Tips for Picky Eaters

1.  Make food into unusual shapes such as an animal or funny faces using pieces of vegetables, grated cheese, hard-cooked eggs, and thinly sliced meats.

2.  Make a healthy fruit sundae by topping frozen yogurt with cut-up fruit or berries.

3.  Put dinner courses in little containers, labeled No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and so on. Let kids open them in order, eating what’s in each before moving on to the next.

4.  Kids love to dip!  Serve pieces of fruit with a sweet-yogurt dip; try vegetable sticks with salad dressing.

5.  Scatter a variety of cut-up vegetables on top of a pizza.

6.  Make exotic sandwiches using bagel chips, waffles, or peeled apple slices instead of bread.

7.  Add shredded vegetables such as carrots or zucchini to ground beef and make into patties for burgers.

8.  Create friendly names for foods: broccoli trees, bunny salads, mashed-potato sandcastles, applesauce soup.

9.  Let your child choose the vegetables he wants to add to homemade soups.

10. Have breakfast  for dinner or vice versa.  There are no rules as to what foods should be eaten when. Serve waffles with fruit for dinner; pizza or patties can be healthy morning meals.

11. Make vegetables or other foods into fun, creative shapes using a paper, small cookie cutters, a spiral cutter, or a ripple cutter.

12. Make a rainbow-colored meal for your child with foods of different colors.

13. Make a meal in which all of the courses are the same color; you can either use a food’s natural color or add food coloring to milk, rice, or potatoes to create the same shade.

14. Keep foods soft so they are easy for your child to chew.

15. Sweeten vegetables such as carrots, winter squash, or cabbage with drizzle of maple syrup or orange juice.

16. Sprinkle vanilla yogurt with granola, raisins, or cold cereal for an instant sundae.

17. Puree vegetables in a blender, then add the batter to soup, stews, sauces, or baked products such as muffins, quick breads, or brownies.

18. Entice your child to taste new foods. Start the meal with the food you would like him to try. Save familiar foods for the second or third course.

19.  Cut-up small pieces of fruit and stir into frozen yogurt, ice milk, or ice cream.

20. Let your child bring her favorite stuffed animal to the dinner table so it can watch her eat up all her food.

21. Melt a favorite cheese over vegetables, such as cheddar cheese over broccoli or cauliflower.

22. Serve dried fruit as a treat instead of cookies or candy.

23. Serve vegetables as a snack instead of during the meal. Put fresh peas, carrot curlers, or snow peas in a cup and let your child munch away.

24. Puree two packages of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, and one 16 oz. Jar of beets, drained; add to devil’s food-cake batter, bake as directed.

25. Add chopped, cooked broccoli to a grilled cheese sandwich.

26. Wrap foods in tortillas for an easy, quick pick-up meal.

27. Add shredded zucchini or carrot to potato-pancake batter.

28. Keep portion sizes small. You can always offer seconds.

29. Serve foods in miniature forms.

30. If your child is fussy about drinking milk, try serving it with a fun straw.

31. Wrap vegetables in biscuit dough. Bake and serve.

32. Make a menu. Cut pictures out of a magazine with foods for each course. Paste them on a piece of paper. Let your child choose what she wants to eat.

33. Change the setting. Dine picnic-style in the living room.

34. If your child won’t drink milk, add nonfat dry milk powder to such foods as tomato sauce, eggs, and soups.

35. Place juice in a cup and freeze to make juice pops. Add sticks for handles when juice just begins to freeze.