Never give up. And try to act casual. I’ve read numerous times that exposing a child to various foods repeatedly (at least 10 -15 times) is key to raising a “good” eater. One of my kids will try just about anything, but the other takes her sweet time. Seriously, I think I put broccoli on her plate for over a year until she tried it. I always just put one or two florets not wanting to waste food. But one day she just picked it up and ate it. Of course, I had to try to ignore this major and most unexpected breakthrough. But she could probably tell that inside I was doing cartwheels.
Prepare food together. Another recommendation I see a lot is having the child help you prepare the food. If the stars are aligned properly, and my child is actually hungry, this approach has worked wonders for us.
Variey variety variety. My kids are still far from perfect eaters (much like their mother), but I do feel like I’m on to something when it comes to variety. Constantly experimenting with snack foods seems to be conditioning my kids to expect the unexpected. Sure, there are plenty of failures. But, on the whole, they seem to be open to new foods. And it doesn’t hurt if they’re super hungry either.
