Making Nutritious Meals for Picky Eaters.

I can't wait for my husband to begin school again (when at school and work he is gone from 8am to 10 pm) because I can make whatever I want. He is the picky one if the family (if it's fried, has food coloring, processed or has high fructose corn syrup--he loves it). WHen he is gone I get to make all sorts of meatless dishes, new dishes, you name it I cook it!

I guess the only piece off advice I can offer is make everything from scratch instead of buying the boxed or frozen kind...that's what I do for my husband and he is slowly getting used to it....he is a mac and cheese lover.

I have a picky eater. she's 3, so from what I hear, this is normal and she should get over it. I only offer good food, no crappy stuff full of multisyllabic non-food ingredients. I sneak stuff in where I can. Peeled zucchini grates really well into a lot of things. I add mashed chick peas to pasta or grilled cheese or quesadillas. Muffins and pancakes can be made really healthfully and you can add a lot of stuff into those. Stop using white flour in pumpkin bread, if you start with whole wheat pastry flour and gradually change to regular whole wheat flour, he won't notice. If you just switch all of a sudden he will probably reject it though, it takes getting used to. Pizza or spaghetti sauce can be made with lots of veggies. Will he do smoothies? Mine won't but you can sneak kale in there and can't taste it. Mac and cheese, I assume you mean the boxed stuff, get the whole wheat kind, use yogurt instead of milk and add some pureed onions or zucchini or cauliflower. If you start small with these things he won't know they are there. As re: the chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, I'd make sure to get the most natural ones possible. If he's eating those all the time, he's consuming a lot of chemicals and sodium, so of course natural healthy food won't taste as exciting to him.

I model good eating, as does my husband. I don't push, but I insist she have some healthy grow foods with carbs, so she can't just eat a bowl of whole wheat pasta, she has to have a veg and/or fruit as well. I always offer foods to DD. She will often say No forever but then suddenly want to try. Beets, for ex, are a favorite all of a sudden. I'd say you should change the rules about complaining. He cannot. DD will say "yuck" at something I am eating and I just won't have it, it's rude. If she doesn't want to eat it she doesn't have to but she can say no thank you.

I have a husband who travels all the time, at least half the time he's away. You need to change your ideas about that, I think. If it's an occasional trip, special kid food is ok, but if it's all the time, change up what you consider kid food. You can make simple healthful dinner that he will accept if you think about it. Check out Deceptively Delicious or Sneaky Chef from the library for some ideas or get him involved in cooking and shopping.

I don't think there is a simple solution. It can be so frustrating! My husband and I are not picky at all and DD wasn't for the first year and a half or so of eating. I think there are normal phases, and there are normal variations in what people like to eat. I take it as my job to offer healthy food and DD's job to choose what to eat. Good luck!

I have four children and the rule has always been eat what is served.. If they at least try it and don't like it there is alwya noodles or a veggie they like and milk. The next meal is breakfast or dinner or whatever.
I have never made anything separate for my kids like many of my friends have. Even as tiny tots they had mashed up whatever I ate.
My kids will say that doesn't look good but they are not allowed to Yuck anything.
Also if they dn't eat a particular meal they will not starve and missing a meal every once on a while is a good teaching tool.

Sounds like my youngest daughter! She eats much of the same things over and over again and doesnt like to try new things either! I also gave up on arguing with her, she doesnt seem to care that her dinners are almost always the same so neither do I! i just try to make those dinners as healthy as possible. I buy only wheat bread, low fat milk, high fiber cerals, all white meat chicken nuggets and turkey hot dogs when I can get them on sale. If he likes peas and carrots then give him that at every dinner, bananas are healthy and can have so much done with them! Try putting them on your peanut butter sandwich, its awesome! Make whole wheat pizza and puree veggies into the pizza sauce, I do that alot and my kids never know the difference! I do that with spaghetti to, they eat zucchini and spinach and dont have a clue! As far as meat goes, my picky eater loves pork chops and ham steaks, both of which are pretty inexpensive. I have also found that if she helps me cook it she is more inclined to try it. If she tries it I say "thank you for trying it", I try not to make a big deal about it either way. For the most part though I do not make special meals for her. I make what I make and always have a few essentials, like cottage cheese and apple sauce that I know she will make. The only time I make her a special meat is if I am making something I know she wont eat at all, like fish and hamburgers. Then all I make her are hot dogs or chicken nuggets. I always put the stuff I want her to try on her plate, just a few pieces. If she eats them I ask if she wants more, if she doesnt eat them or want more than thats fine too. Just try to feed him the healthiest of the things he does like and offer new stuff all the time, eventually he will try new things, if not then he is going to have a limited diet and one frustrated wife someday! Good luck!

I think he has a good assortment, but I know you wish he would try more items. Just keep offering him new things and eventually he will try them. It also helps for him to see other children eating different foods. In daycare they ate everything.. Lima beans, beets. I couldn't believe it.. At school they learn a lot about healthy eating and again they begin to see and hear other kids talk about their favorite foods and they are willing to try..

We had rules in our house. No ugly comments or ugly faces at the table.
Also no battles. You eat what is served and if you don't want it you sit there and drink your milk. No snacks in between meals. As she got older (elementary school) I made a deal with the family. If you did not want what was served, you could have a bowl of non sugar cereal.

