Bringing it Home: Picky Eaters

all right you're back for another episode of bringing it home with sarah and teniel peanut butter and jelly what is the topic of this podcast i know y'all remember that song don't i know what a fun song i think we all sang that excuse i think so well that song is highlighting march as national nutrition month how nutritious is peanut butter and jelly well you can make it work in small amounts so we're going to talk about that but uh you know for our listeners it's really hard to find songs about food so we're just having a little fun with that one today but it is um march and it's national nutrition month so there's a lot of things that we can talk about in relation to our dietary needs um but we really want to focus on picky eaters do you have any picky eaters thankfully not anymore i've been down that road and we've kind of moved past it so you're glad i think you're still dealing with some of it aren't you oh yes oh i think a lot of parents out there can identify with picky eaters and the frustration that comes along with it um but yes my son is a very picky eater i will say he's 11 as you all know i've talked about him on here before he's getting a little bit more adventurous in his food choices but uh not on his own but with probably i think he will he's doing a little better so hopefully we'll grow out of this at some point but yes and it does it takes time for a lot of my struggle was water um dealing with charleston we would say you know we're drinking water for dinner tonight and he would choke on his food before he would drink his water this is when he was little and over the years he decided that water was important for him to stay healthy and fit and athletic and now water is part of what he does so we just want to encourage the parents not to give up the dinner because that thing kind of evolved on its own it's nothing magical but we do have some tips that we can share definitely let's let's talk about some of those um you know we never ever want to force a meal or a snack on a child because they may not be hungry and you don't want to begin to associate any kind of meal time with anger frustration anxiety you know truly meal time should be a peaceful time a time that the family can try to sit down and discuss or you know in the mornings before school or work you know it's not a good time for an argument about food you know you just need people to sit down eat their breakfast and let's get out the door food is a pleasant topic we don't want to make it a negative fighting over it no and most of us grow up saying you know make a happy plate things like that and that's not always the right thing to do we just want them to eat to try so you know number one guys and this is hard but don't force them to eat no you know don't well you need this they're starving children in places yeah that's true but if they don't eat that meal that's not going to affect are we going to mail it all somewhere no we're not so guilt doesn't need to be associated with food no it doesn't i also think it's really important to remember how old your children are um and give them the appropriate portion sizes so they don't need the same amount that we which most adults are getting too much but they really don't need as much as we need right start small and then if they want more you can give them more those kinds of things um give them the opportunity to ask for it those types of things we don't need to you know overload their plate and then expect them to eat every bite when their tummies are just not as big as an adult stomach so that was something you did uh with your kids about their age wasn't it yes and i still do this especially with my daughter who's seven um if there's a food on the plate that they don't want i make them eat their age okay so basically let's say there's some broccoli just you know i'm exposing them to something repeatedly but there's broccoli on their plate they don't like it they have to eat however many bites as to however old they are so valianne would have to eat seven bites and wyatt he's getting all up there he got to eat 11 bites well see and i usually as i'm fixing their plate judge that ahead of time so then they're like oh well i ate it all it wasn't that bad or they just suffer through it and eat it now if it's a food i know they cannot stand like my son does not like peanut butter like detested i would never force him to do you wouldn't play the peanut butter jelly song for him try to make it fun no okay but you know fruits and vegetables and things and i'm trying to get them to try more often i'll play the eat your age game and nine times out of ten it works okay i know one thing that a lot of people do that kind of sabotage their attempt to get their kids to eat more foods um they let kids drink juice and milk between meals and it's probably not a good practice because they're getting full because these things have calories and so when we sit down to lunch or dinner uh if the child has already had juice and had milk they're able to skip out on those foods that may not be their favorites because they're not hungry so how about serving water between meals that's a great idea you know that keeps the child's appetite for the foods that we want them to eat those healthy foods yeah don't let them walk around like if you have a toddler don't walk around with a full city cup all day long because then they're not going to eat because they're full and another tip on that when we go out to eat um my kids if i let them they will drink a whole entire soda or whatever before their food even arrives and then they're not hungry so you can ask them to bring your drink with your meal you know those kinds of things so that they're not getting full just on the beverage and not waiting for the food right and i know a lot of time with young kids discussing the food helps right oh yeah we need to eat with our senses which that sounds weird but even as adults we need to do that but a lot of people eat in a hurry but you need to stop and especially with our kids look at the color look at the shape um smell it you know a lot of foods have texture eat with your senses and you know small bites truly help yourself dive into that food and get to know it i tell people make a rainbow on your plate make your plate colorful and inviting because we eat with our eyes before we ever put anything in our mouth and that's just interesting saying slow down and really thinking about what we're eating because many times the first comment we make about our meal is at the end when we eat the last bite that was good we didn't talk about anything until it was over and so are we truly enjoying the experience and the same goes for our kids yes and you know i tell parents all the time do not be a short order cook in your own home you know don't prepare one meal for yourself and your spouse and then prepare a whole separate meal for your picky eater that is not encouraging that child to venture out and try different things if they know they're going to win this power struggle and you're going to eventually make that peanut butter and jelly sandwich why would they try the baked chicken right if they know it's going to end in their favor so we really recommend that parents not do that you know even if they won't eat what's in front of them encourage them to