How I Get My Kids To Eat Just About Anything | FoodsOfOurLives.com
Last week I talked about a few super foods you may think are a little different. A little odd.
Gross possibly?
I did get a couple comments on my Facebook page to that effect.
You know what? Some of the things in that post are my kid’s favorite foods and there are plenty of adults who won’t touch those foods with a 10′ pole!
We are here today to talk about how I accomplished this with my kids because I have no doubt those of you with picky eaters are wondering how the heck I did it (of course I fully recognize the possibility that I simply lucked out with good eaters)?
A little background for those of you who do not know me and and my family.
I have 4 kids.
Linus is 9 and loves sardines, he even has a favorite sardine company and will eat nothing other than Season Sardines. Yes this is a sponsored post, no I am not saying this to make money. I have not coached him in any way. I challenge anyone to go ask him, right now, what his favorite brand of sardines is. He would say, “The ones from Costco.” which, here in Montana, are Season Sardines.
Juliette is 7 and also loves sardines but I would say her favorite food that most kids detest is brussel sprouts (she also loves sardines).
Christian is 5 and is obsessed with tomatoes. He picks them off the other kid’s plates when they aren’t looking and eats them (he also loves sardines).
Scarlett is 2 and loves fried eggs, runny yolk and all.
All of them are obsessed with taking little bits of nori and wrapping their sardines in it to make little sushi rolls. Huh? Seriously.
Now I am not saying they don’t have foods they don’t care for, but generally speaking, I feel like my kids will eat just about anything.
I don’t have to worry about sending them over to someone’s house and coming home starving because they didn’t like anything that was served.
There are several reasons why our kids are this way. At least my husband and I are pretty sure this at least helps. We certainly don’t discount the luck factor.
1. We don’t tell them when WE don’t like something.
My husband and I are extremely careful not to be vocal when we don’t care for something on our plate. Kids are influenced by strange and unexpected events (this I think, we can all agree on).
I remember thinking, for the longest time I hated brussels sprouts… because my Dad hated brussels sprouts and was usually pretty vocal about it. Love you Dad 🙂
You know what? I love brussels sprouts. They are one of my favorite vegetables.
Anytime I have made something we haven’t had before, even when the hubs and are cringing and thinking, “This isn’t really very good…” (Not that, that happens often 😉 but once in a while it does) we let the kids form their own opinions. We don’t say anything until they say something (obviously if it’s completely inedible we’re not going to make them eat it).
For example, the other night I made a stir fry using lamb. You never know right? After taking a bite my husband sort of glanced sideways at me… I took a bite and I have to tell you, I really didn’t care for it. I love lamb. But not in stir fry apparently. I continued eating without saying anything.
You know what the kids ALL did?
They ate it.
Not a word. Not a complaint. They all gobbled up their food and cleared their plates.
Trust me that doesn’t always happen… but what if my husband or I had immediately announced, Ew? Even in a subtle way (we discussed our feelings later when they weren’t around so it would be clear between us that I wouldn’t be fixing that again, lol!)?
Pretty sure the kids would have noticed something off and cried mutiny. There was nothing wrong with the food…the flavors just didn’t match. There was really not a great reason NOT to eat it and have it go to waste.
2. We have always fed them whole, real foods.
When it comes to food I have always been one to sort of do my own thing and wing it. When the kids were babies I discovered the book, “Nourishing Traditions” I loved the recommendation to start your child on soft cooked egg yolk (you remove the white which is typically the allergen) and then go to avocado, I thought that was more my style and seemed way more nourishing than rice cereal. Granted we do not have a single egg allergy in my family and I think I would been hesitant to do that if we did but, since we don’t, so I went with it.
Before the age of one my kids were well used to eating things like miso soup, sushi (cooked stuff) avocado, fish… I don’t remember everything. While in many parts of the world these are totally normal foods for children, here in the U.S. on the mainland this is considered to be odd (I do not include Hawaii in that statement because I remember my very young cousins who live in Hawaii eating sushi and that may be what gave me the idea in the first place).
Most small children here I see being fed bland tasteless baby food from a jar or plastic tub and instant noodle type things. The things that gross me out the most are those 3rd stage baby foods with the nasty little chunks in them. I can’t even….
