Nutrition For the Picky Eater

I am frequently asked about how to get kids to eat. In general, there are a few quick "rules":

• Don't offer junk. Don't make it easily available at home... most kids can't drive to the store!
• Hungry kids will eat what's offered. Let them get hungry between meals. No grazing.
• Not every food group will be eaten at every meal, so use the day to space foods to incorporate a range of nutrition over time. Think of snacks as mini-meals.
• Keep meal time fun.
• Enforce "Taste a bite without a fight" after 3 years of age.
• It's okay to be tricky and fun: add pureed vegetables to things, use yogurt or hummus dips, put food on a stick, arrange food into fun shapes, be creative.
• Juice is not a food.

This is my first attempt at adding video to my blog. I apologize for the tilted view... it looked straight on my camera! YouTube limits the length to 10 minutes, and I ended up at 11 minutes, so it is broken into two shorter segments.

Part 1:



Part 2: 

Resources mentioned at the end:

My Pinterest page has several boards with recipes and nutritional information, in addition to other kid-friendly ideas! (Warning: if you don't use Pinterest, it can be addictive. Tons of great project ideas and recipes, educational sites, and other time wasters...)

Kids Eat Right: The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' page on scientifically-based health and nutrition information you can trust to help your child grow healthy.