How Do You Get Your Kids to Eat What's For Dinner?

Do you have a picky eater in your house? I have two!

Now don’t get me wrong, my kids still eat lots of different fruit and vegetables but "different" is the key word here. One likes strawberries, the other can stand them; one likes cheese and the other won't touch any dairy; one loves chocolate and, you guessed it, the other likes vanilla! The list goes on.

I don’t really mind their personal preferences when they are kept personal, but lately I am ready to throw in the towel.  How do you “cater” to all of your kids likes and dislikes? Do you make them different foods for dinner?  

Luckily, local Marin author Shane Valentine is here to help! I was lucky to attend a lecture and cooking class he hosted along with his wife (they have a preschooler and twins!) at Whole Foods in Napa to prevent my slow transition into a short-order cook.  His book, Baby Cuisine, advocates ways to create life-long healthy eating habits in your children, which, he claims, will help them join in on the families' dining plans. Let’s just say, I was intrigued...

“There is actually no such thing as baby food, it is actually a marketing term that the US has created," said Valentine. According to Valentine, wee should be feeding our kids  “real food” from day one. In other countries, such as Thailand and India, children eat curry and savory foods - anything that their parents are eating.

But in the US, this is how we have chosen to raise our children, and the proof is not positive. According to Valentine, children born before 2000 have a 1 in 3 chance in contracting diabetes. Baby food is highly processed, containing chemicals preservatives and a lot of sugar. "Kid food" isn't much better: take a look a at the sodium level in a Lunchable - over 1100 milligrams!

For picky eaters, Valentine suggests mandating that the entire family eat the same meal. Do not make any options. Fill your child’s plate with what everyone else is eating. They don’t have to eat it, but they do have to sit at the table for the entire meal, suggests Valentine.

So, I put his advice to the test and tried a little experiment on my kids. The day after my class, I told my six year old twins, “Mommy took a cooking class last night and the chef told me that I can’t make separate foods for anyone. I am going to make one meal for lunch or dinner and we will all eat the same thing.”

Their eyes bulged out of their heads, but they agreed.  I tried it for lunch the next day: I made everyone tuna sandwiches with cucumber and apple slices on the side. My daughter will not touch anything with mayonnaise, so I was in complete shock when she actually ate half of her sandwich. How could it have been that easy?

Fresh off the success of my first experiment, I looked up five Valentine tips to help normalize your child's eating:

1. Start a garden and let your kids pick out some vegetables to grow. Spring is the perfect time to start lettuce seeds and plant tomatoes.
2. Make a list on non-negotiable foods in your house. He recommends, as a start, to eliminate high fructose corn syrup, MSG, bleached flour and artificial colors. I'm still working on the last two of these...
3. Involve your kids in cooking, make it fun! Let them help you pick out vegetables and then chop them. Take them to the farmers market, or better yet - a farm!
4. Be patient and consistent. Changing your kid's palate will take time!
5. Don’t add stress.  If you force them to eat healthy food, this will backfire on you and you will be engaged in a battle of will against a 3 year old! Bad move.

So I am going to try and play with our food a little more, plant a spring garden and have more one meal family dinners.

But, what do you do to keep dinner easy and help the entire family eat healthy? Do you make one meal for the entire family, or do you think this is unrealistic?

Catch up with Shane Valentine and his wife Chantal at their website.