I always made all my own baby food (it is seriously easy and takes very little time) and the minute they could feed themselves soft foods off their tray I switched to that. I hate feeding baby food. Then they would eat whatever part of our meal they could manage plus maybe a little something in addition to get a well rounded diet.
My kids are used to tasting flavorful, fresh food.
3. We have always fed them ‘different’ foods from their peers.
Yes, they get annoyed with this now they are in school and all their friends have lunchables or whatever it is the other kids have.
No my kids don’t have a ‘cool’ lunch.
You know what they have? A healthy lunch that will nourish their bodies. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t give them treats! They get some pretty awesome treats. Anytime I make a cake… they get a piece or if I’ve made cookies or brownies. I even do keep a box of fruit snacks WAY up in the pantry where they can’t reach and they often get one of those in their lunch.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like much but I think it’s important to keep ‘treats’ just that. Treats.
We also eat lots of different types of meat around here since we raise our own. This stemmed from having dairy goats. Well to get milk, mammals must give birth, when they have babies they often have boys. What do you do with a bunch of boy goats? Not that many people want a pet goat…so they ended up in the freezer.
Around here we almost never eat beef or chicken. Seriously. We eat lamb, goat, venison, elk, pork and duck.
When I say we’re having goat or duck for dinner my kids get excited. They love it.
The first time I introduced sardines to my kids, I was in the process of putting them on a pizza, when Linus sauntered past the kitchen. He asked me what I was putting on the pizza, I told him and he asked if he could try them.
Sure. I gave no reaction other than that. No grimace, no oh you won’t like it straight out of the tin, nothing. Just handed him a sardine and watched him pound it down.
It’s been love ever since.
One other thing I have discovered is if you can get your oldest child on board, that’s where the money’s at, because the other children tend to copy the older child/children 🙂
4. We always make them try at least one bite.
Around here, as you can imagine, we try a lot of new things. Some of those things don’t look all that spectacular.
For example, the other night, Costco had King Crab for sale. Now to you who live nearish to the coast you’re going, meh… but to a bunch of kids who have always lived in landlocked states, this is huge. And to parents who grew up on the coast and have lived in landlocked states for the last 10 years, this is even huger.
So I bought some.
The older kids LOVE seafood. Any kind, they love it, despite not getting it super often. They saw the crab and remembered liking it from years ago and jumped in with two feet.
Christian is more hesitant. He took one look at those long spindly crab legs and just about ran for the hills.
Our rule is you must try one bite. If you don’t care for it after that, fine. I get it. But that’s what we’re having for dinner and I don’t cook anything else. You can fill up on veggies or if I have made mashed potatoes or something…go for it. But this is what you get.
They have to really not like something to basically skip the main course around here, but again we don’t make a big deal over it.
Christian still didn’t like the crab after eating it. Fine.
More for the rest of us!
5. We involve them in the process of making food.
Whether it be making a salad, making the main course or outside helping to slaughter an animal. Our kids are involved in the process.
Not every single night. Mostly when they show a particular interest in something. Juliette helped put a rub on a venison roast the other night because she was curious what I was doing. I love teachable moments.
And when we slaughter animals, we don’t make them stay outside during the entire process (unless they want to of course!) It’s usually pretty cold out anyway. At some point in time, though, they have all gotten their hands on a freshly processed bird, Linus has even helped with dipping birds for feathering and Juliette and Christian have watched us gut goats and deer and asked great questions.
They know where their food comes from, how it gets prepared (basically) and ends up on the plate in front of them.
They know that some of our sweet animals, which they helped raise and loved, gave their life so we can have meat and it’s important not to let the ‘sacrifice’ go to waste.
They know it is important to survival to know how to prepare and cook food and since they have done it themselves, they know the effort that goes into getting that meal on their plate.
How cool is that?!
So there you have it.
I’m certainly not trying to say your kids being picky is a result of how you parent and not trying to make anyone feel bad. I just want to help new parents out or maybe help change your mindset and how you approach food with your kids so you can help them to eat healthy and enjoy it!
So how do you encourage your kids to eat what is put in front of them? Or what have your struggles been?
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