I just finished a spur-of-the-moment dinner with a friend and her kids. They are my biggest challenge. Not all of them, really just two. But since they aren’t mine I can only suggest, but not as persuasively as I would with my own. With my kids they get what they get and they don’t get upset.  Well, at least I ignore if they whine and try to make sure they get everything I’ve made— with a few modifications— like not giving the child who absolutely won’t eat a certain vegetable that one if there are other veggies to serve him.  But this is different; these two are extremely picky and I feel bad if I can’t get them to at least try some things. I certainly won’t push and just try to find things they will like. This is where the hiding foods inside other things might work. But I think it will happen in time if they’re not made to feel bad about their choices and stress them out.

I had originally planned to make this great pork stir-fry I created from a hodgepodge of several recipes. Since time was not on my side and I knew none of the other kids would eat it I made Mystic & Trader Joe’s Pizzas that I had in the freezer and made a large (what I consider) kid-friendly salad. It was romaine, orange bell pepper, cucumbers, celery, and red cabbage. I used a Paul Newman’s dressing because, again, it was late.  I love these children and their mom and I’d rather them stick around longer with something they would eat than scare them away with my cooking.  One of her kids actually tried something for the first time!

When should you start kids eating healthfully?  From the beginning. Is it ever too late? Probably not; there are plenty of stories of people becoming chefs or food critics because their parents were awful cooks or didn’t feed them well. And as my mother says kids get on “jags” of things and will eat something until you’d want to puke before eating it yet again, yet they’re perfectly healthy. But then there are the other stories, the ones more common these days, of childhood obesity, diabetes and other health issues. I look around and see so many kids and teens who don’t look healthy and I assume (maybe incorrectly) that they don’t eat well.

If your parents didn’t feed you well, how do you change? Is it harder to learn to eat well if you were brought up with bad food choices? I think those who’ve been eating well from day one (or at least from 6 months old) have several advantages- they will have better health benefits from an earlier age and less likely to be obese or ill; they will have a better relationship with food; less likely to have food-related issues or constantly on the latest diet; they will enjoy food for the tastes and pass on the suitable food lessons to their own children. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed if you got a bad start. I know my friend’s mother was a bad cook and had issues with food, but my friend is trying to give her kids the healthier choices and never once have I felt her decisions were made because she doesn’t care, she just didn’t have the same foundation that I had. But she’s learning really quickly and for that I’m proud of her. She even says I inspire her, which is flattering. Her kids are beautiful, inside and out, and I am so happy they will have a better start than their mom. 

So, my tips on a proper foundation: start them off feeding them those strained beans they might spit out a few times, not just the apple, pears and sweet potatoes. Eat with them. Let them see what you eat, feed them what you eat. Get them interested in foods by planting vegetables, shopping at farmers’ markets or farms and cooking with them. Don’t treat the vegetables like a punishment, they are delicious, but kids need to get accustomed to them.  Don’t quit. Really your kids will eat them.  

Eventually.