Dad Shares His Secret To Get Kids To Eat Everything, Internet Has Mixed Opinions
Interview With Author
Pizza, Dino nuggets and ice cream are the ideal menu crafted by any child. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even begin to cover the food groups necessary for a growing person. Kids prefer taste over nutrition, so it’s the parents’ job to ensure they eat a balanced diet.
One parent shared a pretty useful life tip on the topic. The Redditor whipsnappy adopted a strategy that lets his kids choose what they want to eat but also introduces them to new foods daily. He didn’t just pull this decision out of a hat. He based his method on scientific research done on children’s psychology. Read on to find out what faults the other netizens saw in his advice.
Bored Panda asked specialist pediatric dietician Lucy Upton to weigh in on this advice. She is an award-winning dietitian and feeding therapist, and founder of The Children’s Dietitian. Lucy helps parents navigate feeding challenges so that their children can enjoy food. You can find her expert insights below!
The author of this post also agreed to tell Bored Panda a little bit more about other ways he got his kids to eat their veggies. You can check out our chat with him below.
More info: The Children’s Dietitian | Instagram | Facebook
Getting your kids to try new foods can be a real challenge
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)
This father based his strategy on a psychological study
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Image credits: whipsnappy
The author of this post spoke with Bored Panda about his approach
Image credits: Alex Green (not the actual photo)
The OP tells Bored Panda that this wasn’t the only strategy that helped his kids become more adventurous eaters. “I did other things that made eating easier,” the Redditor says.
“Like when I make spaghetti sauce for adults, I usually use a jar sauce (because who has time to cook from scratch if you work full-time?) and then sauté some veggies to give it more nutrition.”
The dad shares some feeding tips other parents might deem useful. “Kids almost universally love spaghetti, so when I began making it for them, I would chop the veggies up so small, they were like little dots of color you could not pick out.”
“Over the years, I cut them a little bigger until they were large and chunky like I like them. They were always just there from the kids’ perspective. I think that because they were ‘safe’ or ok in that situation, they became more acceptable in other situations,” the father says.
One important element the parent mentioned in his post is that eating was never “a battle of wills” in his household. Kids could decide if they wanted to eat a food item for themselves. The Redditor believes that this sort of autonomy for kids is super important.
“If they don’t develop the ability to make small decisions, how will they ever be able to tackle larger decisions/problems as an adult? You have to crawl before you can walk or run,” the dad says.
“Kids need to begin developing the ability to make choices and develop autonomy from a young age. If you don’t, I think you run the risk of having an adult child that lives in your basement [until] 40 and then doesn’t know how to manage life when the parent is gone,” he cautions.
According to a children’s dietitian, this dad’s approach is pretty solid
Image credits: Vanessa Loring (not the actual photo)
Children’s dietitian and feeding specialist Lucy Upton observes that such a strategy can be pretty beneficial. “Many points about this approach are really positive,” she says. The dad’s method includes several points that lead to children’s healthy eating habits.
The points are as follows: “Regular exposure to foods, a no-pressure approach, eating together and allowing a child to follow their intrinsic (internal) motivation to eat something.”
However, the dad’s argument that “a child needs to see a new food an average of seven times before it becomes ‘friendly’ and recognized as ok” doesn’t always apply. “Many children will need more than the often-quoted 7-10 exposures to a food before eating it,” Upton says.
Still, she advises parents to be patient. “Don’t lose hope if your child isn’t there yet. Exposure to a wide variety of foods would also be important in the long term too,” she adds.
Is it possible that this way children might miss out on necessary food groups? Lucy has some advice for parents who may worry. “Regarding nutritional deficiencies, risks tend to increase if children are missing foods within a whole food group e.g. eat not protein or iron-rich foods, or have under 15-20 foods overall.”
So as long as your kid is not living solely off plain bread and ice cream, they should be fine.
How and what parents feed their children is only part of the equation
Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)
Many commenters under OP’s post noted that they tried this exact method and it didn’t work for them. Sometimes it’s more about the child’s tastes and opinions, and there’s not much a parent can do.
Lucy Upton says that there are a lot of factors that lead to kids being fussy eaters. “Like many nutrition-related conditions, there are factors that parents can and cannot influence,” she explains.
“It’s well established that genetics, personality, sensory differences, early feeding history and presence of other conditions e.g. reflux or allergies can influence a child’s interactions with food, and the likelihood of ‘pickiness’.
However, parents shouldn’t feel discouraged to try and change their kid’s eating habits. “We recognize that HOW children are fed, and approaches taken by parents (sometimes referred to as food parenting) can be hugely influential on the persistence of picky eating or the length of time it takes for things to improve.”
Commenters agreed with OP’s strategy and offered more tips
However, other parents said this method didn’t work for them and is not suited for everyone
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My dad told my 3 yr old self "Eat it--it'll put hair on your chest" when he saw me being picky one night. He was teasing me, but apparently it worked. I don't remember the instance, but after that all my folks would have to say is "It'll put hair on your chest" because my dumb a*s wanted to have a hairy chest so I could be like our dog.
