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How to Get Your Picky Eater to Eat Better

Home » Tips » How to Get Your Picky Eater to Eat Better

Published July 18, 2019 Last Updated November 7, 2020 / By Jessica 38 Comments

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If you have a picky eater on your hands this post is for you! It has everything from tips on how to deal with a picky eater to reward charts and easy toddler recipes the whole family will love.

Picky Eater Tips Collage of Photos - 1. Yogurt with sprinkles and fruit 2. muffin tin lunch 3. reward chart for eating colorful fruit and vegetables. 

As a mom of four, I am constantly trying to teach my kids good eating habits. From reading books like French Kids Eat Everything, to using sticker reward charts, and sneaking spinach into smoothies like this Spinach Berry Smoothie. I’ve tried it all! And honestly, I’ve had success with all of it – the hard part is consistency (and strong wills, but I digress!)

Picky Eater 101

I remember years ago talking on the phone with my friend who was lamenting about how her son was such a picky eater. I was totally naive and I said, “really? Luke is a great eater.” She said something along the lines of, “yeah, just you wait.” Well, a few months later, my super great eater went all white bread and hot dogs on me and I couldn’t get a veggie in there if it was the last food on earth. 

Talk about frustrating. 

The boy seriously was on carb overload and went through like 3 boxes of noodles a week. No sauce. Only salt and pepper. Literally all three of my older kids have gone through this same stage when they were toddlers.

I would be lying if I said we were completely through it, but we have made great progress in the picky eating department and I have definitely found some good solutions that work well for us. Plus, I have become an expert at sneaking fruits, veggies and proteins into these little diets and I thought I would share in case any of you mamas have a picky eater on your hands as well!

*This post contains affiliate links.

How to deal with a picky eater: 

Watch this video with some of our tips and then read below for more details!

 

Do Not Give Up, and Stay Positive.

It takes time to cure a picky eater! 

Little girl in white shirt eating strawberries, bananas, grapes and peanut butter dip.

First and foremost, try not to get discouraged. The honest truth is, it can be a long road, and it can feel lonely. I learned early on, though, that if I cry or yell or try to guilt my kids into eating things it typically blows up in my face. 

A factual approach has worked better for us, “I just want you to eat healthy things so you can grow big and strong,” or “if you eat too much of this food it could hurt your tummy and slow your body down” etc. always trying to be positive and up-lifting. 

I believe in the power of positive thinking, and I noticed how if an older kid made a comment about dinner than right away the younger siblings decided they don’t want it either. We have a strict “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” policy around dinner.

I don’t punish my kids if they don’t want to eat something after trying it, but if they say a negative thing about it out loud they will have a consequence. 

Non Food Rewards for Making Healthy Choices

Reward chart printable for eating healthy - 'Eat A Rainbow' with fresh fruit and vegetables surrounding the paper.

Studies show that kids who are rewarded for trying vegetables with non-food rewards, like a sticker or verbal praise, eat and LIKE more vegetables. Check out this article for more info and citations.

We know sticker charts work, so we created some reward chart printables to use with our kids. You can use them too! One is rewards for trying new foods, and one is like a checklist for eating five different colors of food in a day.

Click Here to print the ‘Eat the Rainbow’ Food Reward Chart

Reward chart for trying new foods with broccoli, hummus, carrots, blueberries, onion and cherries on the side.

Print the ‘Try New Foods’ Reward Chart Here

We really want to go on a family vacation this year, but we wanted our kids to have to earn it in some way. Even though we’ve made great progress in the picky eater department, I still find myself frustrated at dinner time. Out of four kids there always seems to be someone who takes issue with what I make. It was driving me nuts! 

Favorite meals printable list with highlighters and post-it notes and dinner ideas written on it.

So, we decided to tell our kids that if they could find 15 meals that I could make without notice and everyone ate it without complaining we would take them on family vacation! They haven’t met their goal quite yet (we’ve got 11) but having the list hanging up in the kitchen and something to work towards has helped turn our dinnertime into a much more positive experience for me. 

Here You Can Print the Favorite Family Meals List

Limit the Snacks

If your kids are snacking all day, they won’t be hungry and are less likely to eat meals. French Kids Eat Everything opened my eyes to how much snacking we were doing. I LOVE this book! While not every bit of advice in that book is going to work for me, it inspired me, especially to limit snacks. 

