Kids eat food for different reasons than adults do.
Kids eat food for very immediate reasons:
- because they are hungry
- because the food looks, smells and or tastes good to them
- because the food is familiar or favourite
- because it is easy to eat
As much as we’d like them to, most kids DON’T eat food because it’s healthy. Talking to young children about the health benefits of food probably won’t help much at all with accepting new foods. In fact, research has shown that calling foods healthy can make kids like them LESS! As much as children can be taught through repetition and repeat that a food is healthy, this alone rarely provides enough reason for them to eat it.
My 3 top tips to support children to learn to accept a wide variety of foods, or to help your fussy kid to not flip out at the sight of a piece of lettuce are:
1) Never describe food as GOOD or BAD, HEALTHY or UNHEALTHY
Describing food in this way attaches judgements and feelings to food which can lead to emotional eating. Worse still, kids may wind up feeling BAD about eating food they enjoy eating.
So, put aside the judgements and call food what it is – chocolate cake, banana, meat, sandwich, cheese, broccoli. Keep away from labels.
2) EXPLORE food with kids using the 5 senses to guide you
Discover how food FEELS, SOUNDS, SMELLS, LOOKS and TASTES. Model this and explain it as you go along. Children may want to get involved or just watch you do it. For example: “This passion fruit is purple, let’s cut it open and see what’s inside. There are lots of seeds in here! Gee, it smells sweet and it feels wet too. Let me taste it. Do you think it will taste sweet?” and so on…
3) Explore food away from the table
The dinner table can be high pressure if your food agenda is to “get kids to eat”. Instead, OFFER a wide variety, including at least one or two foods that are familiar to your children, but don’t be drawn into battles about whether or how much food gets eaten.
Keep the pressure off and instead take opportunities to explore food away from the family dinner table – at the supermarket, fresh produce market, at a restaurant or café, with friends.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the next generation of kids free of food hang-ups? Kids who truly have a healthy relationship with food. It’s a big dream, but one that I’m determined to hold onto.
Eat happy!
Deb Blakley
Accredited Practising Dietitian & Director