One of my children has sensory processing disorder-its not the taste of food that makes him picky, its the texture. He can't eat semi-solids that are 'slimy' like avocado, jelly (jello), mousse/pudding etc. Carrots, for example, he loves them raw, and loves them blended into carrot and coriander soup, but steamed too soft, or boiled and mashed, they make him regurgitate. Same with tomatoes-raw and crisp are fine, liquidised in marinara sauce is fine, but cooked into casserole or stew isn't. Once we realised this, there are work-arounds, and its far easier using alternatives than it is getting vomit stains out of clothing!
Texture is so, so important. I once bought a margarine that tasted *exactly* like butter; flavor-wise, I've never found a better margarine. But it had the consistency of pudding and didn't melt even on hot toast, and I just couldn't make myself eat butter-flavored pudding beyond that first bite.
Load More Replies...
Some kids are picky eaters for a reason. Mine was because my mom's cooking was terrible. She was lazy and really didn't take the time to make anything with care. Most of it was overcooked and bland because she barely used any seasoning. I really didn't know how some foods were supposed to taste until I started cooking them for myself.
My parents were so annoying about how little I ate. Turns out I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis and I couldn’t swallow properly. Another “funny family story” like that is my aunt and uncle thought my cousin was shy. She wasn’t. She was deaf. She was cured or something when she got her tonsils removed because they were blocking something. I was told this story after I was diagnosed
This sounds reasonable. He’s not forcing food, he’s just familiarising his kids with it so they feel safe trying new things. It doesn’t say in the post that they have to eat foods they dislike, he just tries to make it feel safe to try new things. My mom would give us the same foods as everyone else, and if you didn’t like it you didn’t eat it, but she made sure we knew that if the taste is the problem, you might like it if you try again (no pressure and if it was a texture issue that’s not the case usually). Worked pretty well. While my sisters and I have foods we don’t like, we’re never afraid to try something.
We were basically doing this consistently for a year or two. My kids still hardly ever touched their veggies. Maybe that works for some kids, don't expect it to work for every kid. Edit: still don't do the forcing kids to eat their veggies or clean the plate or whatever nonsense.
The rule we had growing up was we had to eat two bites of everything on our plate before we could have seconds/leave the table. My siblings & I would add peas to our spoons one at a time, asking, "Is this a bite?" after each addtional pea. Now as an adult, I'm a weird blend of picky and adventurous. I will try just about any food, but the list of foods I actually *like* is rather short. And then there are the "it depends..." foods. For example: I don't like fresh pineapple. I can eat cottage cheese, but it's not high on my list of things I like. But mix fresh pineapple into cottage cheese and I love it.
I relate to this so much. From the "is this a bite?" To the weird mix of picky and adventurous.
Load More Replies...
I'm 54 and to this day struggle with certain vegetables. I literally have to choke them down because my whole system is just going REJECT REJECT the whole time. So I eat other veggies and take supplements. Frak it.
I was labelled a ‘picky’ eater from a very early age. I wouldn’t tolerate foodstuffs touching each other or covering everything in sauce or gravy, preferred my veggies raw including potatoes but loved mashed spuds. It wasn’t until I was in my late 30s that I was diagnosed as autistic which made my food intolerances make sense. However, my parents were both brought up during the 1930s where such things didn’t exist. And I’m still the same with food now.
we just said "you have to try it. if you don't like it, don't eat it, but you at least have to try," and that worked fine for us. to be fair thats probably more about him than it was us. he's an amazing kid, very easy baby, very easy kid
He's sharing what worked with his child, not "this is how you do parenting right!" If it works for him, great. If someone else tries it and it works, great. If not -- well, all kids are different. I was crazy picky as a kid. Became more adventurous as an older teenager. My kid seems to be headed in the same path. I offer, if he doesn't like it, he will cook for himself (he's 15 and quite capable of cooking.) Sometimes he cooks for all of us.
I wish my parents had been like this. I am fairly adventurous, but have texture issues. My mom once made me sit at the the dining room table for 2 hours because I couldn't gag down the lima beans. I still dislike many beans because of the mealy texture. I learned later in life that I have a sensory processing disorder and that along with a few other diagnoses has really opened my eyes to how many coping mechanisms I have developed.
You don't BECOME a picky eater. You just are. I have two kids and did the same with both. My first was "picky" as early as babyhood. It's called sensory sensitivity. It takes a lot more for a child like that to overcome the apprehension of new colours, new tastes, new textures.. and it stresses them a lot. I agree that stress and pressure must be removed from the table to increase a child's food acceptance BUT it's not as easy as "do this and a picky eater will eat". And definitely don't be too quick to pat yourself in the back of your child eats everything: my second eats everything and I did the same thing as with my first. Some kids are food oriented, some are not. Some have sensory sensitivy, some don't. Any "tip" from somebody who didn't encounter the problem is absurd. My picky kid was already picky with bottle and breastmilk. You can tell even before the kid formed any kind of food habit!
My dad told my 3 yr old self "Eat it--it'll put hair on your chest" when he saw me being picky one night. He was teasing me, but apparently it worked. I don't remember the instance, but after that all my folks would have to say is "It'll put hair on your chest" because my dumb a*s wanted to have a hairy chest so I could be like our dog.
