It happened so slowly that I didn’t see it coming.   He always ate well as a baby and accepted new foods eagerly.  I beamed.  I bragged.  I congratulated myself.

Fast forward three years.  I distractedly prepared my four year old’s dinner and caught myself rinsing off his chicken so he wouldn’t notice the sauce.  It dawned on me how plain a diet he was eating.  I was so concerned with him eating healthfully that I had missed the forest for the raw broccoli.  He had managed to hoodwink us; a twinkle in his eye as he ate his red peppers.

I took action.  I went shopping: a collection of new treats, a notebook, and a few new foods.  I went home, decorated a cardboard box and made room for it in the pantry.  I waited.  “What’s THIS!?!?” I heard his voice trill when he found it.  His eyes were wide.  

I laid it on thick.  

I told him I loved how he was so adventurous in trying new things.  I explained how every time he decided to be adventurous and try a new healthy food at lunch or dinner, his dessert that day could be something from the Dessert Box.  He didn’t have to try the new items, or finish them.  He didn’t even have to like them.  The point was just to be adventurous and try.   Three bites would be enough.  And if he didn’t like the new food, he could still eat a healthy dinner from the other items on his plate and choose something out of the box for dessert.   We would write any of the ones he did like in his new notebook.  He loved it.

We started slowly.  I wanted some easy wins.  Scrambled eggs, tomatoes, glazed carrots.    He started asking if we would be trying a new food for dinner. 

Crab, portobello mushrooms, manicotti.  He asked us to write down extras - things he wanted to try that wouldn’t earn him a dessert but showed his adventurous side:  sunflower seeds, limes, parmesan cheese.  We were on a roll.

That’s not to say we didn’t have our hiccups.  There were times when I ran out of creativity and new foods.  But it was working.  I remember one day when he didn’t like the new food I’d served…his face crumpled.  “Can I try a different new food instead?” 

Fast forward another six months.   He has tried perhaps a hundred new foods so far, and likes about 70. The spirit of adventure remains.  We enjoy dinners more.  I can try new recipes.  I don’t hear “…but I don’t like that!” every time I dare to mention a new food or dish.  When I serve him something new I often hear “Yum.  I LOVE it.”  I beam.  I brag.  And then I congratulate him.

*Parent tip:  I chose new things that were exciting but still reasonably inoffensive for the Dessert Box.  I knew if it worked, he might be choosing from the box twice a day!

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Click here to Why Bother to Feed My Kids Better...

 

Fueled by laughable amounts of chocolate and coffee, Jen Taylor is a business owner, wife and mom to two beautiful kids.  Her kids come first, work second and sanity last of all.  Jen loves to read, write and talk about pretty much anything, and if the latter can be done with friends over wine, all the better.


Visit her blog at littlemissmocha.com or follow Jen on twitter @littlemissmocha.