The Picky Eating Tips0 comments

Here I will outline a series of simple, yet concrete steps that you can take to eliminate struggles over food. Both theory and research strongly support the role that family dynamics play in the development of eating disorders. There are almost always power struggles that evolve around food and the consumption of food. At minimum, tremendous amounts of parental energy is devoted to what is or is not eaten.

These power struggles unintentionally teach children that food takes on an “unnatural” level of importance in their life. Rather than meals simply becoming the routine consumption of nutritious, healthy food, the become a battleground where parents and children assert their sense of power and authority.

While it is relatively rare that these situations actually evolve into a fully diagnosable, clinical eating disorder, there are many situations where children develop exceptionally picky eating habits that are unnecessary and unhealthy.

The good news is that picky eating habits can be easily resolved. The specific steps that are outlined below can be extraordinarily helpful. However, they may require you to adjust your mental attitude and your beliefs about your role in supporting healthy eating habits.

How To Help The Picky Eater

1. Adjust your mindset. To expand the foods your child eats, it is essential to let go of the idea that you can (or should) force or demand your kids to eat healthy food. This is not to say that you relinquish this goal. It simply acknowledges that forcing or demanding your children to eat healthier will not work.

Instead, you can arrange your home environment and structure activities in the home so that you gently and consistently encourage the growth of healthy eating habits.

How do you do this?

2. Start out by cleaning out your pantry. Get rid of all the junk food, sodas, potato chips, ice cream, candy bars, etc. Simply do not have these foods in your house as an option, and, instead, substitute healthy alternatives. This will obviously include an abundance of fruits and vegetables.

3. Prepare healthy meals with a variety of foods. After you prepare a meal, let the kids know that this is the meal for the evening. There will be no additions or changes, depending on the preferences of anyone in the family. As many of my clients have expressed, “My kids seem to think that I am a short-order cook in a restaurant.”

In closing, the picky eating habits of children are almost always a by-product of parental concerns about children’s eating habits. We feel they should drink more milk or eat more of a particular type of food, and thus try to convince our children to consume more of these items. Yet, if we look at the history, we will inevitably discover that this does not work. In fact, if we look at it honestly, we clearly discover that these efforts only serve to make the situation worse.

If we can relinquish our worries about kids who are a bit thin, follow the guidelines outlined above, and stop picky eating children will learn to eat healthy foods that provide a balanced nutritional experience. They will also not experience a world where food takes on an excessive level of importance.