In my last post I talked a bit about getting your child to eat. Here are my Top 10 ideas:

1. Engage your child with the shopping choices. Let them choose between two cereals you’ve approved of, or which juice to buy.

2. Teach them how to prepare meals. My two year old can put items in a bowl, stir, get things out of the fridge, hand items to me. She sits at the counter and helps me cook.

3. Make fun and interesting meals. Cut sandwiches into weird and interesting shapes by using cookie cutters on your sandwiches.

4. Make food funny colors! A touch of food coloring or fruit juice can make a bland meal look inviting. Strawberries in milk for instance, or just a few blueberries mixed into mashed potatoes for color.

5. Make your child’s favorite food and then add something else to the meal you want them to eat. Add broccoli to mac and cheese , encourage them to try.

6. Don’t make them finish everything. Let them pick around and get used to new shapes, colors, textures. Don’t make a big deal of new foods. If you put the food on the plate enough times they will eventually try it.

7. Cook for the holidays. Make Pink and Heart food on Valentines day, Green Irish food for St. Patrick’s day etc.

8. Have healthy snacks available for when your child IS ready to eat.

9. Make smoothies with protein powder and /or vitamin powder. (For one foster child I had he wouldn’t eat a thing. I finally resorted to putting a few powders into his juice. He wasn’t eating but at least he got a bit of nutrition.)

10. Kids will eat when they are hungry and have natural tendencies to eat more some days than others. Our bodies will crave certain foods for days and then ‘be done’ with that food. These can be natural cycles. Don’t worry about it too much.

Have other ideas? Please leave them in the comments below!