Occasionally I allow guest bloggers to share their knowledge with my readers. These posts are not sponsored and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this blog. However, I take pains to make sure that only informative content appears on this blog. As always, I appreciate your feedback. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, let me know via the contact form. Guest post pitches that are overly salesly or do not offer value to my readers will be ignored.
The below is a guest article from Izzy Woods, a freelance writer.
When my son was a little he was a very fussy eater. A few friends’ children were just the same. It seemed to me that this must be learned, not innate behavior, and that consequently we should, collectively, be able to come up with a solution. I had a lot to learn…
Hiding Healthy Foods
There was much debate about whether this was a good idea or not. On the plus side, our fussy little eaters would be getting the nutrition they needed without realizing it and putting up a fight. On the minus side, if they were never introduced to vegetables in their natural form then progress would be slow in getting them moved on from hidden foods. My solution was to do a bit of both. I became super sneaky and, in retrospect, a little obsessed. There was a job to do, and there was no way I was going to fail. All my frustrated management career skills came into play. This was nothing short of a campaign.
My thinking was that familiar foods, such as meatloaf, or pie, could be given a subtly different taste, which would accustom my child to tasting a dish that was not entirely as they expected it to be. I began with a simple technique of adding grated carrot to dishes, which disappear in a trice during cooking and are virtually undetectable. For really inexpensive foods they are a great way of adding vitamins to a meal, and great for bulking up mince, for example. Carrot was particularly good in this regard, as it only sweetened the dish.
If I was adding an ingredient that I knew was going to change the flavor a little, I would announce that we were having ‘Special Fish Pie’ tonight, and ask if my son could guess why it was special, but only when they had finished. It would be sufficiently familiar for them to thoroughly enjoy the food, and be surprised to find that a different vegetable had been included. This broke down a fair degree of resistance to trying new foods.
Sometimes my cunning was such that I would add a new ingredient, and a familiar ingredient just to fool my toddler. When they guessed ‘sweetcorn’ was the ‘secret’ ingredient, as it was not usually in their pie, I would triumphantly agree and say ‘And also THIS!’ producing a sweet potato or a tomato with the flourish of a magician producing a rabbit out of a hat. My sense of achievement was as intense as I felt when I had just won a sales pitch. Fortunately my child found this game hilarious, and soon the ‘Guess What’s In It’ competition was a regular fixture. I was beginning to win the battle.
It Hurts When Your Child Won’t Eat
Although I can see now that the lengths I went seem extreme, behind these efforts was a sense of frustration and hurt about my child rejecting the food I had lovingly prepared for him. As mothers we spend so much time thinking about the best way to care for our children and usually the love and care is welcomed. But when it is rejected it is painful, and it was after months of battling and talking to other mothers who were down about it that my ‘Stealthy Eating Campaign’ really took hold.
Moving On
After a few weeks of hiding food in other food I got frustrated. It was one thing to hide foods, and quite another to have my son eat them in a regular manner with the rest of the family. I decided the ‘Guess What’s In It’ game had to move on. Again, beginning with the humble carrot, I made sure I prepared some slivers of cooked carrot while my son was eating. When I revealed carrot as the secret ingredient, I casually said “Here, try some, can you taste the sugar?” and took a saucer over to the table, munching away enthusiastically, and helping myself. Children love to copy, as we know, and miraculously my vegetable-averse son tucked in. He noted how sweet they were, and I explained that vegetables often had sugars in them, which is why many of them taste sweet. I know, I know. Shameless, but it is true.
He was intrigued, so the next time I prepared home-made French fries I added in some ‘Sweet chips’. Sweet potato became a hit in an instant, with ‘sweet chips’ top amongst his requests, followed by chunks added to a stew. Peas were another win. Now he was not frightened of trying things anymore he became keen to find more ‘sweet’ vegetables. We had parsnip chips and roasted parsnips, and then some mange tout and petit pois. I even caramelized down some onions and leeks one day. We made ‘sweet vegetable soup’ out of our ingredients.
Not All Vegetables Are Sweet
I broke this news to my son after a few weeks, and he looked crestfallen. But we soon discovered together that even though some foods were not sweet they were still delicious. We made “Liquid Pizza” – a tomato soup with fresh basil and bread croutons. Liquid Pizza was his idea. From the familiar to the inventive. Child’s play!
Conclusion
What struck me throughout this experiment was the power that presentation has in how a child receives what you say, and how you frame new experiences for them. Today my technique is called ‘Gamification’ and is known by marketing moguls to be a sure fire way to change consumer behavior. ‘Gamifying’ food fussiness took time, and if my son rejected a vegetable along the way, I just smiled and shrugged and said ‘You don’t have to like everything’. Food has to be fun and pleasure focused, not scary or a chore. We all know that children are programmed to play all the time, so why not give meal times the same sense of adventure and experimentation that the child’s brain is hard-wired to receive? It turned my fussy eater into a food lover in just over four months. Give it a go. You never know where it will lead. Liquid Pizza anyone?
Liquid Pizza!
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