Best Way to Get Your Picky Eaters to Eat

Don’t panic. The calories and servings that authorities recom­mend for children’s health and growth are averages. Some kids burn more calories; others less. Learn substitutions. Serve smaller portions. Offer healthy snacks. Don’t keep sweets around. Find “good” fast foods. (While most are high in salt, fat, and calories, some, such as pizza, have a higher nutritional value.) Avoid fighting about food. Make up the difference with vitamins. Substitute vegetables with fruits. Give up what you can’t control.

• Let your child choose one cereal (usually sugared), and you choose another (unsweetened). Mix the two and serve for breakfast as a compromise.
• Add a few drops of vanilla extract and food coloring to milk, for a child who won’t drink the regular stuff. Serve it as a milk shake with a bright colored straw.

• Have your child help prepare a meal by dropping food in the food processor and pressing the button. Finicky children are more inclined to eat food they’ve helped prepare.
• Sprinkle shredded cheese over veggies to make them more appealing.
• Add a bit of blue food coloring to applesauce to make your °wn “Blues Clues” food.
• Add some green (or blue) food coloring to scrambled eggs to make your own “Green Eggs and Ham!”
• Don’t assume food rejected three weeks ago will be rejected now.
• Put sugar in an aluminum flour shaker for a child to use when) adding sugar to cereals. It eliminates spills, avoids the probler of too much sugar in one spot, and makes it easier to cut bad on sugar use.
• Use condiments to make nutritious foods more appealing. Put ketchup on peas, add ranch dressing to veggies, use dips for green beans, and so on.
• Disguise important nutrients in meatloaf, hamburgers, or spaghetti sauce by adding pureed vegetables or baby food to them. Pureed cauliflower can be added to mashed potatoes.

Treat Tricks

• Avoid messes by putting a Popsicle in a disposable cup trimmed to half its original size. Make a slit in the bottom of the cup, insert the stick, and have the cup catch the drips. Coffee filters work well, too.
• Fill a balloon with your child’s favorite juice. Put a Popsicle stick in the hole and tie. When frozen, cut away the balloon for a giant Popsicle!

• Use transparent tape across the cup top to hold Popsicle stid upright when making flavored ice in paper cups.
• Make “cookie pops” birthday treats by inserting Popsicle sticks] into cookies before baking. Frosting is optional.
• Have your child frost cupcakes with a wooden Popsicle stick. It’s safe to lick when the job is done.
• Minimize leaks by putting a marshmallow, malted milk ball, or banana slice in the bottom of a cone before adding ice cream.
• Pour flat soda into an ice cube tray to make “tasty pops.”
• Freeze leftover candy from Halloween and winter holidays. When summer rolls around, have your kids set up a leftover-penny-candy stand.