It can be quite difficult to work through a period of picky eating with your child. You’ll struggle with the knowledge that they need to eat healthy in order to thrive, but find it difficult to get them to eat this way. If you find yourself in this predicament, you may be considering what options are out there. There are many ways that you can help your child through this time. This includes checking their appetite, hiding ingredients, dressing up their food, and recruiting their help in their kitchen.
Check Appetite
One of the first things that you’ll need to check is the child’s appetite. Children often follow an ebb and flow when it comes to their appetite. After a long day of play, they may have a ravenous appetite. Other times, they may not feel like eating much, even if they’re being served the best mozzarella sticks in the world.
Hiding Ingredients
One of the easiest ways to get a child to eat healthier foods they may not typically like is to find ways to hide ingredients in the foods they do consume. If they love fries, you can opt for sweet potato fries or fried rutabaga. Some local vendors incorporate healthy extras into the fried or baked foods they produce. You can type into an internet search engine “mozzarella sticks near me” in order to find a vendor that may include extras such as diced bell peppers or squash into their mozzarella sticks.
Dress Up the Food
Being creative with how you present the food to your child may aid in getting them to eat it. Whether you’re a food art novice or a seasoned food photographer, you can agree that food made to look appealing can make the desire to eat it more prominent. You can create an array of colors that span the plate, or you can opt to turn fruits and vegetables into animals or bugs that create a fun environment around the food.
Recruit Their Help
Many people learn to appreciate the food they’re eating when they have a hand in making it themselves. This extends to children as well. Children see baking and cooking as fun and a way to help their parents. They can learn aspects of science and math, as well as a necessary life skill that they’ll use throughout their lives.
Helping a child who’s considered a picky eater to eat healthier foods can seem like a daunting task. However, by doing certain things such as checking their appetite, typing into a search engine about “healthy mozzarella sticks near me ”, dressing up the food a little, or recruiting their help in the kitchen, you’ll find that they’ll move out of this phase in no time.