Six practical tips for getting kids to eat well: eat together at the table, hold firm boundaries when they complain, serve familiar foods in right portions, follow through on consequences, hide vegetables in recipes if you want, and let them use ketchup. Real advice from a parent who's lived it.
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6 tips for great eatin' kids. Number 1: Eat as a family at the table. Eating as a family at the same table builds stability, consistency, and structure in the family. In addition to structure and stability, it gives a ton of opportunity for communication, time we rarely get anymore, uninterrupted focused time on the individual people in the family. We get to hear about each other's days, we get to laugh, joke, cry, and hear about the wins and losses we experience. In addition, kids get to watch and learn. How mom and dad interact and discuss family members. How they eat. The little ones pick up on what the older ones, including parents, are doing. When we boil it down to the basics, kids are simply copycats and they want to be like their older siblings and their parents. Good eaters breed good eaters. Number 2: Do not give in to terrorists. Kids are pretty instinctive. They will repeat behaviors that cause you to react, and when they see you cave because they pitch a fit, guess what they're gonna do next time? The only way to prevent you from being a pawn is to hold strong. In our house, you didn't leave the table till you were done eating. If you refused to eat, you had the option to go to bed early, but in many circumstances, that dinner was waiting for you when you woke up and you ate it for breakfast. Certainly exceptions were made, uh, you know, at times, but we were pretty firm on dinner time. Mom worked hard to make it, Dad worked hard to pay for it, it's healthy and good for you, so you're not going to waste our efforts by throwing it in the trash. 3. Be realistic on food choices and the portions you put on the plate. I'm all about kids eating real food—steak, chicken, pork, broccoli, veggies, carbs, etc. In our house, Mom's not making multiple versions of dinner. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. But certain flavor profiles are not going to be worth the struggle. You know, we never force spicy foods or unique or real strong flavors on kids. As they got older, we strongly encouraged tasting to decide if they liked foods, but for the most part, our meals were pretty normal. You know, salt and pepper, maybe some garlic and butter. We never forced spicy Indian, raw sushi, or real complex flavors, but we did have them taste those. Usually. We were realistic in that sense. But we also had chicken strips, hot dogs, and french fry nights. At the same time, we need to not over-serve their plates. If we're gonna be strict on clearing the plates, then I would rather them ask for seconds than have to fight them to eat more than they really can. 4. If you promise consequences, you must deliver. Not just for eating, but in life. Your word has to mean something. If you promise a trip to Disneyland for straight A's on a report card, you better follow through. If you promise to take away TV for a week if they don't clean their room, you better make sure there's no TV for a week. Too many parents are not willing to follow through because it's hard on them. I've got news for you, it matters. It's important. Parenting requires some sacrifice. 5. Use clever recipes to disguise less popular food. So I'm personally not a huge fan of this method, but I'm not, I'm not enough to be against it. I don't think we ever did this in our house. I mean, if we made smoothies and casseroles, but it wasn't an intentional way to work vegetables in. Our kids just had to eat their vegetables. But I've seen some interesting recipes, mostly involving someone chopping up veggies real fine and, and adding them to scrambled eggs or some sort of casserole, and it's not a terrible idea. And I'll admit, I've seen some kids that are really committed to making eating a challenge on their parents. So especially if you're cracking down on this later than earlier, disguising might be a strong option to try. But we do need to eventually get to a point where kids will eat Real food. 6. Didn't I say there was 5? Nope, I said there were 6. Ahem. 6. Don't be offended when they dip everything in ketchup and proclaim it to be good. And this one hurts me the most. Ketchup. I mean, come on. That's a nice steak. I'm insulted when you use steak sauce, but ketchup? And these kids, including my own, will proclaim that everything is so much better when smothered in ketchup. It breaks my heart. I'm 100% against it, but I'm willing to let it slide to let them think that they are sophisticated in winning. But it hurts my food-loving soul. It, it, it really does. This is 100% Dad. Find our current tour schedule on 100dad.com, 100dad.com, on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and more @100dad, 100dad. Email Townsend Russell at 100dad.com. Com.
