Is your Child a Picky Eater?

I’m very lucky I raised a child who is not a picky eater. Sure she tends to favor fried chicken skin and pork fat and rice but she eats a variety of food as well including fruits and vegetables. She eats pasta and her favorite pasta sauce is pesto and aglio olio.

I read an article about  “hiding or sneaking vegetables in kid’s meals”.  Sneaking a vegetable would mean putting grated zucchini on top of a pizza along with the mozzarella cheese to hide it so your kids would eat it versus making stuffed zucchini and forcing your child to eat it.

The article says that doing that may not be healthy in the long run because when those kids grow up to be adults they would think that it’s okay to eat pizza and all those unhealthy stuff because you were always serving them anyway. They  didn’t know that you snuck in some healthy stuff in those dishes.

Here are some tips for picky eaters:

• First and foremost, when they don’t want to eat what’s on the table, don’t cook a separate food for them.
• Bring one new food to the table and encourage your child to taste it, even a small bite.
• Set a good example, don’t tell her that you don’t eat this and that. This way she won’t get any ideas that because mommy doesn’t it, it’s okay not to eat those food as well.
• Educate children on the nutritive value of food. If you can, allow them to be involved in shopping and cooking of your food.

Ykaie used to eat garden salad with honey-mustard dressing when she was 1 year old because I use to eat that a lot trying to lose post-maternity weight.  Continuous exposure to healthy food is the key to make them eat healthy.

I am also guilty of not eating healthy food sometimes but I would like to change that.