity to try new foods.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that parents should limit juice (100% fruit juice) consumption to 4 to 6 ounces per day for children ages 6 and younger.

Expert tip: Having fun at the table and keeping a positive attitude encourages good behavior and makes for a much more comfortable mealtime. Allowing your kids to play food-related games at mealtime can encourage them to try different tastes and textures.

Expert tip: Playing games at mealtime can be helpful, but be sure to keep it positive. A game with a positive angle encourages good behavior and is much more comfortable than a game that takes a negative approach.

Expert tip: Kids should be allowed to play with food to experience different tastes, textures, and smells, so go ahead — use fun shapes and allow them to mix textures.

Expert tip: Great tip! According to HealthyChildren.org, using a fork at 17 months is age appropriate.

Expert tip: According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, children’s current intake of fruits and vegetables does not meet recommendations. By involving your children in choosing the fruits and vegetables they want to try, you’re helping to increase variety in their diets and the total number of servings of these under-consumed food groups.

Expert tip: Kids do model others’ behavior. In fact, many surveys have shown that parents are the most important role models in a child’s life. Be sure to demonstrate good nutrition habits, like eating a wide variety of fruits and veggies. That way, your kids can be just like you, too!

Expert tip: If your child does not like milk or is lactose intolerant*, PediaSure is a great way to ensure they get protein, calcium, vitamin D, and other important nutrients found in milk. You can also use PediaSure as a bridge to getting your child to accept milk.

*Not for children with galactosemia

Expert tip: Bribing or forcing a child to eat certain foods is definitely a negative tactic. Remember — enjoying different foods is a learned behavior that needs to be repeated at least 8 to 10 times. Sometimes the same food prepared a different way will be more readily accepted. Keep trying, and don't give in to forceful tactics.

Expert tip: It's true — parents are powerful role models. By modeling healthy eating and explaining the importance of certain foods, you'll notice an increased preference for the foods in question. So eventually, both you and your child will be more willing to accept it.

Expert tip: Hiding foods in smoothies and in casseroles or pizza is a tactic that parents often use. But beware: If you use this tactic for too long, your kids might begin refusing all smoothies that include yogurt, milk, and/or fruit. Try to go back to basics by continuing to expose your kids to fruits and vegetables. Accepting foods is a learned behavior.

Expert tip: Setting aside your own food preferences and biases is especially important when kids are naturally picky with food. Having a calm, balanced attitude toward all foods is essential to developing your kids' good eating habits. Keep the options to one or two selections so that your child is not overwhelmed. For example, offer carrots or celery, or both.

Expert tip: It's true! When kids begin eating table food, a shift takes place in terms of portion control. Children have an innate ability to focus on internal hunger cues and can self-regulate meal size. If a parent tries to influence portion control using coercive behaviors, that innate ability is lost — and that can lead to poor self-regulation of calories later in life.

Expert tip: Unlike adults, young children need smaller, more frequent meals, so occasionally replacing a meal with healthy snacks is fine. Just be sure that this is an exception rather than a rule. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, having regular family meals promotes social interaction and provides a model for positive food-related behavior.

Expert tip: It's definitely important that eating be fun for children. Allowing for additions to healthy foods likes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains is a great way to get kids to participate in establishing healthful eating behaviors. Just try to offer healthy versions of high-fat toppings.

Expert tip: These are excellent strategies to get kids to pick up habits for a healthy nutrition foundation.

Expert tip: New foods should always be offered when kids are hungry. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, parents should encourage a routine of three meals and two snacks per day. Children will eventually be moved to a more adult-like eating pattern with time.

Expert tip: This is a reasonable alternative as long as your kids aren't making separate meals every night. It's a great way to demonstrate that no one is going to cater alternate meals for picky eaters.

Expert tip: Kids love to create, and as long as they have healthy ingredients to create their meals, they'll be more likely to eat them. To encourage portion control on certain higher-calorie ingredients, you might consider measuring out the appropriate amount for each child.

Expert tip: Great ideas! When kids are helping make the food choices, make sure to offer two foods and say something like "carrots, green beans, or both" so the choices are not overwhelming.

Expert tip: This is a great strategy to encourage kids to try new foods. Consider making the rewards less food-related, like a trip to the park, a movie, or an extra 10 minutes of playtime before bed.

Expert tip: Adding new foods along with familiar and well-liked foods is a good strategy.

Expert tip: Don't worry — most 2- and 3-year-olds go through a stage in which they refuse to eat many foods. You might encourage your child to help wash the vegetables. Sometimes just looking at and touching the foods is a major step in the right direction. Remember: Stay calm and consistently offer foods from all of the food groups at every meal, and set an example by eating them in front of your child.

Expert tip: Parental discipline is always so hard when it's the end of the day, and everyone is tired. Try to remain calm at the dinner table. The next time you try the same food, prepare it in a different way.

Expert tip: It's true! Often parents don't even offer certain foods because they think their kids won't like them. For variety, prepare foods in different ways. For instance, try sweet potatoes mashed with a bit of cinnamon, oven roasted with olive oil and garlic cloves, or baked in the skins with a sprinkle of brown sugar and butter.