When cooking something nutritious, it can be hard to get a child to eat it.
Nutrition is important. Some, if not all, children insist on having the “same” stuff, eating or drinking only preferred foods and beverages. If allowed, this reduces their opportunities to taste new foods, creating difficulty in expanding the variety of what they eat.
It has always been a practice in my daycare to slowly introduce new foods in small age appropriate portions. I call it the ” three scoop/bite rule”. The first bite/scoop is always the hardest, as no taste is really established within the first scoop. The second bite gets the taste and texture, hopefully growing tolerance. The third bite is the deciding factor on “like” or “dislike”. If this is a new food, there is usually only three scoops put on the plate so it is not overwhelming. This makes finishing it all a reward on its own as well.
Now of course that is not “fool proof” but constant exposure does help build tolerance, and eventually acceptance. The younger the child is started with this, the more accepting of this habit they become, producing more of a drive to try more and different foods. Portion sizes for each child are always age appropriate, and there will always be foods that are just not going to be liked. Regardless, they are still served (especially healthy items, hence the title “You don’t have to like it…….”)
Condiments and desserts are wonderful as an aid in trying new things. Neither has to be used, but both can be worthwhile tools, incentives (and we all like incentives). Incentives in our day to day as adults like going to work to get paid, or paying your rent/mortgage to have a place to live, or even nutritious eating to have a healthier immune system and reduce your risk of serious illnesses.
Children don’t always see the incentive of the long term benefits of eating well, but if there is a treat or dessert at the end of eating something less than desirable they are more inclined to try it. For condiments, ketchup has been known to help many things go down easier, and if it works, use it. My daycare children love dipping vegetables into ranch dressing. Honestly I am far from concerned as to how they eat it, as long as they eat it. Constant exposure produces tolerance.
There are always way to hide vegetables in what they eat as well. We have added pureed butternut squash to a cheese sauce for macaroni, cauliflower to rice or mashed into potatoes, and so on. There are even cook books out there that have these options as well. Having these resources on hand makes meal planning a bit easier.
At the end of the day the important thing is keeping our children healthy, active, and happy. There will be certain foods that are just not going to happen on their own, so be creative, but know when to draw the line.
I come from a modest family, so I am an example of having to eat what you are given. But to this day I will not eat a raw tomato, liver ( any organ for that matter 🙂 ), or muscles/oysters. Never loose hope, just get creative and praise your child if dessert is not an option for your family. Find a way to have your child gain confidence in eating new, different, less than desirable foods through helping with meal preparations, or a behaviour chart to earn privileges etc. My children liked going to the grocery store with me to pick out different food choices. I encouraged something they liked and something to try.
On a side note, there are even ways to slip vegetables into desserts :). Ironically, given time, most of my daycare children have learned to enjoy foods previously not liked.