Buzz Bishop: Daddy Buzz

Apr
04
2011

Food Fight!

How Do You Get Your Kids To Eat

I have no idea how my 3 and a half year old survives. He has just a few main food groups: veggie dogs, plain noodles, cucumber sushi and cereal.

Every now and again he'll grab a banana or slurp up some tomato soup or apple sauce, but basically his meals are pretty bland and of the same thing. Everytime.

We just got back from an all inclusive in Mexico and tried to use the deep and varied buffet each night as a way to get him to spread his tastebuds wide and try different things.

No luck.

So for the past 2 weeks, we've drawn a solid line in the sand and are not budging until he tries something new each night. Sometimes its a slice of red pepper, or a chicken finger or a quesedilla (all foods he loved as a toddler). It's been tough, but he's been good at trying - until we put sauce on his noodles.

It's sauce. On pasta. And it sent him over the edge.

We want our boys to have a wide, varied and courageous palate, but we definitely don't want to go the "sneaky chef" route. All that does is get your kids a taste for chocolate cake (and it won't always have zucchini and beets in it).

New commercials for kids' PediaSure gave us a pause to stop and consider it, (because it showed we weren't alone in our struggles) but we quickly dismissed it as we do many prefab kid targeted foods. Our kids will eat the good stuff, made by us, grown by people.

Are your pre-schoolers good eaters? How do you convince them that sauce on pasta is a good thing?

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