The Family Groove | Mixed Greens | Picky Eaters: How to Skip the Food Battles and Make Peace with Mealtime

MIXED GREENS
HOLISTIC HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE COUNSELOR KATHERINE PENNINGTON OF
BE-N-BALANCE.COM TOSSES UP NUTRITIOUS AND EASY WAYS TO FEED YOUR FAMILY
—MIND, BODY AND SOUL

PICKY EATERS: HOW TO SKIP THE FOOD BATTLES AND MAKE PEACE WITH MEALTIME
Get Your Kids to Eat Veggies

Proper nutrition is one of the most important influences on your
child’s well-being and affects every aspect of his or her development.
It affects how kids feel during the day, how well they can pay attention
and how much information they absorb in class, how much energy they
have, how well they play at sports and how well they interact with others. We all want the best for our children, and it is important to do what we can to improve our children’s nutrition now. The eating patterns our children have in early childhood will greatly influence, if not determine, their eating habits and overall health later in life. The earlier we encourage healthy choices for our child, the better.

First, let me say it is totally normal that your child is a picky eater and, as a parent, you should not beat yourself up if your child only scarfs down pizza or anything white and insidiously refuses to eat any sort of vegetable. According to a study led by Dr. Lucy Cook from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, our children’s eating habits are 78 percent genetics and only 22 percent environmental.

Give Up the Parental Guilt
We are all born with a predisposition toward and an aversion to certain foods. These rejections of new and unrecognizable foods at one time served as a protective mechanism in the wild. Dislike of bitter foods, for example, may stem from the fact that most poisons taste bitter. It would be easy to throw up our hands and say “we give up” or feel that we are not empowered to make changes. There are a few very helpful strategies I recommend to make mealtime easier and more enjoyable and to begin having your children start developing good eating habits. The earlier you start, the better.

Serve One Meal
Stop being a short-order cook in your own house, and make one meal for your children (and ideally you) to sit down and eat together. There is one person very close to me whose youngest daughter only eats a specific type of white pasta with a specific type of margarine and another child who only eats pizza and yet another who subsists on PB&J and crackers. Serving each young person in the house with a tailor-made meal does not serve anyone’s interests. The child loses because he doesn’t get proper nutrition, and you lose because you are exhausted and worn out and feel like you are always trying to jump through hoops to make everyone happy. Obviously, you won’t serve your child peas if you know he truly hates them, but otherwise, dinner is dinner.

If the Child Refuses to Eat or Is Not Hungry, Don’t Be Upset
Just cover up the meal and save it for later. If/when the child becomes hungry, give him the saved meal. It goes without saying there’s no dessert until the child eats his dinner. You might have some whining at first, but once he knows you mean business and are serious, he will take what you are saying seriously as well. Believe me, your child will not starve and you are not depriving your child of anything by being firm with him about eating a nutritious meal.

Do Not Let Your Concerns about Eating Become a Power Struggle
If you end up introducing foods in a confrontational way, you and your child will be locked in a power struggle. Mealtime should be about connecting with each other as a family. Serve your dinner, then sit down and eat. Do not comment on whether they have or have not eaten something. When mealtime is a pleasant time, children will be more open to eating healthy foods.

Encourage (But Don’t Force) Your Children to Try New Foods
Don’t offer bribes for eating, but do explain how what they put in their bodies will determine how they will look and feel as well as perform in school and sports. My next goal with my children is to get them eating salads, and we have implemented a star chart in our household with specific rewards for progress. So far, so good.

Try Serving a New Food Over and Over Again
The key here is to remain calm and emotionally detached from your frustration if they refuse it. Studies have shown that children naturally reject new foods; however, the more you serve a food, the more familiar children will become with it, increasing the likelihood that they’ll eventually eat it. In my house, anytime we go a period of time without salmon and I serve it, they complain that they don’t like it. When I begin serving it several times a week, they begin to love it again. Do not take it personally.

Model Behavior for Them
This is a very important, often overlooked point. Children will be open to eating what they see their parents and other siblings eat. Eat with your children whenever possible and, if you do eat later, at least sit with them and catch up on their day.

Talk to Your Children about Nutrition
We often think that our children tune us out when we tell them that there is vitamin C in orange juice that helps build up our immune systems and fight illness, iron in broccoli that makes us strong and good at sports or beta-carotene that strengthens our eyesight. Do not harp but do explain why you make certain food choices and why you cook healthy foods for them. The earlier we begin talking to them about what makes their body strong, what makes their brains smart, and what makes them feel good, the better choices that they will make. Believe me, your children are listening.

No Snacks (Including Drinks) Three Hours Before Mealtime
This is a tricky one, because if your children are like mine and they come home from school ravenous and cranky, you need to give them something but you don’t want to ruin their dinner. My suggestion is to give them something light like an apple or a cup of yogurt, and give them something to drink right when you pick them up, but then do not allow any more until dinner. If your children are getting too hungry, you might need to move up dinner hour a bit so they don’t eat too much on a snack, then refuse dinner, then be hungry at bedtime—not a good pattern. When your kids are ravenous, they will be ready to come to the table and eat, and they will be more likely to eat what is put in front of them.

Have Crudités on the Counter for Everyone to Snack On
Have carrot sticks, broccoli and other raw vegetables with dips around for them (and you) to munch on while you cook.

Establish Mealtime Routines
Eat at the same time and the same place every day. Young bodies will get into a pattern of eating, and when they are in a good eating pattern, everyone is more likely to come to the table hungry and ready to eat.

Encourage Your Child to Help Choose and Shop for Meals
You want your children to feel that they have had a say in what they have purchased and become invested in meals. In our family, we go to Whole Foods on the weekends. The children always get excited to try all the samples, and we always leave with them wanting to choose a new food. A word to the wise: Do not take them to a regular grocery store where they will be exposed and tempted by a lot of junk food.

Cook with Your Children
I always cook with the children whenever possible. One of our favorite things to do together is to make pizza. All it takes is whole-wheat flour, olive oil and a little yeast to make a healthy, delicious dough; then we top on tomato sauce and lots of cheese. I always bring out any vegetables that we have, and the kids make faces on the pizza— broccoli hair, carrot mouths and pea eyes. It is a fun activity, and the children always gobble up their creations.

My Final Rule: Everything in Moderation
It is okay (and mentally healthy) for them to have French fries or chicken nuggets every now and then, or ice cream as a treat during the week, as long as they know that while these treats are yummy and delicious and acceptable to have every once in a while, they are not necessarily healthy.

Katherine Pennington is a holistic health counselor and founder of Be in Balance, which helps women and men lose weight, reduce stress and achieve more balance in their lives. Additionally, Katherine runs a cooking program for kids and their moms called Kids in the Kitch, in which she helps mothers and fathers cook healthier meals for their families as well as works one-on-one with children. Katherine is also an avid runner and marathoner and advises athletes on how to fuel for maximum performance and health.

Katherine graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition/Columbia Teachers College and is a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Additionally, Katherine is a founding member of Women for Family Nutrition (www.wffn.org).

Katherine resides in New York City and is the mother to two beautiful children.

For more from Katherine, visit www.be-n-balance.com.