Stay Consistent & Committed to Your Picky Eater’s Health!

Published by Bonnie on

Picky Eater commitment
Rachel and her “picky eater” live with their family of six in Alabama.

This post comes from one of our readers, Rachel, who lives with her family in Alabama.

There are so many times that I want to just give up when it comes to my oldest daughter’s picky eating habits.  One week she will love something only to hate it the next.

For the last 4 weeks of this school year, she insisted that now she can’t stand peanut butter. I was at a total loss for what to send with her since she also dislikes…hmm, pretty much everything “lunch-y!”

Still, despite the constant challenges with trying to get her to eat healthy foods, we have break-throughs that remind me that being consistent and committed to our rules and her health is slooowly paying off.

She knows that if I put something on her plate, she has to at least try one bite or (gulp!) she has to have it for breakfast. She has only had to actually have her dinner for breakfast one time when she was 3 and a half years old. The memory of eating penne pasta instead of cereal has stuck in her memory so strongly that she has always tried her “one bite” ever since.

Lately, encouragement has come in the form of her trying her one bite and realizing she actually likes what I have made for her. As a seven year old, she is starting to realize that she isn’t always right– that even though she insisted she would not like something when put on a plate in front of her doesn’t mean she can’t change her mind and enjoy her food once she tries it.

I am glad our rules are so firmly entrenched that we don’t really have to fight about them anymore with her….they just “are.” She has to try a bite. That is just how it is. How glad I am when she likes that bite and continues to eat her dinner.

I am hoping our commitment to these rules will pay off as she continues to learn to try what is on her plate (and hopefully like it!) without us prompting her.

As my third child is starting to wear her own 2-year-old hat with pride (and defiance), I am encouraged to start the long road of food training again, knowing that consistency and commitment are essential to guiding our children toward life-long good eating habits.

 Five More Tips to Ensure Nutrition for Your Picky Eater


Bonnie

Bonnie Hershey currently serves as a business and nutrition coach with their business, Hershey Holistic Health. She holds an undergrad degree in education, and a certification in Practical Nutrition from the Northwest Academy of Practical Nutrition. She has over 20 years of leadership experience and enjoys encouraging others in their personal growth.

2 Comments

Bonnie · October 17, 2012 at 10:20 am

This really hits home for us right now as well. Our five-year-old picky eater is testing her boundaries again, and there are days that it would be easy to punt and give in. I am realizing again how our own commitment to her health really drives our ability to even be consistent at all.

As a parent, it is very easy to get emotionally worn down from the day-to-day battle. But I have to keep remembering that the long-term goal is helping her to build good eating habits, and that started yesterday.

Five Tips to Ensure Nutrition for Your Picky Eater | Proven Nutrition for Kids · November 3, 2012 at 9:27 pm

[…] you have not been consistent with setting boundaries in the past, and if you and your husband have different views on this, it will be much harder to […]

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