Getting Kids to Eat

Getting kids to eat can be like trying to nail jelly to a wall.
Here are some techniques that really work.

1. Cook with your kids. Get your kid involved in preparing their food. They will feel far more involved when it comes to sitting down if they made the salad, put together the bread and cheese, and helped set the table.
2. Be calm and uncomplicated. You should never punish a kid by withdrawal of food. Also, question the psychology behind rewarding good behaviour with bribes of favourite foods. If you separate the issues of behaviour and eating, then you keep the child's relationship with food easy to understand. Likewise, keep your own hang-ups in mind, and don't pass them onto your kids. It is unwise to ban foods as "bad stuff" or "temptations". Even decadent, fat-rich food can have it's place in your child's diet, in moderation of course.
3. Follow the 10 times rule. Recent research from America suggests it might take a kid up to 10 tries of a new foodstuff before they learn to like it. So if you want them to try carrot, then you need to stick at it. But how do you get them to even try a new food? Let's face it, carrots do look a bit weird. You could always try the 'no thank you' bite? The rule is, your kid is allowed to say' no thank you' to any food they like, as long as they have one bite of it first. This is a great way of getting your kid to try things. Gradually your kid will find that some things aren't so bad - even carrots.
4. If they have a favourite food, tell them they can have it after they finish everything else.
5. Other ideas. If you make the food look appealing, young children can sometimes be enticed into eating it- you could try making the food into the shape of a face. And one final idea for those last mouthfuls is a game of aeroplanes.