Try to limit one or two snacks a day, and not within an hour of mealtime.

My kids are much more likely to eat their meals and try new things, when they haven’t had a snack for a while. 

Continue to Offer Your Picky Eater Food Multiple Times

Cafe Rio copycat chicken shredded with lettuce, tortillas, cheese and tomatoes surrounding the bowl.

At one of my kids yearly well-check appointments I asked my doctor for advice about the picky eating situation and he told me to keep offering food to my kids, even if they adamantly don’t like them the first time. He told me that it can take 7-10 times of seeing something before kids will feel a desire to try it. 

I was totally shocked by this, but it has proven true. The first time I made Cafe Rio Chicken (pictured above) my daughter immediately wanted nothing to do with it, but now it is one of her favorite meals! She just needed to get familiar with it first. The same thing happened with my youngest and mini oranges. 

Sneak Fruits and Veggies into Things they Already Like

Green smoothie surrounded by spinach leaves, strawberries and grapes. Healthy Green Muffins mini sized on a cooling rack and glazed. Berry Spinach Smoothie in glass, a pink straw, and strawberries, spinach and blackberries surrounding it.

Smoothies are a big thing for us during the summer. We have a Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Smoothie that my kids LOVE. The peanut butter and chocolate mask the spinach and fruits in the recipe completely. They also love this Spinach Berry Smoothie and this Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie.

One of my other favorite things to sneak fruits and veggies into is muffins! This Green Monster Muffin recipe is a major crowd pleaser at our house. 

Another way we love to sneak nutrients into our kids food is with our Balance of Nature fruit and veggie capsules! Read all about them here! 

Butter. Ranch. Cool Whip.

When giving your picky eaters a fruit or vegetable for the first time there is no shame in presenting it in its tastiest form. Some examples of this may be Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots, a dollop of cool whip on some strawberries, Peanut Butter Dip with apples, Healthy Veggie Dip, or butter-coated green beans.

Yes, these things obviously minimize some of the health benefits of fruits and veggies, but a positive first experience can be priceless. My kids would then form in their head “I love green beans” and the next time they are presented in any form they are much more likely to happily partake! 

Muffin Tin Lunches

Muffin Tin Lunch, an orange, turkey, blueberries, raspberries, chips and hummus in a muffin tin.

Nothing could be easier than muffin tin lunches. Basically all you do is serve whatever you are wanting your munchkins to eat, right out of a muffin tray! I basically use a mix of whatever is in my fridge or pantry at the time, I usually just try to include each of the food groups. 

My one tip for the muffin tin lunches (if your picky eaters are anything like mine) is DO NOT put a treat in one of the compartments. If your babe goes straight for the candy then the rest of the lunch will lose its cool factor because he will be just begging for more candy… I’m not speaking from experience or anything.

Mini Everything

Spaghetti and meatball appetizers on a white serving dish, little spaghetti muffins with meatballs on top, parmesan cheese and basil sprinkled on top and a toothpick holding them together.

Everything is cuter/cooler when it is miniature, apparently. Mini pancakes, mini corn, mini oranges (cuties) mini sandwiches, the Mini Spaghetti and Meatballs pictured above, you name it.

A favorite of my kids is mini muffins (using the tin pictured above) and our favorites are Peanut Butter Muffins or Green Monster Muffins. The kids love them and they are actually really good for you! Win, win.  

Toothpicks and Sprinkles Make Anything Cool

Kids yogurt with fruit and sprinkles in a white bowl, in the center of a plate of fruit with strawberries, kiwi, blueberries and waffle chips.

Sarah’s girls were not really wanting to eat breakfast (read more about it in this post.) She threw some sprinkles on top of greek yogurt, and voila! Suddenly yogurt was the new favorite breakfast. That takes practically no effort on Mom’s part, so it’s an automatic win.

Fruit bowls are a favorite with toothpicks but they work with whatever! If your kids are resisting eating a turkey sandwich, cut up a string cheese, roll up some turkey and cut into bite sized pieces. Then, cut up some bread and stick toothpicks in all of them. Suddenly a turkey sandwich is cool again! 

