30+ Ideas for how to get picky kids to eat more variety of healthy foods and reduce stress on parents

I have neices and nephews and friends with kids that have struggled with the problem of picky eaters in their family, and it creates a huge stress for them around eating time. It’s hard to ignore, when most social gatherings revolve around food.

I’m not a parent, but I am a former child that was a picky eater who never ate vegetables or fruits until after college (but outgrew that phase, and I am now a vegan).

With the amount of information on the internet and advancements in AI, I wanted to see if this is a solvable problem. It’s not easy to solve, but I did find a lot of helpful tips and resources for those struggling with this challenge.

Research shows that “picky eating” (also called fussy eating) is very common in early childhood and many children go through phases of rejecting certain foods.^{1 2 3 4}

If you hope that they’ll just “grow out of it” you might be disappointed. One study showed that by age 4, children could already be fairly established as picky eaters, especially if parents used more controlling feeding behaviors.⁵

The good news is that there are evidence-based strategies you can use to help it become a more positive, manageable situation rather than one of constant mealtime battles, meltdowns, stress, fear and frustration.

Here is a list of practical tips and ideas to help parents overcome their picky eaters:

1. Maintain regular meal and snack times to support natural hunger cues when they are more open to eating a wider variety of foods. ⁶
2. Avoid grazing or snacking between meals, and offer only water between meals (not juice or sweet drinks).
3. Serve one familiar food, one semi-familiar food, and one small new food at each meal.
4. Keep mealtime calm and positive and try to avoid pressuring children to eat.
5. As parents, model enjoyment of a variety of foods, as children will mirror and correlate with adult behavior. ⁷
6. Encourage children to explore foods through touching, smelling, or small tastes.
7. Avoid reward/punishment tactics (avoid phrases like “no dessert unless you eat your broccoli” or “why do you always refuse?” or “why are you so picky?”).
8. Allow children to serve themselves small portions when possible.
9. Give structured choices (“broccoli or carrots”) to support autonomy.
10. Offer repeated exposure to new foods (10-15 times) without pressure.⁸
11. Limit juice and milk before meals to prevent reduced appetites.
12. Celebrate small steps (touching, licking or tasting) that counts as progress (they rolled the lettuce, they touched the broccoli, they tried one bite, they licked the mushroom).
13. Allow children to stop eating when they are full (avoid the “clean plate” rule). ⁶
14. Sit together for meals when possible to support social modeling. ⁷
15. Keep reactions neutral when food is rejected (“maybe next time” or “you don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it today, but you can try a bit if you like”)
16. Offer dips (hummus, yogurt or ranch dressing) to make vegetables more appealing.
17. Use divided plates so foods don’t touch, reducing anxiety for some kids.
18. Let kids sprinkle herbs or mild spices on foods and taste the difference, or let them smell spices or herbs to increase sensory comfort.
19. Try serving foods warm vs. chilled to see preference differences.
20. Make a “rainbow plate” with small samples of colorful foods.
21. Try vegetables cut into fun shapes (stars, circles, thin sticks).
22. Let kids help wash fruits or vegetables before cooking, or help stir, mix, or assemble simple dishes. Make sure to focus on the experience, not how much they ate (“Thanks for helping me wash the carrots, it was fun having you help”).
23. Create a build-your-own bowl with grains, veggies, and toppings.
24. Add small pieces of veggies into familiar foods (pasta, quesadillas or macaroni and cheese).
25. Make smoothies with fruits and mild-tasting vegetables (spinach, cucumber and apples).
26. Offer vegetables with playful names (“dinosaur trees” for broccoli or “eyeballs” for grapes).
27. Use small skewers (safe for age) to create colorful fruit/veggie kabobs.
28. Create a weekly “Food Adventure Night” with a tiny sample of one new food.
29. Offer a “taste test” of 2-3 fruits or veggies and ask food texture is crunchiest, smoothest, lumpiest, easiest to hold, or softest.¹¹
30. Encourage one-bite tries using a fun phrase like “learning bite” or “experiment.”
31. Display fruits/veggies in a bowl within reach to build visual familiarity.
32. Highlight the inherent positive qualities of different foods, instead of rewarding junk food in exchange for trying healthy food (“This carrot is crunchy and sweet and makes you see further, let’s see how you like it.”).
33. Avoid bribing with dessert as you don’t want the dessert to become the “real reward” but instead it should just be part of the meal.
34. Keep a simple note for yourself of which foods they refused/touched/tried this week and what attitude you used. Over 2–3 weeks you’ll start to see patterns and maybe one of those “new” items will turn into a “they touched it” item.

If you don’t make any progress with these tips, and your child is losing weight or refusing to eat entire food groups, they may be experiencing an eating disorder. They might also be having sensory, motor or oral‐motor issues (difficulty chewing, gagging, limited textures, stomach pains/nausea or toothaches). Seek professional help to rule out these issues.

If you’d like to get more organized in your home to save time and reduce frustration (and apply the skills to your job), consider taking our free course, Lean at Home online training certification program!

Recommended Books:

• Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters From High Chair to High School
• Eating Behaviors of the Young Child: Prenatal and Postnatal Influences for Healthy Eating
• Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family: How to Eat, How to Raise Good Eaters, How to Cook

References:

1. Childhood fussy/picky eating behaviours: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies ↩︎
2. Current Evidence on Picky Eating in Early Childhood ↩︎
3. Picky eating in children: causes and consequences ↩︎
4. Feeding a Picky Eater: The Do’s and Don’ts ↩︎
5. Children May Not Always Grow Out of Being Picky Eaters ↩︎
6. Study gives insight — and advice — on picky eating in children ↩︎
7. Handling Picky Eaters ↩︎
8. When Picky Eating Becomes a Concern ↩︎
9. Study gives insight — and advice — on picky eating in children ↩︎
10. Handling Picky Eaters ↩︎
11. Tips to Help Your Picky Eater ↩︎