Ask me about picky eaters and, I will tell you a thing or two about them. For a while, we had a picky eater in the house who found vegetables and food in general, offensive. The only vegetables that she occasionally tolerated were butternut, sweet potato, carrots, and germ squash, albeit only when mashed.
Her favourite food that she demanded almost every day was pap and milk, which we settled on for a while because we got tired of trying new foods and being rejected. Since her daily diet was not nutritious enough, it led to iron deficiency. Thank heavens it was a mild deficiency, but you can imagine the amount of guilt we felt.
With many other challenges that come with parenting, having picky eaters is nothing new and it is very normal for kids to go through stages where they are a little pickier. Most times, it is usually a phase that eventually passes.
Having been faced with a health risk, we had to devise a strategy. We used trial and error and found these four hacks to work better for us, to ensure that the kid gets her daily nutrition.
1 Disguising
What they don’t know won’t hurt them, right!? For a while, we lived by this. Occasionally, we still sneak in some vegetables into her meals because while she now can somewhat comprehend that vegetables are good for her, it’s not always easy to convince her to eat them.
Some of the combinations that have worked very well for us include cauliflower hidden in potato mash, baby marrows disguised in sweet potato mash (even myself as an adult fell for this one, so delicious.), cauliflower rice disguised as rice. We would also add various vegetables to her mac and cheese. This specific hack works because she loves macaroni and cheese so much that she would eat anything with it.
Obviously, the combinations needed to make sense in terms of taste and appearance (no one wants to eat a brown mashed anything, right!). While possibilities are endless, the most important thing is to make meals that are tasty and nutritious.
2 Leading by Example
Often enough, kids do what grown-ups do and hardly what they say (nothing new here!). What worked for us was having dedicated mealtimes where we all sat at a table and ate together. Realistically, it may not be possible to sit together for every mealtime. But often, I found that when she sees us serving ourselves something she wouldn’t ordinarily eat, she will follow.
The flip side of this is that whenever she sees us excessively eating all sorts of ‘junk’ food, she will also follow. So, I learned that whatever your eating habits are, good or bad, kids turn to gravitate towards those habits as well.
3 Getting Them Involved
I must admit, this hack I got from the pre-school kitchen. Before COVID-19, kids at school (depending on their age) would get involved in preparing lunchtime meals either by peeling vegetables, grating cheese, or mixing this or that. It worked for my kid because she ate most of the lunch meals at school. Now it works brilliantly in my kitchen too. Whatever she chooses and helps prepare, she eats, and I find that she enjoys the process. I think this gets her excited about food and interested in exploring different types of food.
4 Sweetening it up a Little
I know that this can throw most parents off but sweetening up some meals, especially those full of nutrition, helped us. I would use raw honey (and occasionally maple syrup) whenever I needed to sweeten something. For example, I would drizzle a little bit of honey on a French toast, which I serve with a veggie of choice. It works all the time. Also, when I do green smoothies of which the aim is to disguise broccoli or spinach (I’ve lost the battle with serving her these as they are.), I always ensure that she’s involved in the process of preparing the smoothies. For some reason, her dislike of spinach and broccoli miraculously disappears when she knows that honey is in there, which totally works for me!
In extreme cases, picky eating could be a sign of something more serious, like food aversion – a situation when a child refuses food even though they are at an appropriate age developmentally. In such cases, it is recommended that you consult a medical expert.
Some parents may be opposed to the idea of sneaking in and hiding vegetables in the food because it can discourage kids from changing their eating habits. But sometimes, you just have to go with what works for you and the well-being of the child.
