I don't have kids, but I wanted to throw this story out there: when I was little, I went to daycare with a kid who absolutely refused to eat vegetable soup. But if you called that exact same soup "pizza soup," he would eat it. So there was a rule that if he was around, you had to call it pizza soup.

I know a lot of people who also used to get told that broccoli was "little trees," and they were encouraged to play with them in order to get them to eat it. I've also heard that most kids will eat cauliflower if it's mashed up and they get told its mashed potatoes. Just like a lot of kids will eat yogurt if it's colored.

I think the trick with kids is all in the presentation.

Picky eaters go hungry in my home.

A child will never starve themselves completely, they can be stubborn, they can make you feel terrible, but they don't have the willpower or body to starve themselves. Therefore I never made any of my children finish things they didn't like ( was very rare anyway ) - it just meant that's all they had to eat.

Anyway, it was so rare for my kids to refuse anything anyway - and I do believe that's because I gave them all types of food from a very early age...all types of meats, all types of fruit and vegetables and lucky for me we have plenty of fresh produce to try! I also grew lots of vegetables in the garden when they were small so they helped me pick ( and eat ) straight from the plant. When we grew brussle sprouts they wanted to try them just like everything else growing in the garden :) Not a problem at all! Growing a mushroom box was great too, they were amazed at how fast they grew and how and we ate mushrooms on toast for weeks! hehehe

I think when they take a personal interest in the food you buy, grow and prepare children are much better eaters and will be willing to try many things :)

http://makezine.com/images/tools/mushrooms.jpg

http://healingmagichands.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/news-of-the-day-23june07-022-vegetable-garden.jpg

There was a study I heard about a long time ago which concluded that little children given complete freedom to choose what to eat (with the significant exception of sweets and ice cream) with a wide spread of vegetables, fruits, grains, meats, fish, etc. over time would eat a balanced diet. They would not eat what we'd consider a balanced diet necessarily every day, but over a week or more, they did balance things out. The moral of that is that even with picky eaters, parents can have a great deal of influence.

The best way in my opinion is to do the following.

1. Offer several comparable protein dishes, several comparable starches, and several comparable vegetable dishes, and let the kid choose one day each week which one protein, one starch, and one vegetable s/he wants to have.
2. On the other days, require a certain amount of protein, a certain amount of starch, and a certain amount of vegetable be eaten before any seconds can be had, before any desert, and before being excused from the table. The food being served is the food the child will eat. That's what's for dinner (or lunch, or breakfast).
3. If there are particular foods the child detests (e.g. Brussel sprouts) just don't serve those, making instead e.g. broccoli. However, being picky to the extent of "no veggies" is not acceptable.
4. In an age appropriate manner, explain the importance of each food group to the kid's health and development.

I am a "picky" eater and I recoil from many foods you people just love to cram in your pie holes.The worst of all is cheese .We who eat what we like are amused by you "kinda sewers" .Most of you would eat dog crap if some one put warm cheese on it. I think the only difererence between you would be what kind of cheese. Could you tell your kids to say no to drugs and let your parents force them to eat some stinky depression era 'delicacy".Let people choose what they eat ,and don't let your panties bunch up if they refuse your foods . When I have people over for dinner I ask in advance what they prefer and will cook any thing or not cook what they like.I will have cheese if they bring it for them selves ,but it will stay on a side board and not on the main table. T.S.

My nine year old son is the KING of the picky eaters so, I try to hide the good stuff when I can. Sometimes I will puree vegetables and put them in pizza sauce or other things. Also smothering it in cheese sauce sometimes works. The main thing I do is you have to take a couple of bites of everything before you can leave the table. That way he is exposed to a variety of taste and textures. This has helped quite a bit he is not near as picky as he used to be.

I have 4 grandbabies that live with me and this is always an issue for the middle girl. She is going to be six in the next few months and she is the pickest eater ever. LOL Her mom talked it over with her doctor and he advised her to let her eat when she was hungery. No, we do not make their plates like our parents did for we found we were throwing away a lot of food and that is something that we can not afford to lose. We do however try to pick the healthy things that we know they like and have them readly available.

While she loves friut and veggies she will NOT eat meat !!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormchasermike/3234048013/

Picky eaters is a problem many parents seem to agonize over isn't it?

Our kids always go through fazes of great eating and picky eating, but the main thing is do ride out those picky stages with back-up solutions.

When our son wouldn't eat anything of the main dinner I or hubby had made, we would ask him to take a bite just to try and if he didn't like it, he could have something else but no dessert. He would often go for the second choice and no dessert option and we would pull out his favorite granola, oatmeal, soup, nattou (fermented soya beans they often eat in Japan) and rice, tofu with soya sauce, plain yoghurt with fruit, or another healthy option that we always had around the house. This has become a rule we have kept with our second child and it seems to be an easy, non-confrontational solution to dinner table stress.

I think this is a much better solution than forcing your child to eat everything even if it makes them sick- me and my brother threw up at the dinner table being forced to eat our most hated foods. I really hated meal time with the family and as a mother, I would never want my kids to feel like that. I would never force anyone to eat anything they dislike, so why do it to my own child?

Hope this helps.