Ten ways to get kids to eat new foods

Jenna Pepper, at Food with Kid Appeal, told me about a poll she did recently on her blog. The results were not exactly what I would have expected. Jenna wrote,

I posted it a couple weeks ago after running a poll on the site about what parent’s biggest concerns were of feeding the family. Options were

Eats too many snacks

Doesn’t eat enough

Eats too much

Only eats a few items

I don’t know why, but I would have expected snacking too much to be the biggest concern, but instead, Jenna found that her readers were more concerned about the lack of variety in their children’s diets.

So Jenna decided to write some tips for how to solve that!    Here are her ten suggestions:

10. Give them time. A finicky toddler still has many years of restaurant meals, holiday food traditions and travel excursions to sample new flavors. He may only eat 10 fruits/veggies now, but that will grow with exposure.

9. Take them shopping. A farmer’s market would be great, but a grocery store works too. Let them pick out a vegetable or fruit. Get them to pick one they already like and one new one. If you don’t know how to eat the new thing, google a recipe.

Read the rest!