Got picky eaters at home? Are you picky too?
“Experience has taught me that kids and adults can actually learn to like a wide variety of food; it’s all about familiarity and role modeling,” says SIU dietician Cindy Yergler. Yergler says that the more we are exposed to a wide range of food tastes in a series of positive experiences, the more foods we will learn to enjoy.  “Parenting held many challenges for me but by using certain strategies, my now adult children (one a registered dietitian) learned to eat and enjoy a variety of food.”
Yergler recommends parents of picky eaters follow these steps:
1. Be a role model – Take a look at yourself and what you are eating.  If your diet consists of ramen noodles and fast food, expect your children to be interested in the same.  Children mimic the adult role models in their lives, in all areas – including food choice. They may not do what you say, but they will often do what you do!
2. Get kids involved in food – Buy a cookbook with simple, kid-friendly recipes that include veggies and fruits. Select a recipe together and shop for the ingredients.
3. Be adventurous – Plan an outing to the farmers market or a country farmstand to purchase a new vegetable or fruit.  Allow your child to select a new “vegetable or fruit of the week.” Together, prepare the food item and have a family taste test!
4. Try and repeat – Encourage sampling of all food and do so with repeated exposure. Allow a very sensitive child to politely dispose of the bite into a napkin if it is too distasteful to swallow.  It will be important to repeat this process with the same food several times.  Eventually, many children (and adults) will actually enjoy the food.
5. Mix it up – Combine the “new food” with a familiar food.  For example, mix zucchini with corn, asparagus with carrots or raspberries with sliced bananas. Before long the entire family will be eating better and enjoying meal time more.

reference, Appetite Journal, October 2010. 

-rb, cy