Ask Mr. Dad: How to overcome picky eating | Faith & Community
There are plenty of ways to help kids develop healthy lifelong eating habits and attitudes.
Dear Mr. Dad: I’m a single dad, and I love to cook. I make a special point of preparing meals I think my kids will like — or at least eat. But time after time, I find myself dumping perfectly good, untouched food into leftover containers or, worse, into the trash. The kids seem to want nothing but macaroni and cheese, and I’m worried that they’re not getting what they need in their diets. What can I do?
A: This may not make you feel any better, but I’m betting that every parent reading this column is nodding his or her head in agreement. Apparently, all our children got the same memo about the white food group.
Your job as a parent is to encourage healthy eating habits and to provide a good variety of healthy foods. Of course, as you know, providing it and getting the kids to actually eat it sometimes seem mutually exclusive. Not to worry.
Research consistently shows that despite the frustrating appearance of the almost-untouched after-dinner plate, even the pickiest kids generally meet or exceed their recommended energy and dietary requirements. (After all, you don’t see too many kids keeling over from scurvy on the school playground, right?) The body automatically seeks out the nutrients it needs.
It might also help to consider that children’s unwillingness to experiment with unfamiliar tastes and textures may have some evolutionary roots. Early hominid children with a predisposition to put weird things in their mouths were less likely to survive to pass on their genes than those who preferred bland and familiar foods.
