Are you struggling to feed your child on a daily basis? Are your mealtimes turning into “tom and jerry” pursuits? What can you do to direct your child’ s interest in healthy food? Here are 10 cooking hacks to help your child eat well.
Let me be honest here. My son is not extremely fussy about food but there are certain days when he goes on a hunger strike or throws a tantrum around the taste,shape, colour or texture of particular dishes.
This used to make me upset in the earlier days because I mistook his fuss for bad behaviour. So I nagged and force-fed in the difficult days, only to make things worse. At the sight of my lips twirling or my eyes piercing, Steve(my 3-year old son) would duck underneath the table and refuse to come out.
Mealtimes on such days were a battle and would always end with all of us drained of motivation and energy.
Now after some research and my own experiments at home, I have understood (and have to keep reminding myself) that it is absolutely normal for children to be fussy eaters.
It is also normal for children to like something one day and then dislike it the next, to reject something they are not familiar with and to eat disproportionately on a day to day basis.
So the following cooking hacks have just been some strategies to get my son to eat healthy food and enjoy it too. Hope these help you in some way.
For spicy dishes
As an Indian it is common in my home to have spicy meals. Steve (my son) however still hates chilli-hot dishes. So whenever I make a spicy dish, I usually add more of the plain ingredient on his plate.
For example, if I am making biryani today, I will add more plain rice along with the biryani on his plate. If I’m cooking chana masala, I will keep some cooked chana aside and add it later on his plate or even grind it to a paste and add it to the curry. I add coconut milk to the South Indian curries and curd or cream for the north-indian ones, to tone down the spice just enough for him to enjoy .
I do however, keep letting him try the spicier versions as well, but he always gets to have a choice.
Also for spicy meals, I always make it a point to cook one dish spicy and one not. So flavourful rice goes with spicy curry or spicy paratha goes with a bland but flavourful curry.
Re-purpose your meals
I have realized that any meal can be changed into a new form if you understand flavours and the basics of cooking.
If for example, Steve does not have beetroot thoran (a Kerala dish) with his lunch today, I will grind it slightly and give it in a sandwich for an evening snack. Sometimes I convert it into a pancake mix or even add it into a smoothie. Similarly chicken from the chicken curry can be made into a sandwich or a chapathi roll too.
Put it on a stick
Children love feeling and exploring new food items, while maintaining a safe distance. So make it easy for them to become friends with what they eat.
Fruits can be easily put on a stick. Stack the chicken pieces or cottage cheese (paneer) along with capsicum bits together in a stick. Just like how you would do it for tandoori! Be creative in how you can use the stick!
Make it fun
Cut your chapathis, dosas, idlis, sandwiches into interesting shapes. Even better, if it is in the shape of an object they recently observed or have studied about. Check out Rohini’s instagram feed for some inspiration. She does a great job at creatively designing her son’s meals for the purpose of education!
Bite-sized food item + dip
This is a very common strategy and has worked for me as well sometimes.
Take any solid food item like cooked carrots or idly or bread-sticks or chicken cutlets and make them bite-sized (meaning the size should be as much as what your child can hold with his fingers). Serve these food items along with a dip of their liking(which is also something that you may have to keep trying)
Dip ideas- Peanut butter, honey, maple syrup, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, tomato sauce, hummus, cream cheese, pasta sauce, spinach gravy, thick curd, mashed dal, mashed potatoes etc etc
Make it colourful
There’s something that colours do to our mood isn’t it? Well similar are the effects when you make your plate colourful. What more! Different colours give different health benefits too.
Red fresh food items like tomatoes and watermelons are loaded with the phytonutrient lycopene. Lycopene is good for the heart. Red cherries and strawberries are filled with vitamin C.
Purple or blue fresh food items like blueberries, beetroot, eggplant, raisins have anthocyanins that are rich in antioxidants and are also great for immunity.
Orange or yellow fresh food items like carrots, oranges, pumpkins, mango, contain carotenoids and are high in Vitamin A.
Green fruits and vegetables like spinach, broccoli, cucumber, are power-packed with antioxidants, nutrients like iron and zinc and a variety of vitamins like A, C. E and K.
Brown and white items like banana, potatoes, coconut, cauliflower, ginger, though not very appealing to the eye are also important for being valuable sources of potassium and other important nutrients.
So give your child a taste and feel of all these colours in a meal. If not anything,they will definitely be attracted and willing to try.
Deconstruct it
While Steve used to earlier enjoy mixed rice (rice with curry and veggies), I have noticed that he now prefers all of the items to have separate places on the plate.
