We would love for our kids to gobble up all of the healthy food on their plate, but that is just not the reality of it. Many of us, as children, were strongly encouraged to finish all of the food on our plates.  I remember pushing the peas off my plate under  its edge so they were out of sight and I could be excused. When it comes to trying new healthy foods,  I often tell parents to stay as positive as they can at meal times and to respect the fact that we all have different opinions about what foods taste good. After all we can’t make our kids like the foods we want them to if they don’t – just like we can’t make them fall asleep even though we know they are tired.

If we avoid demanding that they finish their food but instead encourage them to just “try” it – what then is “trying” really? To many parents this may mean more than what the child has in mind. Each child will “try” new foods differently  and it is important to remember that any type of trying is positive. Of course taking a big bite of that mushroom would be great. However, a tiny bite, or getting it on the fork to smell it will help them become familiar with that food. Describing the food (hard, soft, squishy, gooey), taking about how others like to eat it, touching it , and sometimes just the child  letting it sit on their plate is an accomplishment.  All of these things will get them more familiar with the food. Lack of familiarity is one of the biggest reasons kids may have a preconceived notion that they don’t like it. It takes patience as a parent for sure and may take awhile, but many times of “trying” will pay off in the end.

The is a page from my book Don’t Yuck My Yum! Annie is my daughter and has tried fish what seems like a hundred times. She now likes shrimp and salmon but would not eat sushi for sure! http://www.dontyuckmyyumbook.com