New Foods for Picky Eaters

Have a picky eater? Want your kids to try new foods? One of the best motivators is getting them involved and excited about new foods instead of insisting they try something that randomly appears on their plate. It will take some effort on your part, but it's worth it in the end. A good place to start is the grocery store.

I took the kiddos to Trader Joe's recently and they had this great big display with yellow watermelons stacked up almost to the ceiling. Yellow watermelon!?? We couldn't believe it. So we dumped one in our cart and talked about what it would be like on the inside, if it had seeds, how dark the color yellow would be, if a fairy had turned it yellow etc..

It looked like a regular watermelon on the outside, so by the time we got home the suspense was killing us (yes you will need to ham it up a bit to keep their interest!) So we put the groceries away and took the yellow watermelon outside and plopped it on our picnic table. When we cut it open it was as if we had performed a magic trick...

There... where a juicy red center was supposed to be... was a bright yellow interior!

We rated the taste on a 1 to 10 scale (it came in at about a 5), we came up with words to describe it (grainy, sweet, a little bland etc.) and sat in the backyard talking about this wondrous new food as the juice dripped down our chins.

Fruits are a great place to start when introducing new foods to picky eaters. But once they're comfortable with the process start to try vegetables and meats. If they don't like the new food just smile and be grateful they were brave enough to try. Eventually they'll eat new things. And you have just spent a few hours educating them and nurturing their relationship with food. That is time well spent!

Happy Eating!

Christine S. Naylor