How do you get them to try new foods?

[lucas&joshs mom]

I'm dealing with a 4year old and a 2 year old here.  Neither one of them likes to try new foods.  And I'm not talking anything exotic...I'm talking rice and potatoes for pete's sake!  Josh has always been a very good veggie eater, so I really can't complain about that, but my word...if I ask him to try a piece of potato you would think his world had just come to a crashing halt!! 

So I'm just wondering what some of you do to encourage eating new foods.  Do you INSIST they try it?  Will you wait them out at the dinner table just to get them to try it?  I just don't know what the better approach is...wait for him to be curious, or insist he tries it. 

TIA.

[evanskimberley]

I'm not going to profess to be an expert here, as DD is only 1 but some things came to mind.

-Would they like to sample off your plate? Then as a treat let them have that instead of what they're eating, to get them interested.
-My mum used to make food into pictures, I still vividly remember sausages and mash as a face, with vegetable eyes and hair!
- Put a little bit on thier plate without telling them, see what happens?

[{{{Angela}}}]

My ds is a bit younger than your lo's, but I have found the best way to get him to try something new was to either eat it myself and then offer to him, or put a little piece on his tray along with his other food and say 'this is _____, it's new.  try some', then leave him alone with it.  He will usually eat the more familiar food and then investigate the new food, and taste a little bit.   Sometimes, I won't even look at him while he's doing this, I'll concentrate on my own food.  The important thing is not to make a big deal of it, whether he eats it or not.  I think by encouraging too much, I put too much pressure on ds and he is less likely to eat the new food.  That's just the way my ds is.   Hope this helps.

[newhampshiremummy]

Hi Lucas and Josh's mom,
This is from reading and my childhood experience (my lo is still in diapers), but a couple of things came to mind-

Experts say a child needs to be exposed to a food at least 40 times before he sees it as familiar, so that might help when you think,"We've had asparagus every night this week and they won't touch it." 40 times is a lot.  And they say 40 is the average. For some kids it is more.

Also I know from being a picky eater myself, it became all about the power struggle between me and my parents. The good thing they did was not let me snack, so I eventually ate something, but it was usually bland, boring ood and a few bites of what they would make me eat (like veggies). I didn't become a healthy eater until college when I was away from them and it didn't feel like "letting them win" if I tried paella (something a picky eater would die to look at). I know how bad that sounds, but it really bugged me so much to lose face to them that I would not eat certain things. I think it just became too big in our house. I am trying to be really low key about what my ds eats because if he has my stubborness we could go through the same thing. (And my mom will be smirking all the way). This said, I have healthy eating habits now because my parents had modeled healthy eating habits, so even though I was a pasta and butter girl most days, now I seek out crunchy veggies and healthy food. So, hopefully it is encouraging to know that your efforts WILL pay off, but it might take a while. Just don't let it become a power struggle.

Then the only other thing I can think of is trying to trick them with cheese on veggies, let them make some of the food themselves, have lots of healthy dipping sauces in cool cups (kids love that), and totally staying away from snacks FOR SURE.

Something else my mom made me do to prove to me that helthy snacks were best was to make a food pyramid chart to hang on the fridge. We looked it up, she drew the pyramid and wrote out the titles really neat and I drew the foods- what was an art project with mummy at the time became the law of snacks once it found it's home on the frdge. Example, ME: "Mom, I'm hungry." MOM: "Have you had your three servings of veggies today?" ME: "No, there's nothing to eat. " MOM: "Well, look at the pictures and pick something. There shoudl be lots of healthy choices in the fridge." ME: "I don't want to." MOM: "Well, I guess you're not that hungry." ME: "Fine." And even though this seems like it failed, it didn't because if I were hungry I did get a healthy snack and I knew she woudl never let me have something else to fill up on. Eventually the conversation got easier on her side and I ate well.

I hope this isn't too long. Maybe your LOs aren't even THAT picky. But having been a picky eater myself who has good eating habits as an adult, I am sure my mom's strategies had everything to do with it. She is very much of the "start as you mean to go" school and does not give in easily so I always knew what she wanted. Maybe she made it too much of a big deal since I fought her on it off and on throughout my childhood, but here we are today and we had lunch together yesterday: black bean omlette's with live yogurt and fresh parsley. It was yummy.

Sorry this became some long and herky jerky, been writing between moments of being "on duty."
Keep us posted on what works.
Good luck!
Valerie, a recovering bad eater

[Poppy & Lily]

Hi CJ,

You've had some great responses here...but just wanted to let you know what worked for me.

I found that if i sat down with DD and had a small portion on my plate of what she was eating, she was more likely to try new things.  I used to make it fun with lots of encouragement ' like oh lilly mummy is eating some really nice rice, does lilly want to try some of mummys food...and so on...It usually works the majority of times...

HTH

[lucas&joshs mom]

Well, we've just finished dinner.  We all had the same thing which was a beef/pasta/cheese dish plus raw veggies.  Josh ate all the veggies (not a surprise cuz he loves his veggies) and picked the beef out of the main dish.  I told him that if he wanted dessert he would have to have ONE piece of rotini.  Oddly enough, he loves spaghetti, but just thinks any other kind of pasta is gross.  I'll give him credit..after not too much goading, he tried the rotini....and then proceeded to GAG on it.  :shock:   Which caused him to have a crying fit.  So I praised the heck out of him for trying it, and I just hope next time, he will try it again. 

Now, his little brother on the other hand refused to eat ANY of the dinner...can't do much when a two year old refuses to eat, so I just let it go.

Thank you all for your advice...I try not to harp on it too much. I definitely don't want this to be a power struggle.  I guess I'm just concerned because my dh is a picky eater and I fear that they have inherited it.  I just never know if I should be actively encouraging them to eat something, or just hope that two years from now they will decide that hey, maybe I'll try that baked potato after all!

[Deb_in_oz]

I'm talking rice and potatoes for pete's sake!  Josh has always been a very good veggie eater, so I really can't complain about that, but my word...if I ask him to try a piece of potato you would think his world had just come to a crashing halt!! 

alex is 2 and a bit and has never been a fan of rice or potatoes.  i thought she was the only kid on earth who will not touch a bite of mashed potato (and never would as an iinfant either)
within the last 5 months she has finally started occassionally eating well roasted potatoes made by Dh (if they are not perfect she will reject them though  :roll: )

and in the last 3 weeks we tried rice again and she has eaten it a few times - she was refusing to try it so i convinced her (my new rule) to take 1 bite as she often finds she actually likes most things if only she will try them.  she said "MMMM" so i offered it a couple more times - just the other night she ate the rice but was refusing the lamb chop - can never get it right, and i had to convince her to give the lamb a shot and she ended up eating most of that too.

she has always eaten well and eats things like broccoli til the cows come home and loves fancy cheeses like brie and blue cheese, she is just particular and i respect that (she still refuses former infant faves sweet potato and pumpkin - will not eat no matter how many ways i try to serve them up )

as long as he takes one bite i woudl call it quits and just keep oiffering a small portion every so often - you never know the day they decide they NOW like it