One of my children has sensory processing disorder-its not the taste of food that makes him picky, its the texture. He can't eat semi-solids that are 'slimy' like avocado, jelly (jello), mousse/pudding etc. Carrots, for example, he loves them raw, and loves them blended into carrot and coriander soup, but steamed too soft, or boiled and mashed, they make him regurgitate. Same with tomatoes-raw and crisp are fine, liquidised in marinara sauce is fine, but cooked into casserole or stew isn't. Once we realised this, there are work-arounds, and its far easier using alternatives than it is getting vomit stains out of clothing!
Texture is so, so important. I once bought a margarine that tasted *exactly* like butter; flavor-wise, I've never found a better margarine. But it had the consistency of pudding and didn't melt even on hot toast, and I just couldn't make myself eat butter-flavored pudding beyond that first bite.
Load More Replies... Some kids are picky eaters for a reason. Mine was because my mom's cooking was terrible. She was lazy and really didn't take the time to make anything with care. Most of it was overcooked and bland because she barely used any seasoning. I really didn't know how some foods were supposed to taste until I started cooking them for myself.
My parents were so annoying about how little I ate. Turns out I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis and I couldn’t swallow properly. Another “funny family story” like that is my aunt and uncle thought my cousin was shy. She wasn’t. She was deaf. She was cured or something when she got her tonsils removed because they were blocking something. I was told this story after I was diagnosed
This sounds reasonable. He’s not forcing food, he’s just familiarising his kids with it so they feel safe trying new things. It doesn’t say in the post that they have to eat foods they dislike, he just tries to make it feel safe to try new things. My mom would give us the same foods as everyone else, and if you didn’t like it you didn’t eat it, but she made sure we knew that if the taste is the problem, you might like it if you try again (no pressure and if it was a texture issue that’s not the case usually). Worked pretty well. While my sisters and I have foods we don’t like, we’re never afraid to try something.
We were basically doing this consistently for a year or two. My kids still hardly ever touched their veggies. Maybe that works for some kids, don't expect it to work for every kid. Edit: still don't do the forcing kids to eat their veggies or clean the plate or whatever nonsense.
The rule we had growing up was we had to eat two bites of everything on our plate before we could have seconds/leave the table. My siblings & I would add peas to our spoons one at a time, asking, "Is this a bite?" after each addtional pea. Now as an adult, I'm a weird blend of picky and adventurous. I will try just about any food, but the list of foods I actually *like* is rather short. And then there are the "it depends..." foods. For example: I don't like fresh pineapple. I can eat cottage cheese, but it's not high on my list of things I like. But mix fresh pineapple into cottage cheese and I love it.
I relate to this so much. From the "is this a bite?" To the weird mix of picky and adventurous.
Load More Replies... I'm 54 and to this day struggle with certain vegetables. I literally have to choke them down because my whole system is just going REJECT REJECT the whole time. So I eat other veggies and take supplements. Frak it.
I was labelled a ‘picky’ eater from a very early age. I wouldn’t tolerate foodstuffs touching each other or covering everything in sauce or gravy, preferred my veggies raw including potatoes but loved mashed spuds. It wasn’t until I was in my late 30s that I was diagnosed as autistic which made my food intolerances make sense. However, my parents were both brought up during the 1930s where such things didn’t exist. And I’m still the same with food now.
we just said "you have to try it. if you don't like it, don't eat it, but you at least have to try," and that worked fine for us. to be fair thats probably more about him than it was us. he's an amazing kid, very easy baby, very easy kid
He's sharing what worked with his child, not "this is how you do parenting right!" If it works for him, great. If someone else tries it and it works, great. If not -- well, all kids are different. I was crazy picky as a kid. Became more adventurous as an older teenager. My kid seems to be headed in the same path. I offer, if he doesn't like it, he will cook for himself (he's 15 and quite capable of cooking.) Sometimes he cooks for all of us.
I wish my parents had been like this. I am fairly adventurous, but have texture issues. My mom once made me sit at the the dining room table for 2 hours because I couldn't gag down the lima beans. I still dislike many beans because of the mealy texture. I learned later in life that I have a sensory processing disorder and that along with a few other diagnoses has really opened my eyes to how many coping mechanisms I have developed.
You don't BECOME a picky eater. You just are. I have two kids and did the same with both. My first was "picky" as early as babyhood. It's called sensory sensitivity. It takes a lot more for a child like that to overcome the apprehension of new colours, new tastes, new textures.. and it stresses them a lot. I agree that stress and pressure must be removed from the table to increase a child's food acceptance BUT it's not as easy as "do this and a picky eater will eat". And definitely don't be too quick to pat yourself in the back of your child eats everything: my second eats everything and I did the same thing as with my first. Some kids are food oriented, some are not. Some have sensory sensitivy, some don't. Any "tip" from somebody who didn't encounter the problem is absurd. My picky kid was already picky with bottle and breastmilk. You can tell even before the kid formed any kind of food habit!
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