Our daughter was selective about how she like her food served. She liked what she called, "plain food".

If I made tacos, I would place it on a small plate with each item separate. The meat in a pile, the cheese in a pile, the lettuce in a pile, the chopped tomato in a pile and the tortilla or taco shell on the side. Then she would eat some of it or all of of an item. I would then add a little more. No comments.. I would continue to add a small portion each time she ate, but not make a big deal out of it. Sometimes on her own she would ask for more. lettuce please. Or More cheese please.

Spaghetti was a pile of pasta and the sauce on the side.. I grated zucchini and carrots into it and my family never noticed. if meatballs or Italian sausage was served, I placed it separate on her plate also.

A pile of rice, broccoli, melted cheese, grilled chicken pieces.

Our daughter did not care for butter or salad dressing so she learned to ask for food"plain". Bread, baked potatoes, pasta, salad, veggies I kept a small amount with out the butter or sauce. She still does not care for gravy.

I know many kids LIKE the sauces and dressings, so having them available for your child to dip into may help. Try a small portion of BBQ sauce. ranch dressing, spaghetti sauce, melted cheese. Maybe he will like food that way.

This is very normal. Just hang in there.

Try weelicious.com all of the recipes are great, some are maybe more time consuming than others, but its about getting ideas...just look there for some things that your son maybe would eat that are healthier.
Also try having your son help you make the meal or have a choice in what you're having. (obviously, you have to offer healthy choices, but he could choose between that.) My son is only 17 months, but he likes to stand up next to the counter and help me make dinner (hand me stuff) and then he is always extra excited to eat it when it's time...
Good luck!

Check out superkidsnutrition.com. Its a great web site and gives great suggestions how to eat healthy.

I don't know how old your son is. My 7 yo has always been the "anti-kid menu" kid. I never made him a separate meal and he always ate what we ate. He tried mussels at the beach this year! The only two items he will NOT eat are Big Red gum and honey-walnut cream cheese. Otherwise, he's down for anything.

You could try just making what you make--be it chicken (not nuggets), tacos, BBQ beef sandwiches, pasta, lasagna, pork chops, fish, etc.
Maybe just start with dinner. Only serve what you make. He can always have a bowl of cereal before he goes to bed if he refuses to eat.
Good luck!

My daughter was the same way. Very limited on what she would stick in her mouth. What you need to do is change YOUR eating habits. Once he sees what you are eating and enjoying it, he might start trying the new food and actually liking it. Also try to make the food look fun. Say with veggies, make them into dinosaurs on his plate, and have him eat its head off. Works for my daughter when I want to try something new on her. Also buy the paper fun plates to put your meals on when dad is away and its mostly finger food. :)

So, my son was the same way and my daughter is the same way now. If his doctor says that your son is fine and there are no concerns about weight, diabetes, etc., don't beat yourself up and don't add the stress of the battles. Your son will expand his eating horizons as he ages. I would and do with my daughter, get them to eat one bite of something new. It was our deal and they always honor it. My son who is now 19 eats everything. Vegetables, fruits, even sushi! My daughter is 9 and is expanding her horizons, too. Ironically enough, my children are rarely sick. My niece and nephew, who my sister forces to eat fruits, vegetables, etc. every day, are always sick! Try the 'one bite' deal. You will get to eat things you love while not fighting with your children! Good luck, I hope this helped!

I too was an extremely picky eater as a child and there was little my parents could have done to prevent me from turning my nose up at most of the food they provided. That being said, I was picky in the sense that I only liked perfectly plain food (no condiments, I hated sauces, seasonings or dressings, etc.) so maybe the reason your son doesn't like a main dinner dish is it has too much flavor. You can make fish for dinner, just keep his plain with some lemon and butter and make a fancier version for youself. It would help of you simply removed mac n cheese, hot dogs and nuggets from your house altogether, because if I had those options growing up, I NEVER would have relented and eaten my mother's chicken/roast/etc. He will protest and go to bed hungry for a number of nights (weeks even, if he is the super stubborn type) but eventually he will eat what is provided as long as you dont cave and give him hot dogs the night after you threw out most of his meal from his refusal to eat it. He will just learn to hold out for the good stuff and believe me, he will think it is worth the misery-inducing effort. It has been proven that our tastebuds are not mature until adulthood, so I would suggest keeping the healthy food plain and consistent, and simply stop serving the fun food period because it only sabatoges you in the long run.
Also, I HATED canned green beans and would throw a fit every time my mom served them (atleast twice a week throughout my ENTIRE childhood) and thought I hated green beans even as an adult. My husband made me a dinner once when we dated where he steamed fresh green beans with a little seasoning and I loved them! I thought, if my mom had made vegetables this way, I probably would have eaten them as a child. So, maybe try a different cooking method for your vegetables. If you sttam them and he refuses night after night, try sautaying them in a pan with some olive oil or roasting them in a hot oven on a cookie sheet. Sometimes it is just a matter of preference. Good luck!

"He will drink milk, eat cereal, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, hot dogs, frozen peas, carrots, bananas, pumpkin bread, peanut butter sandwiches, pizza and eat tiny amounts of steak now and then "

That sounds like a pretty decent diet to me. Let it ride. He may become more adventurous as he get older, but if he doesn't, he can meet his nutritional needs with the foods you've listed.