Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Fussy eaters - best tricks?

In the last week I've had a few successes with my daughter trying some new things.  My daughter ate anything put in front of her until she was two years old, then developed preferences.  She has never really eaten any of the traditional children's foods (especially the nice easy to prepare ones like spaghetti on toast), but does favour Asian style food.  All in all, her diet is pretty healthy, but I am always looking to add new things.

In the last week I have had unusual success getting her to try some new things.  I say unusual, because trying new things is not something she is keen on.  These tricks might work for others, so I'm typing them up here.  I'd love to hear any other approaches you have.

Eating pesto:
I bought two kinds of shaped pasta from Med Food Warehouse - one alphabet shapes, the other Christmas shapes (markdown).  I'd tried to get her to eat pesto before - after all, it is just about the easiest thing to put on pasta.  In the past calling it green sauce was unsuccessful.  This time I said that I had decorated the Christmas tree shapes with green dots. She ate half of her pasta, a success in this house.

Hard boiled eggs:
For the life of me I don't know why I hadn't pushed these harder in the past.  Eggs are a great meal.  Last time I made one for myself my daughter was not keen - said that they were yucky (without trying) and that eggs were for baking not eating.  Those of you with four year olds will be familiar with the conversation.  As an Easter promotion one egg company is including wraps to put around eggs, that then go skin tight when dipped in hot water.  She ate the egg white and I will have to work on the egg yolk!


Choosing the veges:
I've often read that children are more likely to eat veges that they have grown themselves.  This is not the case with my daughter, but she is more likely to eat a vegetable that she has chosen for herself at the market/ supermarket and then choosen again for dinner.  Last night we were having crumbed chicken and couscous.  I told my daughter to pick some veges to go in.  She was quite intrigued and pulled out cauliflower, broccolli, spring onion and red cabbage.  Her dinner was eaten.

Conducting an experiment:
Last week I made some yoghurt in the yoghurt maker.  I ate some flavoured with a little of the strawberry jam I'd made the week before and it was scrummy.  I wanted my daughter to try it, as it was pretty delicious and I thought she may like it.  I got out the yoghurt, jam and a bowl.  I explained that we need to conduct an experiment in how to make strawberry yoghurt - what quantities of each were required.  She kept tasting to see if she needed to add more of either ingredient.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I have some japanese boiled egg shapers if you would like to try? Apparently some people find making a food cute helps too?

    Here's a bento website I like, written by a "lazy mum":
    http://lunchinabox.net/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have just finished devouring that site. It is awesome. I love her frozen spaghetti. I often do leftover dumplings or onigiri, but feel like trying for more attractive presentation!

    ReplyDelete