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
