This post will be like an addendum to my other posts on picky eating. The tips contained in this post will probably not be regulation friendly in most states. Therefore, these tips are for parents only. Fixing picky eating really should start in the home anyway.
The One-Bite Rule
The most successful strategy I have ever seen to teach children to eat is the "one-bite rule." In my home when my children were growing up we had something very similar to this. Our rule involved eating some of every food served and sometimes that amounted to about one bite. For years in my childcare I had the one-bite rule in place until the state nearly shut me down over it. It seems that children should be allowed to say "no' to anything even if it is detrimental to their well-being in a childcare setting. This is why I warn you not to try this except at home. However, because I used this strategy in a childcare setting for years, I can give you a fairly detailed report on how well this actually works.
The First Stage
The first stage of using this rule will be the most difficult and can last up to 6 to 9 months for the most stubborn. You will probably have to get extremely creative to get those first bites down without an all out war. Sometimes the war cannot be avoided, and you will have to draw the line in the sand. Remember, you are the parent in this situation. Just tell your children over and over and over that they can eat one bite of anything. Sometimes toddlers will eat a bite if you feed it to them instead of expecting them to feed themselves. The absolute best scenario is to feed your children a large variety of real food from the time they begin eating solid food. Follow the suggestions of the USDA food program for infants for the best results. In a childcare using the USDA food program we can only give the children true vegetables and fruits. We cannot serve the dinners or the desserts. We feed them the cereals either mixed with formula or the infant juice. Make sure you feed them a large variety of both vegetables and fruits in order to prepare them for these foods after the age of one. At the age of one, childcares switch to table food that is chopped. Again, at this stage make sure to serve a large variety of both fruits and vegetables. If you do this when they are infants and toddlers, you will not have serious issues unless they fall into the category of the extreme, extremely picky eaters. Those children will call for war.
The Slow Evolution of Better Eating
After you survive the first stage and establish the routine of taking one bite of every food that is served, the next stage will be the slow evolution of better eating. The experts say that a child has to try a food 10 times before they will eat it. For some children that number should be 50 to 100. However, over the course of time the children will learn to actually like some of the fruits and vegetables. Sometimes this will happen immediately. I have had many children fight like they were in danger of their lives over taking a bite of something only to eat every last bit of it once they actually take that first bite. Surprisingly, this happens with beets and boys for some reason. Most of the time the progression is more gradual. You will notice them eating several bites of some of the food instead of just one. There will always be some foods the children will take their one bite and be done with it. However, my philosophy on that is "if a child is eating one bite of a vegetable once per week, that is far better than eating no bites of that vegetable in their entire childhood." After the one year mark with this rule in place and followed consistently, the results are amazing. Many, many people have come into my childcare and stood in amazement at what the children were scarfing down like it was the best food in the world. This really does work.
The Gaggers
Before I leave this subject, I want to give you some tips on dealing with one of the worst types of picky eaters - the gaggers. These are the children that gag every time a food they do not like goes into their mouth. Many experts will tell you that the gagging is an involuntary reflex and cannot be overcome. That is not true. The children gag because they are thinking of the food as a foreign object and not food. In that way, the gagging is an involuntary reflex, but it is caused by the child and not the food. When you can get the child to think of the substance in his/her mouth as food, the gagging can be stopped. The trick is to get them to chew. Once a child begins to chew the food, the gagging stops. At my childcare, we do the "chew chant." When a known gagger starts to take a bite, everyone in the childcare will begin to chant "chew, chew, chew, etc." It is amazing how well this actually works. Not only have you switched the mindset of the child by encouraging him/her to chew, but you have also put very powerful positive peer influence into effect. One of the most priceless memories I have involves the look on the face of a gagger when they eat a food for the first time without gagging. The pride and joy that exude from that child cannot be equaled. That child just conquered a major obstacle. That is how you build true self-esteem in a child by helping them conquer a major difficulty. By the way, the chewing trick works for adults that gag, too.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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