A Dietitian Shares 15 Top Tips to Help Overcome Picky Eating

Picky eating can be a struggle for many kids – and, by extension, their parents. Maybe you feel like you’ve tried everything to help your kid overcome it but haven’t found success. And you don’t know what else to try anymore. Or, maybe you know variety is the spice of life and are looking for ways to help them eat more different foods.

Getting kids to try new foods is a challenging feat. You’ve been eating a variety of food for years. But, have you ever experienced going to a different country and having a plate of foods you’re not familiar with set in front of you? Maybe it smelled weird. Perhaps it looked unidentifiable. Yet, you were expected to eat it. What did you do?

Your kiddo has this experience each time you introduce a new food. They’re wary and suspicious of it. They’re thinking, “WHAT is this? They want me to eat THIS?!”. And it can be a challenging feeling to work through.

How to Overcome Picky Eating Habits

While keeping your kid’s perspective in mind, we’ve gathered our top tips to help your kiddo overcome picky eating (or just add more variety to their diet).

Tip 1 - No Food Fights: Keep things neutral at the table during meal times. Sometimes, kids refuse to eat a meal or food as a way to get attention.

●      If your child isn’t hungry, try telling them, “It’s OK. You’re still part of the family and can stay here with us even if you don’t want to eat right now.”

●      If your child doesn’t want to try a new food, just let them know, “It’s OK not to try that tonight,” and then just move on from the subject.

If you can keep your cool – stay neutral and relaxed – when your kiddo is expressing their food preferences, the meal becomes calmer for everyone.

Tip 2 - Their Meal Options Don’t Change Later: If a child chooses not to eat their meal and then says that they’re hungry later, they get the same meal that was offered earlier. They don’t get a bowl of cereal or a different meal. The earlier meal is all that’s available.

Tip 3 - Everyone Eats The Same Meal: Your kitchen isn’t a fast-casual restaurant where everyone gets to choose what they eat. There’s one meal being served, with maybe a few modifications.

For example, if you’re making roasted Brussels sprouts (a big no-go for a lot of kids), serve the Brussels sprouts to everyone else and serve your child something they’ll eat – maybe cucumber slices or another vegetable they like. Try to make this alternative something you don’t have to cook or that requires very little preparation by you. You’ve already made a meal.

Tip 4 - Serve Deconstructed Meals: If you’re making a casserole or dish with a lot of ingredients, put some to the side so your kiddo gets a deconstructed version of the dish. That way, they get to eat the things they like. This can also be a fun way to try new foods. Try adding a bit of something new with all the deconstructed ingredients and see if your child likes it.

Tip 5 - Make Portions Small: Kiddos have small tummies to go with their small bodies. Put small portions on their plates. If they want more, you can always add more.

Tip 6 - Try Self-Service: Give the kiddos a chance to serve themselves. They can decide how hungry they are and how much they want to eat. This helps them have control over what and how much is going on their plate.

Tip 7 - Get the Little Chefs in the Kitchen: Having the kids help with preparing the meal gives them ownership and some control over the meal. Kids as young as three or four can help with measuring and stirring things. As they get older, they can start handling more complex things, including cutting things up with an appropriate kid-sized knife.

Bonus – They develop cooking skills that continue to serve them as they grow up.

Tip 8 - Let Them Choose: As the kids get older, give them the opportunity to help choose an item to be served or even the whole menu. At the appropriate time, encourage them to be responsible for cooking for the family one night a week or month.

Tip 9 - Choose Your Own Meal: Rather than serving leftovers the next night, save them for a couple of days, then have a meal with multiple leftovers. Everyone gets to choose what they want to eat – including the kiddos. This makes an easy mealtime and also gets rid of all those leftovers.

Tip 10 - Play the “And” Game: Take food that your child already likes and add something else to it. If they like oatmeal, add a few berries. Mac and cheese? Add a couple of chopped-up carrots or peas or maybe a chopped-up hot dog.

Tip 11 - Play Grocery Detective: Take your kiddo with you to the grocery store and let them choose a couple of new foods to try. Don’t limit yourself to the produce section (although there are always some fabulous finds there), but the entire store.

Taking them to the store and letting them make choices does a few things:

●      It gets them familiar and comfortable in the grocery store (to a little person, the grocery store is HUGE).

●      It lets them have some control over what they eat.

●      It encourages them to get involved in meal planning.

When they choose something, talk with them about when they’d like to try it and see if it fits into a meal you’ve got planned.

Tip 12 - Five Ways: Try food five different ways. You could try this with a food they don’t like or a new food. For example, over five nights, you could try broccoli raw, steamed, roasted, baked into a casserole (or cut up in tiny pieces and mixed into another food they like), or with a dip or sauce.

