War on fussy eating: Part 1

Penny Bull - 5 May 18

My kids are most definitely part of the ‘beige eating’ gang; white bread, chicken nuggets, pizza, chips and pasta all being among their favourite foods. Fortunately, they do like a few healthier things – fruit, white fish and chicken – but the balance is tipped in major favour of the other, more diabetes-inducing stuff. I can’t get either one of them to even contemplate a vegetable (with the exception of corn on the cob), and no amount of bribing, cajoling or pleading – or helplessly reminding them of how they used to eat it when they were toddlers – will get them to enjoy that bowl of chilli/curry/shepherd’s pie.

School lunches are always of the ‘packed’ variety; variety being the wrong choice of word here. My eldest, Jackson, eats the same old Marmite sandwiches every day. I would love for them to expand their horizons a bit…and to eat more healthily in the process.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 78% of picky eaters inherit this trait from their parents. People who make healthy choices and have a positive and mature attitude towards food should, in most cases, have children who inherit these tendencies. After all, they are most likely to learn habits and behaviour that they see at home, right? I know that the problem lies with us. I do my best to make sure I serve up a balanced meal at dinnertime, but I have to admit, we have far too many naughty snacks around the house and weekends have come to mean there will usually be an unhealthy takeaway of some kind. I have been letting it slide for far too long!

So, what does this mean for my household? The very first step in all this was to banish the junk. The free-for-all that was Christmas saw our chocolate consumption reach dangerous levels, so I decided to ban all sweet treats and junk food during the week. I still allowed them a couple of treats at the weekend (I didn’t want an all-out war on my hands), but this way their taste buds had a chance to recover from all that crazy-tasting stuff during the week and it gave them a clear, easy to follow rule for what to eat and when.

And…lo and behold it did actually work pretty well. The boys were surprisingly accepting of their new situation, their fruit consumption tripled overnight and Jackson, Chief Picky Eater himself, has become much more open to trying new foods. Since January, he has discovered that he likes prawns, Peperami, honey and Yorkshire puddings. Ok, so some of these are not the healthiest of choices, but I’m going for variety over nutritious content here, and this is a big improvement for Jax, believe me.

The next step is to start introducing more variety into their diet, and to hope that some of the new options will be a hit with them. As I said, I’m not going to stress too much about the foods being ‘healthy’, I’m more focussed on getting them to view exploring new foods as a fun and enjoyable thing. We can worry about the brussel sprouts at a later date…

I’m under no illusions that this will be hard work. They are reluctant to try anything that looks unappealing to them. I’m going to have to be a bit shrewd in my methods here.

These are some of the things I want to try over the next few weeks:

• Talking about nutrition: which foods belong to which food group and what they do to our bodies, real food vs junk, traffic light symbols on packaging, etc.
• Playing around with ‘fun’ presentation to tempt them to try things. I have already bought some cookie cutters to make rocket and star shaped sandwiches, but I also want to try kebab skewers, lolly moulds and a few other bits I’ve seen.
• Cooking together. Let them pick out a recipe or an ingredient they want to try and prepare it themselves. The results should be interesting!
• Homemade after school snacks. My boys are always starving when they get in from school, so I think this could be a good time to try foisting something new onto them.
• Smoothies. Already a favourite with my kids but maybe we could even sneak some veg in there?
• Going to the supermarket/farmer’s market/farm shop together to let them choose a new ingredient to try. Get them interested in where their food comes from.
• Above all, I need to remember to have fun with them and not stress out if things don’t go to plan as they probably won’t!

Do you have a fussy eater in your house? If so, let me know what your tips for dealing with them are – I need all the help I can get!

Penny Bull

Mum to 2 boys and a husky. Spends days writing and worrying about health, the world in general and skills as a parent. Started blogging to regain sanity(hasn't happened yet).

View profile for posts, events and more info