Thread: how do you get a six year old to eat healthier foods? she is a picky...

...eater and decides she won't like it? just by looking at it. im ready to force feed her but i know there's no point in that because she'll spit it out or throw it up. help me!!!!
OMG all of you're answers are really good, don't know which one pick

I had this same problem with my younger daughter a few years ago. Every time I'd put something heathly in front of her and she'd come back with "I don't like that".. I used the simple phrase "You don't have an opinion about something until you try it" and then I would just ignore whatever else she had to say about that item. after awhile of saying that to her she started trying new things (and most of them liking them) just so she'd have an opinion. Good luck. Hope this helps

My mother used to just keep feeding whatever it was to us until we learned to like it. She did the same to dad too, when he gave up and started eating it, we knew we couldn't hold out any longer. She'd just keep refrigerating and re-heating it until we ate it. Tough, but easier than dealing with a picky eater. You might find changing your cooking style or recipes might help. Mum used to try and feed us capsicum in salad, which we all hated. Then she found a recipe that involved cooking them. Don't know why she didn't try that in the first place! Same with broccoli. We hated steamed or boiled, but were happy to eat it stirfried. Basically, if there is no junk food, your daughter can't eat it. It's a power issue. So you have to combat it with the appearance of not caring. You just keep bringing it out every time she says she's hungry and shrugging and putting it back in the fridge if she won't eat it.

Have several selections of healthy choices, that what she feels in control, and that she is chosing her food..Just don't offer unhealthy food, remember you are MOM, she can't buy it....so you can decide on what foods are in your home.

My son eats what we eat or nothing...I also make the rule with new food, 2 bites. He can't leave the table until he tries 2 bites of the new food. Eventually they get hungry enough to eat. I actually have a 5 year old that will eat a salad with all kinds of veggies in it because of the 2 bite rule.

I hide a lot of "yucky" ingredients in my meals.. I have leftover babyfood(s) that I will sometimes pour into my children's portions of spagetti sauce... I make lasagna with cooked spinach I just chop the spinach really,really fine and put it with the ricotta layer and the mozzarella cheese layer... I will also finely chop carrots, onions, celery, green peppers, mushrooms, garlic, and put that in the sauce... I make homemade mac and cheese and I use ricotta cheese and I finely chop us carrots, zuchinni, broccolli, etc... I make oatmeal cookie pancakes and I use bisquick as the base and I cook some oatmeal let it cool.. I add brown sugar, cinnamon, applesauce and 2 eggs/vanilla mix the ingredients together and it makes a healthy, full of fiber pancake that doesn't need syrup... Or I'll add a ripe banana INSTEAD of the applesauce.... They freeze well too... Just be creative and if she helps cook she might eat it as well....

We had a policy that they had to eat two bites of everything served. Peas were cannon balls and broccoli was trees with mayonaise snow. Carrots could be eaten with the fingers, etc.
Just be sure that you have only healthy food in the house (that's good for everyone) and she will eat when she's hungry enough.

Fix her whatever healthy food you want her to eat. Let her choose whether to eat it or not. Don't force feed. If she chooses not to, let her know that is all she's getting. If she misses a night of food, she won't starve. She WILL eat when she gets hungry.

If you fix her anything she wants just because you think she'll starve or don't want to deal with her - she'll continue to act this way and it will get worse and worse.

Good luck.

My mom used to make it seem like a game and she would put fruit and vegetables in the cookie jar. We thought apples and celery w/peanut butter were like candy bars for several years.