"it's not for me today" Kids and eating healthy food

[SergioG]

I am a Garden Educator and part of my job is to cook with kids k-12(with the goal to increase consumption of fruit and veggies). 

In our kitchen when kids do not like something (so often because it is new) their first reaction is to say "it is nasty."  The rule in our kithchen is that instead of that they can say "it is not for me today."  This leaves room to try this food and others a different day and a different way.  It is such an important skill or our kids to taste different and new foods. It can take as many as a dozen tastes/experiences with a food for a child to know if they like or dislike.  It is important that they have the skills and support to continue past that first taste, if it was not for them that day.

I see so many students that respond so postively to cooking and eating fresh and seasonal.  For kids on a SAD it is truely a retraining of the tastebuds!

 

[CatharinaL]

My 10 year old son is open to trying so many different things. His best friend,  however is a picky eater. His mother brings a snack bag with goldfish, pop tarts and microwave popcorn. It just about kills me to see this but he would rather faint than try anything at our house. How should I approach this. This boy is bright and intelligent but is thin as a rake. I would love to help him to enjoy food, which he really does not. When running at soccer practice, he will lie down when he runs out of energy only to be revived with Gatorade!!!

Do you have any good advice?

[SergioG]

a few thoughts....

forcing food never works in my opinion.  At your house it is your rules. continue to have your food available for him to try when he is ready.
you may also try a cooking project with your son and his friend, it could be fun and they would both be invested and want to try it and love it.

Pick a food they like and put a healthy spin on it.  For example mac and cheese with real cheese and include some veggies, or granola for a snack.

finally, for the soccer games have better drink options for your son and a little extra for his friend to have if he likes.  All you can do is to have it available.

let me know how it goes..

sergio

[AmandaL]

homemade pizza is always a hit.  give the kids each a ball and I let them roll it out and put whatever...usually just cheese and sauce.   You can opt to make the sauce yourself or have the kids make it themselves.

[MariroseP]

Sergio, I love that line..."it's not for me today."  I am graduating from the Berkeley, NE program at the end of this month and am experimenting in July with a kid's culinary cooking camp in my home.  My final project for NE will be the program I am developing for the camp.  They will all be boys, ages 8-11 (my son and his friends for now).  I include in my program the concept of exposing the kids to different veggies regardless of the type of exposure (playing with it, cooking it, learning about it, tossing it in a circle game) with the goal that they will eventually eat it.

I would love to learn more about your program and how you incorporate education about nutrient dense foods into your cooking lessons.  Can we talk more off line?  My e-mail is marirose.piciucco@gmail.com.

Thanx.

[SergioG]

yet another thought:

Another fun thing that we do with our kids when cooking is that when the food is done they set the table and we go around the tables and each says something that they are thankful for that made the meal possible.  It can be both religious and non at the same time.  It is so impotant to reflect on the the countless things that make our meals possible.
 the sun, water, worms, the kids and teamwork, the garden, their parents for putting them in the After School Program, the teachers.  these are just a few things the kids have said in our classes. 


Then we all share a meal (small meal, more of a big taste) together.  MMM!

[SaraI]

I love this discussion as I have 4 kids who have very mild tastes.  I have been trying to get them to try more 'spice' and flavor, but they are having a hard time.  I am lucky in that even if they don't particularly like the dish I made, they eat it that time and then next time we try to make it 'better' for them.  I also find that I can 'sneak' alot of new things into familiar dishes, like was mentioned - pizza.  Also, if I am adding things like mushrooms which seem to be visually unappealing to my kids, I chop them really small so they can't really tell what it is!  They always eat their salads too b/c I chop the greens into bite size, and add fruit, and this works.  It's an ever changing challenge to get your kids to understand what is really healthy for them, and not what they see on TV or in the 'world' around us.  Thank you for the tips and discussion!
Sara

[KarenP]

This is a great topic!  I've discovered with my four children (& two grandchildren), that it is often what you call foods that influence their choices and whether they will try something new or not.  Just the other day I took some organic Japanese eggplant, sliced it and made a batter for it, then sauteed it.  My 4 1/2 yr. old grandson came into the kitchen and asked what I was cooking.  I told him "fried cookies" and of course, he eagerly devoured a few!  I have also been more successful when I allow my children to help cook their snacks or meals and to create our family menus for the week.   My son has become the "pesto prince" in our house, so every Friday we make homemade pizza dough and he makes the pesto!  Of course, we "sneak" nutritional additives into the dough and they like it better than restaurant pizza ;-)

Karen

[MariroseP]

Cooking with kids not only gives them a wonderful skill and training in the art of cooking, but I truly believe that "owning" a recipe means they will eat what's in it.  In our house, my 9 year old calls himself the "master of kale."  I brought it home one day last year, never having cooked it in our house before.  My son decided he wanted to make an egg drop soup with chopped kale in it and now, he loves it and wants to make it for every celebratory dinner.  In fact, he made it even for Thanksgiving dinner, making sure his grandparents tasted his wonderful soup!   As him what his favorite dish is "in the whole wide world" and he'll now say egg drop soup with kale!

marirose