DO YOU HAVE A FUSSY EATER?

June 01, 2023

If you have a child who is a picky eater, you are not alone. Many kids have strong preferences for certain foods and reject others. They may only like foods of a certain colour, texture, or taste. Often, they crave sweets or carbs and avoid proteins. This may also include them loving a food one day and hating it the next. Does this sound familiar? Preparing meals and lunchboxes for these fussy eaters can be a frustrating task and a challenge ensuring you're meeting your children's daily nutrient needs.

Here are a few strategies that you can work on at home to improve the variety of foods your children eat:

Exposure
It's important to remember that taste takes time! Don’t give up on introducing new foods to your child. It can take up to 20 tries before they decide to like and eat something. Our lives get so busy, it’s easy to just give children the foods they will eat. The key is to expose them to a variety of foods regularly, even if they don’t touch them. When they see different foods often, they become more familiar and less afraid of them. A good way to do this is to offer pick and mix platters for meals and snacks. Include foods that your child likes and foods that others enjoy. Don’t worry about the leftovers, you can always have them for lunch the next day. And don’t pressure your child to eat anything they don’t want to.

Small Changes
You can’t change your child’s taste buds overnight. Start small and be patient. For example, you can add a little bit of grated carrot or sweet potato to a bolognaise sauce for a week, then gradually increase the amount and add some grated zucchini. An easy place to start is by using foods that your child already likes as a base, such as meatballs and bolognaise sauces. You can make meatballs with any kind of minced meat and sneak in a grated vegetable without altering the flavour too much.

Reduce
Try to limit the amount of packaged foods in your child’s diet, as they tend to be less nutritious and more filling than whole foods. Most kids will choose packaged foods over fruits, vegetables and homemade foods. If your child likes some packaged foods, you can still offer them in moderation. A good idea is to open the packets and put half of each into a divided snack box, so they get the variety but the overall volume is reduced. And remember not to put any new foods in their lunchbox without letting them taste them at home first.

Flavour and Texture
You can use your child’s favourite flavours and textures as a guide to introduce new foods. Do they like crunchy or soft foods? If they like crunchy foods, you can offer them toasted nuts, carrot sticks, capsicum, sugar snap peas, or roasted chickpeas. If they like soft foods, you can try cooked or mashed vegetables, or soft roasted vegetables. What about their taste buds? Do they like sweet, salty, watery, creamy, or spicy foods? If they have a sweet tooth, they may enjoy corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, or peas. If they like salt and vinegar, they may like olives, pickled gherkins, pretzels, or jerky.

Variety
Psychological studies show that we tend to eat more when we see more colours and variety in our food. That’s why candy companies make their sweets in different colours and shapes. We can use this trick with healthy foods too, by offering a rainbow of fruits and vegetables in snack boxes and on pick and mix platters. Many kids love to dip their food, so you can also serve a dip with a colourful assortment of cooked and raw vegetables. This is a fun and easy way to gently introduce new foods to your child.

Involvement
Getting your child involved in food decisions and preparation can help them eat more whole foods. You can let them help with cutting snacks, making lunchboxes, or cooking dinner. Give them a small chopping board to use in the kitchen and make them feel part of the process. You can also ask them every week what fruits and vegetables they want in their lunchbox.

As a children’s nutritionist, I have found two common patterns in children with food avoidance and selective eating.

1. A nutrient deficiency which has changed the taste receptors.

2. An imbalance in the gut microbiome which causes strong cravings for sweet foods and rapidly absorbed starchy and carbohydrate foods.

These patterns can be assessed and corrected with a nutritionist or naturopath and can improve the natural desire to eat more foods. If the above strategies don’t provide any improvement to your child's fussy eating, a discussion with your GP would be advised.

By Alana Maxwell - Children’s Nutritionist GCert Nutrition, CMA

First seen in the Seasonal Magazine: Winter 2023

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