Tip 13 - Top or Dip It: Sauces and dips are a fun way to try a new food or even just mix up a regular one. Serve the sauce on the side and let them have fun dribbling or dousing their food with it. Dips can be put in fun dishes. Making food fun for your kiddo helps make the meal fun for everyone.

Tip 14 - Fun Shapes: Use cookie cutters to cut foods into fun shapes. This is another fun activity to try with your little one in the kitchen. They can pick their favorite cookie cutter shape and help cut things out.

Tip 15 - Try Different Utensils and Dishes: One way we’ve found to make mealtimes fun is to eat using different types of utensils like chopsticks, toothpicks, or sporks. You can also use fancy cups/dishes or the dishes you use when camping. Both of these can make mealtime more fun and provide a challenge for the child. Note: always be aware of safety issues, especially with sharp objects and knives.

Bonus Tip 16 - Make the Most of Hungry Times: Put down those nutrient-dense foods – like fruits and vegetables – when your kiddo is hungry. We find that those after-school snacks are a great place to start.

Having a snack plate with a variety of foods ready when they come home from school is an opportunity to get some of those harder-to-serve foods in. For example, you could have a plate with fruits and veggies and some dips along with some fun foods like a couple of cookies or a small bowl of candy. This mix of familiar and new foods makes it interesting for them and gives them the opportunity to try new foods.

Try these 15 tips to help your kid overcome picky eating. Take your time with them and see which one your kid responds to the most. Remember, just like anything else, it takes time to get results.

Books to Help With Picky Eating

Books can help your kiddo know that there are others who don’t like certain foods too. It helps them when they see characters try new foods. Knowing they’re not the only ones can encourage them to talk about their food preferences and eventually try new foods.

We’ve recommended these books to clients. They’re great to help introduce new foods to your child and encourage them to include a wider variety of foods in their day.

D.W. The Picky Eater by Marc Brown

D.W., the main character is the pickiest eater. She also has some less-than-desirable behaviors, like throwing food on the floor.  Does this sound like your kiddo?  There’s a special meal coming up, and everyone is hoping D.W.’s eating and manners are ready. This book tackles trying new foods, eating healthy foods, and having good manners for mealtimes.

Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat

Gregory the Goat is the odd goat out because he loves to eat fruits and vegetables instead of old shoes. Grossed out, his parents take him to the doctor for help. After meeting with the doctor, Gregory finally starts eating proper goat food like bottle caps. But now he is eating everything. We love this book because Gregory learns about finding a balance between eating fun foods versus foods that help him grow.

I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

This is one of our favorite books for kids who are hesitant to try new foods.  A story about Lola, who is a very fussy eater, and her brother helps her out by renaming foods like carrots to orange twiglets from Jupiter in an effort to get her to try more foods. Will Lola learn to eat tomatoes? You’ll have to read it to find out.

Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks

This hilarious book about monsters who refuse to eat broccoli relates to kids who don’t eat their vegetables. The monsters’ love of eating tractors and rocket ships trumps broccoli until they realize the tasty trees they are munching on look oh-so similar to broccoli!  Maybe vegetables are pretty good, after all.

Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food & Nutrition by Lizzy Rockwell

Geared towards older kids, the guide is a nice introduction to nutrients such as carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. This book explains what a healthy diet is and includes recipes, too.

Want more tools? We’ve got a lot of blog posts that can help.

Other Articles To Help With Picky Eating

If you want to learn more about picky eating and how it relates to constipation – we’ve got a blog that explains it all.

Our Blog features different topics that help you understand:

●      Constipation

●      Poop accidents (also called encopresis)

●      Pee accidents (also called enuresis)

Now you have a lot of tools and tips to try out at your disposal. But we know that some people want more individualized help. That’s where our Constipation Solution Package comes in.

The Not Just Constipation Solution Package

While it has “constipation” in the name, this package is meant to help address eating issues like “picky eating” that are impacting your child’s constipation and bowel habits.

Sometimes you just need someone who's been there to help you understand what’s going on. And help you come up with ideas to get your kiddo to eat more than a few foods.

That’s what we accomplish with this package.

When you purchase this package, you get a 45-minute consultation with Annette and Jessica, and a follow up based on the package option you choose, our popular course, Poop Boot Camp, access to our private Facebook group, the Constipation Crew and the chance to join our monthly Live Q and As.

If you’ve already purchased Poop Boot Camp, email us, and we’ll send you a code for a credit you can use toward the Constipation Solutions Package.