stay at the table during the designated meal time because it could be well i don't want to stop playing the video game and eat or i want to stop watching the television and eat so i'm not hungry i want to go back it's important to make the child stay at the table during the duration of meal time that's a rule at our house even if you get done before everybody else you stay in your seat so you can't just hurry up and get back no because that's that's like our undivided attention together you know we uh that's a biggie at our house so we can involve the child in the process does that make it more likely that that he or she will eat oh gosh yes if you take them to the grocery and let them kind of help pick out the fruits and vegetables or help make the menus um let them get their hands dirty and do some of the cooking you know to the level that they can kids are far more likely to try something new or maybe even something they thought they didn't like because they have helped with it and you know giving them a choice you mentioned the grocery store instead of saying do we want to get apples saying okay do we want to get apples or do we want to get oranges okay do we want broccoli this week or cauliflower this week you know giving them a choice but um there needs to be a choice between some healthy options i agree i love that and then i feel like they've got a little ownership and you know things that are going to be presented to them at home yeah i think that's really a great idea you know some of this falls back on us we've got to model the behavior you know if i'm sitting there eating a twix i don't know why twix is on my mind but if i'm sitting there eating a twix i can't expect my child to want a snack on carrots so i've got to be doing what i'm asking them to do right you have to model the behavior that you want to see in your children you do so we just don't need to buy that kind of stuff if that's becoming an issue at home they're always going to opt for not always some kids don't but a lot of kids and adults we're going to opt for that candy or whatever that makes you feel good you know but we need to remember we need nutritious snacks as well as sometimes a fun snack happy gatekeepers i mean we know we don't have the self-control not to eat it if it's in the house most of us don't it just doesn't need to be in the house and we're the ones that are purchasing that the kids are not right so if we don't bring it in they're not going to have the opportunity there to eat it another thing that you can do is just add kind of slips and fruits or vegetables and things that you may not normally see them or that you can hide them well yeah yeah chop up some broccoli or green peppers and put it in your spaghetti sauce you know um you can top your cereal or your yogurt with some fruit and kids they might enjoy that hey you know what kind of fruit do you want to put on here and let them do that uh do grate up some zucchini or grate up some carrots and stir that in a casserole they're never going to notice you know and not that i think we need to hide things but if you truly are in a battle with a picky person you know you may have to go on some covert little ways here and slip it in you know soup is a great way to get get fruits and not fruits excuse me vegetables in um just kind of think about that breads you can do some breads that have fruits or vegetables in them so think of ways that you can kind of sneak it in and then you know they're going to be getting that that fruit or vegetable another thing that's really important that we do at our house as well is turn off the tv and no gadgets at the table we have what we call the no phone zone i talked about that before on one of our previous podcasts but you got to focus on that you know what's at hand not the tv not the phone not the tablet um put it away and focus on eating and focus on being together you know it's really important and there's a lot of advertising on tv for unhealthy foods that appeal to kids no as for broccoli not often i know no if you're watching especially like a kids network you're going to see a lot of high sugar foods being advertised yeah so but it's really important turn the tv off don't bring gadgets to the table have you a no phone zone and enjoy the time together and really focus on eating then you can talk to your kids about what they're eating yeah that's true and it's a word about dessert because that's something that all kids wait for all adults wait for we like dessert um one of the things we don't want to do um we don't want to send the message that dessert is the best food and so many times we'll tell the children okay you finish your food you can have dessert or you can't have dessert until you clean your plate i'm guilty so that's the end of the message though sarah that dessert's the best thing so if you hurry up any carrots we get to the good part that's right you're right you know we don't want them to just think of dessert as the good part and so what we might do is just have dessert one or two nights a week dessert doesn't need to be every night so dessert is just an occasional thing and we can also change our idea of what dessert is for example fresh fruit can be our dessert you know strawberries make a good dessert you know different types of berries and things like that yogurt can be our dessert one night so these are the types of desserts that our children are looking forward to but we're looking forward to the meeting because we know it has a health benefit that's right so we're going to sneak it in we know it is national nutrition month but these are things that we need to practice every day all year yeah we do and you know if you really are concerned that your child is not getting the nutrition that they need you know talk to your pediatrician about it you know if they're not growing the way that they should or they're not eating enough in your opinion you know get some professional guidance on it most definitely so that you don't have to worry about that day in and day out and you know our child's eating habits is not going to change overnight because it wasn't developed overnight and you know we have to keep in mind that there's going to be some foods they don't care for there's some foods i don't care for the same with adults you know but we don't need to replace that with junk we need to find healthy options okay so as we close out i'm going to ask you a question what is one healthy food that you just do not like i don't like tomatoes you don't like tomatoes anything i like them cooked and stuff like i like tomato sauce okay a fresh tomato no i don't even want to slice on my hamburger like no so hold the tomatoes on everything yes all right i don't want to like them but i just don't cabbage no i don't like the consistency of cabbage something about the texture doesn't work for me now i love coleslaw but once you cook it and it's just cabbage i don't want it anymore so we both like these items but in certain forms we like it the way we like it and our kids are going to be the same way exactly exactly so hopefully we've helped you with your picky eater at your house and thank you for joining us on this edition of bringing it home with sarah and teneal in the words of bob marley be sure to live the life you love and love the life you live take care until next time