I am running out of ideas how to get my daughter to try new foods has anyone got any suggestions?
Answers:
Try to involve a young child in preparing new foods. Even toddlers can stir something or do part of the prep. If they have had a part in making it they are much more likely to eat it.
Another thing is to avoid facilitating fussiness by offering substitutes for rejected foods. If you make asparagus for the first time and the toddler won't try it, don't make them green beans instead. They won't starve or get scurvy from missing a veggie. Hunger is a pretty good incentive.
You also need to make it known that we all have our preferences and that if they actually try something, maybe made a few different ways, they can really know they don't care for it. MY daughters ate nearly everything and loved broccoli, cauliflower, tried sushi and snails and squid and all sorts of things, but one doesn't like summer squashes but loves winter squashes and the other is the exact opposite. Any family member should be able to have a food or two they are allowed to skip, once they have tried it.
Another thing I see is parents training kids to only eat the familiar. When my girls were preschoolers, they loved a Chinese buffet and other Asian restaurants and learned to eat with chopsticks early on. We'd see other little ones being given chicken nuggets and french fries without any attempt to offer the other cuisine.
While these kids ate swill, mine learned Chinese words, became proficient with chopsticks early, encountered different flavors and were spoiled rotten by the restaurant staff, who came to know them and had their chopsticks and booster chairs as soon as they spotted us.
While forcing kids to eat different foods is a recipe for disaster, strong persuasion is a good motivater. You need to lead by example and to be firm that if they don't want to try all of the food offered, a special meal will not be provided. They may have to fill up on bread and butter or they just might try that lamb kabob.
Letting them help is the most effective way I ever found. I do confess to once having used a little deception. I ordered calamari as an appetizer, knowing they didn't know what it was, telling them it was a seafood that tasted a lot like clams. They ate the little rings in marinara sauce and asked for seconds, which they also devoured. Then I told them "calamari" is squid. They were a little annoyed, but they had a new food they had been persuaded to try.
Neither would try venison for years after a stupid friend referred to it in their presence as "murdered Bambi."
One last thing: some children will reject a food because they are intolerant of it or allergic to it. Be careful of any such symptoms and don't throw too many new foods at one time.
it depends on how old your daughter is. also is there a problem that she is a fussy eater ? does she eat only certain foods?
mt niece is like that, and my sister can't cope. so she had to be cruel to be kind and let her go a little hungry so she had to eat the food she refuse earlier.
oh well each to there own.
How old is she? My Husband will eat anything w/cheese on it...Kids love to "dip" food into things. Have her help fix her own food if she's old enough. Get her interested.
More Questions & Answers...
- Can most 4 and 1/2 year olds write their name on there own?
- Bed Time and Sippy Cups?
- Poll: Do all kids need to wear socks in public?
- my 4 yr old middle child that is a boy messes with everything? I have tired please help?
- for any DR in the room?
- My neighbor showers with her 3 yr old son! How old is too old for this?