So whenever I serve anything now, I keep all the food items separately. Chapathi or rice at one corner, the curry in one small bowl, salad or vegetable in one corner. A sandwich or roll is similarly deconstructed with bread, chutney or sauce, vegetable or non veg, chips or fries having their own positions on the plate.
I think it’s his way of asserting independence and getting the chance to try these food items on his own without being told.
Offer as a whole
While some food items work great bite-sized, some are loved even when offered as a whole to my son. Eg- Bananas, Pears, Apples, Broccoli florets, Baby carrots, Corn cobs, Chapathi rolls, Cheese slice, Paneer (cottage cheese), Cucumber etc I believe it’s because he knows his food items now now so he gets excited to be able to eat them in their actual shape.
Serve a fresh fruit 1 hr before the lunch meal
I have noticed that whenever I offer an orange or grapes (any fruit that is not so heavy on the stomach) to Steve, 1 or 2 hours before the lunch meal, he develops a good appetite for lunch and finishes his meal.
As usual I researched about it and found it to be true! As per a study conducted by the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, when you have fructose (the dominant sugar in fruits), it doesn’t stimulate insulin response.
Meaning that in the case of fruits, the brain does not produce the appetite suppressing hormones. And so this increases your desire to eat more as soon as one of your senses is tempted!! (Watch out weight loss enthusiasts)
Cook one meal of their liking
I don’t cook separately for all of us. So to ensure that my son is having his share of healthy food, I cook atleast one meal of his liking. For example- pancakes for breakfast or coconut based curry for dinner.
Also even if he is not very comfortable with any particular meal, I make sure that among all the food items on his plate, I give him atleast 2 options that I know he likes. Like cucumber slices or papadam, so he gets an incentive and time, to atleast try the other items
Some more tips to help your child eat well
- Children thrive on routines. Try to establish a mealtime routine, where your child sits with you on the table, almost the same time, eating from the same plates or bowls, every day. Let them know what is expected of them, a few minutes before the mealtime begins. You can even ask their help in setting the table or in doing some last minute touches to your cooked meal.
- As parents, we are the best role-models for our children. So avoid getting the phones on the table or even watching TV during mealtime. Instead, sit together for your meals, being mindful of the task at hand. Take a moment and thank God for the food you have been blessed with. As you eat mindfully, show your child how the spoon is used, how much to take in each spoonful, how the food is chewed. The more you eat in front of your child, the more interested he will be in eating as well.
- For 3-year-olds like mine, it is helpful when we discuss the food in front of him. Ignite their curious minds by asking what shape the food item is, what the original vegetable or fruit is, what colour it is, the name of the texture they feel it is. For older kids you can even discuss how the food item helps their body to function and grow.
- Don’t force feed. It never works and may even lead to food aversion. Instead encourage them once to taste and then leave it upon them to follow or not.
- Give small portions of food. My son used to get intimidated by big (regular) portions. So we started giving him smaller portions and telling him that he could take a second serving. It worked!
- Keep introducing new foods and foods that were once rejected. The more they get familiar with these items the more chances they get to try. Your role as a parent is to serve healthy food, the choice to have it or not should always be with the child.
- It is okay if they go on hunger strikes for a meal or two. Don’t give in to compensating it with something unhealthy because then they will never appreciate healthy food. Stick to only healthy options (“I have only these cucumber pieces and chicken curry. What do you want?”) In my case the unhealthy stuff is allowed only once a day, that too in a time-slot far apart from the actual meals.
- Don’t bribe. I used to do this before and I realized that by bribing with “something sweet or something yum”, Steve would get more adamant on getting that “something” quicker and totally disregard the actual meal. The meals became his “hurdles” to reaching what was”yum”. This doesn’t help because we don’t want our children to see healthy food as their enemies right?
- Involve them in the cooking process if possible. This way they will develop more familiarity and fondness for the food they eat.
As always habits take time to be established. Good habits around food intake will definitely help your kids in the long run. So stay consistent and remember by giving the choice to your child to eat or not, you’re also teaching him to be responsible for his own health.
Disclaimer
This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information on fussy eating in children. The author does not claim responsibility for this information.
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Hi! My name is Rubitah. I’m a Content Writer certified Life Coach, Counselor, Social Work professional and the Founder of Being Rubitah. Over the years through my professional and personal life, I have realized that prayers and love can do wonders to family life once you come to terms with yourself and surrender to God. Do you relate to me? Then you may like what I post here! Read more about me
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