Skip to main content

Tuesday Tip for Picky Eaters: Try the taste test rule


This week’s Tuesday Tip for Picky Eaters: Try the taste test rule.
As I wrote about last week, we let Henry decide how much to eat. If he is done with a meal, then we do not pressure him to continue eating. We do, however, encourage Henry to taste each part of the meal. I have found that offering foods to him on my fork sparks his interest in at least a bite or two, and presenting him with a food via chopsticks is even more intriguing.
Henry examines a spoon after trying out yogurt.
As Henry gets older, we are planning to implement a taste test rule. Basically, Henry should try everything on his plate at least once without complaining. I have heard of several variations on this rule. Some households ask that children sample at least one or two bites, while others increase the number of bites to match a child’s age. For example, a five year old should try five bites of each dish.

Requiring kids to join the clean plate club can backfire, so don’t worry about whether your child is finishing everything on their plate. Children, however, do need to taste what is on their plate to help develop their palette and overcome a fear of new foods.
Kids need to taste new foods repeatedly before they learn to like them.
I am not advocating that you leave your child at the table for hours if they stubbornly refuse to try a bite. Don’t force a child to eat or get angry if they reject a food. Stay calm, be respectful and keep the mood fun. Be sure that you set a good example and follow the rule as well. It also is reasonable that if the meal is over and they haven’t taken a sample of everything on their plate, then an afternoon treat or post-dinner dessert is off the menu.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

UPDATE (10/2/12): Unfortunately, I did not hear back from our original winner. Congratulations to our alternate winner for "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook" -- Robin Pfefer. UPDATE (9/29/12): I am happy to announce that Kashia Clopper is the winner of "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook". When I was first thinking about using the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) model for Henry, I was unsure about whether it would really work. I was excited about BLW’s claims of less stressful meals that the whole family could share together. Plus, I was all for encouraging Henry to gain new skills by learning about the shapes, textures, colors, smells and flavors of food. This sounded ideal in theory, but would it work in practice? After some fun but ineffective attempts at letting Henry feed himself, I went in search of resources to learn more about BLW. I needed to learn how to prepare meals for our family in which Henry could participate. That’s when I found “ The Baby-Led

Do Your Kids Eat Everything?

UPDATE (3/15/2013): Congratulations to Kia as the random drawing winner in this giveaway! Thank you to all those who entered this contest.  Before we began our food adventure with Henry, Daddy and I had many conversations about how to encourage Henry to become “a good eater.” After watching other parents constantly struggle with their toddlers, we wanted to know if there was anything we could do from the start to prevent picky eating. That’s when we read “ French Kids Eat Everything ” by Karen Le Billon . The book is an easy and enjoyable read about the year that Karen’s family spent in France and how it changed the way her family eats. The heart of the book explores the 10 French Food Rules for raising happy, healthy eaters. “French Kids Eat Everything” sparked numerous discussions at our dinner table about how our family eats. We have become more conscious of our assumptions about food and how that will influence Henry’s understanding of mealtimes. In addition, the

Simple Vegetable Soup

As I wrote in my last post , I decided to introduce Henry to new flavors through soup as inspired by “French Kids Eat Everything” by Karen Billon . After two weeks, Henry has tried out several flavors of vegetable soup by bottle. So far, the list includes spinach, leek, pea, celery and zucchini. He has been receiving about three ounces of soup each day divided into morning and afternoon servings. Each time we test out a new flavor, he takes a few sips, then pauses for a moment, and then keeps drinking until it’s all gone.  Henry reaching for a bottle of creamy pea soup. Here’s the basic recipe: Slice two cups of vegetables. You can also include a handful of chopped fresh herbs such as mint, sage, parsley or basil. Boil vegetables in two cups of water for about 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Blend until there are no large chunks of vegetable remaining. The soup can be served in this form to older children and adults. Daddy and I enjoyed the leek soup; it was