Tuesday, June 15, 2010

10 Steps To Get Your Kids to Eat A New Food


How to get your children to eat something new (my tested-in-my-own-real-life-with-100%-success method):
  1. Fix your children their usual lunch and have them sit down and begin eating it.
  2. Fix the new food item for yourself.
  3. Sit down at the table with your kids eating their lunch with your plate of the yummy new food that you do not intend to share.
  4. Do not offer them any (this is key!)
  5. Begin eating without saying anything.
  6. It will take about 11 seconds before one of your beloved children will inquire, "Mommy, what are you eating?"
  7. Answer them matter of factly, still do not offer them any.
  8. And wait for them to say, "I want some!" Because they will.
  9. Then reluctantly give them some from your own plate (I did not have to fake the reluctant part because I really didn't want to share!).
  10. Be amazed as they suddenly love homemade hummus, greek yogurt with fresh fruit and granola, or grits (the 3 things I've recently unintentionally converted my kids into loving with this method)!
Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

12 comments:

  1. Great idea! I will be giving that a try! Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Of course, why didn't I think of that?! Thanks for the tip!

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  3. seriously...don't you just LOVE greek yogurt?! I especially like it w/ honey. I'm glad this works in your house. It does w/ my 18 month old...he won't TOUCH a banana unless it's chopped up in MY bowl. However, my 7 year old has always (really, I'm not exaggerating here) had texture issues & it just doesn't happen that way w/ her. Oh well.

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  4. Great idea! We had sushi awhile back and my son wanted a dipping bowl of wasabi and soy sauce. We, of course, didn't want him to have that, but I get your message, and it is a great one!

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  5. It is worth a shot. I'm going to try it.

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  6. LOL! Great idea! :D I can totally see this playing out..

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  7. Haha! Yes I can see this working!

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  8. OK.

    THis is purely brilliant.

    AND never truer words spoken! :)

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  9. haha, this is brilliant ~ I can see it working well. HUGS

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  10. hahaha...sooo true! My daughter does that exact thing, only she can't really talk very well, but gestures work just as well!! :)

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  11. :-D This works for me, too! It's important, at least with my kid, not to say ANYthing along the lines of, "You probably wouldn't like it." And it doesn't help to gloat about how yummy it is. Just say what it is and demonstrate that you consider it an acceptable food. Works wonders!

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  12. What a nifty trick -- I'm so sharing this with other mothers I know!

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I'd love to hear what you think!