Make Pictures with Food

How adorable is this Thanksgiving turkey cheese platter?! It was literally SO easy to throw together, not to mention festive and delicious!

There are so many creative ideas floating around Pinterest for making pictures with food. I love them. I especially love holiday themed ones, ’cause I’m not taking the time to do that every day! My kids loved this Turkey Cheese Platter, and this cute Apple Nacho Wreath or our fun Veggie Christmas Wreath are great too! 

Cookie Cut it Up

Cucumbers cut into flower shapes with a cookie cutter on a blue cutting board, from Rosyscription.com

Image via Rosyscription (previously Madigan Made)

This one may seem lame or obvious, but if I am being honest this has actually been really successful for my picky toddlers. Shapes are in, guys. I can basically get him them to eat any sandwich if it is cut into a cool shape. 

The shape of choice these days is snowflake, recently graduated from pumpkin. Mama liked the pumpkin better, because it wasted less edges. We have this huge set of cookie cutters and the kids love them, whether it be for food, play dough, or tracing.

I hope that one of these ideas will help your most stubborn picky eaters accept a nutrient or two!

If you have any great tips we’ve missed, please leave them in the comments! We always love what you share.

xo,

This was originally published in January 2015, and has been updated with new photos and more detailed information.

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Comments

  1. Julie

    July 18, 2019 at 1:56 pm

    These are awesome! I love the cookie cuter idea and hiding their fruits and veggies in things they already like. I know these will definitely help with my three picky eaters!

    Reply
  2. Sara Welch

    July 18, 2019 at 12:52 pm

    These are some awesome ideas and I will absolutely be implementing some of these with our kids! Awesome post!

    Reply
    • Sarah

      July 18, 2019 at 1:12 pm

      Thank you! It’s so much trial and error but I hope some of it helps! :)

      Reply
  3. Susie

    July 18, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    Really great ideas. Sending this along to my sister in law, who has the pickiest eater kids ever!

    Reply
    • Sarah

      July 18, 2019 at 12:50 pm

      Thank you! Everyone has at least one, it seems! haha

      Reply
  4. Taylor

    July 18, 2019 at 11:14 am

    Such great tips! LOVE the reward charts!

    Reply
    • Sarah

      July 18, 2019 at 12:50 pm

      Thank you! My kids love them too!

      Reply
  5. Chely

    January 25, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    So glad to know we are not alone, we have a very picky 20 month old who also seems to be on a carb diet so I can totally relate to that. The only way we have found to sneak some veggies and fruits into him is vegetable w/fruit juice with the least amount of added sugar, he drinks that. We will definitely be using some of these tips. Thanks for sharing and good luck to us all! ?

    Reply
    • Sarah

      January 28, 2019 at 5:55 am

      It’s a struggle but it gets better! I mean, our kids are still picky, but we have been able to find SOME things that they will happily eat. It’s a marathon, not a sprint right!? haha

      Reply
  6. Ebony pannell

    September 09, 2018 at 11:38 am

    I can’t wait to try these suggestions on my little guy! Thank you

    Reply
    • Jessica

      September 10, 2018 at 2:19 pm

      Yay! Good luck friend!

      Reply
  7. Sarah

    January 04, 2018 at 8:21 pm

    Thank you so much for these ideas! My son is 18 months and will only eat spaghetti for dinner. (Mostly) he eats bread and vegan cheese with yogurt as a side or halo oranges… fruits are never a problem for him but trying things like chicken nuggets and different things he won’t even touch it! So frustrating!
    So I’m excited to try these ideas!

    Reply
    • Sarah + Jessica

      January 05, 2018 at 3:50 pm

      You are so sweet! I TOTALLY know how you feel and it can be so frustrating!! Good luck mama!

      [image: Facebook] [image: Twitter] [image: Google Plus Page] [image: pinterest] [image: Instagram]

      Reply
  8. Christina Aleman

    December 26, 2015 at 9:03 am

    Preparing food for kids esp for picky eaters is very difficult, that’s why you have to think of something else or a trick to make them eat whatever you serv and your ideas is just right and very clever. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Jessica @ Pretty Providence

      December 26, 2015 at 10:25 am

      You are so welcome, I hope they work for you!

