I have a big garden. One my very favorite foods to grow and to eat is honeydew melon. To me, a garden grown honeydew melon is like gold - I savor every last bite. I cut one up this week and put it in front of my son. He said "I don't like that yuckydew melon." I said, "okay, more for me!" Then I went about eating my meal and left the honeydew melon slices in front of him.
Next thing I knew, this was happening:
He ended up eating rest of the melon!
The point of this story is this: don't pressure your child to eat. Pressure makes kids eat worse, not better. I often use the line "great! more for me!" when my child doesn't want to eat a food. Then I enjoy my own meal and continue to talk with everyone at the table. This takes the pressure off my child and lets them learn to like a food on their own time. I try to give them some "privacy" to try the new food - meaning I sit with them and talk with them, but don't look at them for a few minutes so they can sneak up on the food without any pressure from me.
Your job as a parent is to offer your child healthy food.
A child's job is to choose whether to eat the food or not.
Do a good job with your part, then let your child do a good job with eating. For more information on how to help your picky eater, visit the picky eating page of this website, or the Ellyn Satter Website at: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/
Also, to keep up with tradition, here's what we are eating this week:
M: Turkey and lentil lettuce wraps with cabbage ramen slaw, canned pineapple
T: chili with baked potatoes, fresh cut melon on the side
W: tortellini soup with sausage and veggies, bread and pears
Th: pasta with pesto, green salad, fruit smoothie
F: easy enchiladas, canned corn, canned fruit
S: homemade pizza, green salad, fruit smoothies