One of the difficult challenges of eating healthy with your kids is simply just getting the kids to taste the food!!!! At a certain age, kids generally get picky. Usually, this is around the age of 2 give or take. Babies shift to toddlers and all of a sudden it is quite important for them to claim their independence. This means saying NO and having control over areas of their lives. From what they wear, to what they eat, to what cup they choose…they are trying desperately to do exercise their own authority. What I find interesting about this is that a lot of it is just psychological. Its not that they don’t like water, they just don’t want it in a sippy cup…its not that they don’t want to wear shoes…they just want to wear the shoes with the lights instead of the boring sneakers. So maneuvering a toddler takes patience and smart manipulation 🙂

The same goes with food. These kids will refuse to try something simply because its green, or they don’t like the plate its on. And one day they’ll love something and the next day you can’t get it in their mouth if your life depended on it. Its unpredictable and frustrating and it goes for almost everyone, including ourselves.

But we’ve learned a couple of things. The more we talk to them about the food, the more independence we give them, and the more they are involved in the process of cooking the food…the greater the chances are that they will try the food. (For a great take on this, I recommend reading the book Bringing Up Bebe… I don’t agree with everything in this book, but I love their take on food exposure)

And when I say try, I don’t necessarily mean eat.

Right now these kids’ stomachs are tiny. They don’t need that much food. And really the focus can’t be what they eat in one particular sitting but overall because they are not going to eat all their food in every meal. Maybe at lunch they won’t try their veggies but eat all of their chicken. Well, at dinner they loved the soup and filled up on veggies then. Your really have to relax and look at the bigger picture instead of stressing the meal. I digress…

Their stomachs are tiny so they don’t need that much food. We’ve learned that its not so much what they’re eating right now as much as what they are learning and being exposed to right now. Experts say that eating is not only about nutrition its about social learning and exposure. Learning to eat in social settings, learning about textures of foods, learning to eat alone, learning to hold a spoon….its an entire process. This process is what is going to influence how they eat as adults. Whether they’ll be open to vegetables, spicy foods, exotic foods, etc. depends largely on what they are exposed to at these tender ages.

In this video you’ll see the boys saying how delicious and yummy the guac is. We’ll let you in on a little secret…we don’t really think they liked the guac!!!! It was a little spicy which Orly is not a large fan of, and the parsley flavor was pretty strong (we actually wouldn’t recommend parsley for the homemade guac next time around)…. BUT the fact they made it made them pretend they liked it! And they ate it, which was the amazing part. It was truly psychological! If they had not been involved, they probably would’ve responded YUCK!

So the next time they are offered guacamole they will remember liking it…and maybe it’ll be even more delicious next time around. And really if we can accomplish our children to be open to these foods…we are taking a huge step in the right direction!!!

Try to make lunch or dinner this weekend a family project and comment on this post to let us know how it goes! Good luck!