      Reply
  9. Nancy

    April 16, 2015 at 4:08 pm

    I have a feeling that my 2 year old would just eat the specific things she wants out of the muffin tin. I could put proteins and veggies, but to be honest all she would eat out of there is some fruit and fishies or crackers. Then what?

    Reply
  10. cake1979

    March 27, 2015 at 3:59 pm

    Such great ideas. My son is 2.5 and super picky. I just now figured out, take him outside to eat or put him in the red wagon and take him around the block for dinner and he will eat anything.

    Reply
    • Jessica @ Pretty Providence

      March 27, 2015 at 4:30 pm

      Really?!’ That is a great idea! Totally gonna try it!

      Reply
  11. Jessica @ Pretty Providence

    January 19, 2015 at 10:51 am

    You are so welcome!! That is about the same age my son started revolting as well! Ugh it is so hard! But hopefully some of these will work for you and your sweet little! Best of luck!!

    Reply
  12. Amy

    January 19, 2015 at 11:11 am

    I REALLY love these ideas! my daughter was the best eater ever and like you I didn’t understand when I heard about other friends children being picky eaters until just recently my daughter will be 2 next month and everything is I need chips or I need cheese or I need gram crackers! its impossible for me to get her to eat the healthy stuff she use to love before:( every time I make her something it ends up in the trash can! thanks for these tips I will def be trying these:)

    Reply
  13. Missy

    November 21, 2014 at 8:39 am

    These are great ideas I have 2 very picky eaters at home 3 if you count my husband my five year old I can kind of reason with the 2 year old I am at a loss with maybe these will help… I wonder if these ideas will help with my husband ;)

    Reply
  14. Erica

    January 22, 2014 at 9:44 am

    Good ideas. I will definitely try these on my picky eaters. 2 and 4 years old. You’d think the 4 year old would be over this by now. But he’s not. I will try anything.

    Reply
    • Jessica @ Pretty Providence

      January 22, 2014 at 10:19 am

      I totally know the feeling! It is so frustrating and it’s hard to not feel like a bad mom, but as far as I’ve heard almost all kids do this for at least a period of time! We are not alone!! Good luck

      Reply
  15. Kelly

    January 16, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    I love the muffin tin idea. My son got Lunch Punch cutters for Christmas last year, they are for cutting sandwiches and fit a piece of bread perfectly with only the very edge crust cut off. http://www.thelunchpunch.com/lp/

    Reply
    • prettyprovidence

      January 16, 2014 at 11:00 pm

      Really?! That sounds amazing! I am totally gonna look into those! Thanks so much for the tip!

      Reply
  16. Heidi@OneCreativeMommy

    January 16, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    I used to use the toothpick trick all of the time. It works like a charm! (I think I need to stick them in the kid’s lunches at school! Maybe they won’t come home with so many leftovers.)

    Reply
    • prettyprovidence

      January 16, 2014 at 10:01 pm

      Haha I love it! I’m so glad I’m not the only one!

      Reply
  17. prettyprovidence

    January 15, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    Yay! I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to comment!

    Reply
  18. Vanessa

    January 15, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    Love this! My son just hit the stage where he’ll try it but spit it out, with a very clear, “Mama, I no like.”. Thanks for sharing these tips!

    Reply
    • prettyprovidence

      January 15, 2014 at 6:43 pm

      Ahh that is the worst! Because when they actually try it it’s somuch harder to force them! Good luck, I hope these help!

      Reply
  19. Leanne

    January 15, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    Great post! You shared so many great ideas! Pinning!

    Reply
  20. Aimee @ LikeMotherLikeDaughter

    January 15, 2014 at 10:05 am

    Oh my gosh, Jessica I love all of these ideas! I am definitely pinning this for the future with my future baby growing up to be a picky toddler undoubtedly. I love the compartment ideas and the picture out of the food. Too cute1

    Reply
    • prettyprovidence

      January 15, 2014 at 1:38 pm

      Thanks so much Aimee! Hopefully you won’t even need them, but if you ever do, they’ll be great!

      Reply
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Hey! We're Sarah and Jessica. We're BFF's and have known each other since we were 5 years old. This blog is our place to share all of our best recipes, tips, crafts and DIY projects.

You can read more about us on our about page and find us on instagram! We love making new friends.

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