I Hate Salmon, I Love Salmon all in 24 Hours

One theme that I notice across all of the families that I work with is issues around food. I hear so many of the same concerns including:

• Is my child consuming enough calories?

• My child only wants to eat mac and cheese or chicken nuggets?

• My child won’t sit at the table?

• My child need electronics to consume dinner.

• One night my child loved chicken, the next night they refused to eat it.

I love the children’s book series Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child. My favorite in the series is “I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato”. In the book, Charlie tries and tries to get his sister Lola to eat her fruits and vegetables. He is always positive, never engages in a battle and always finds a way for Lola to try a new food. However, Lola is so adamant that she will “never not ever eat a tomato.” In the end of the book, Charlie’s continued efforts to expose Lola to foods, make it fun and model eating those foods himself allow Lola to try her most dreaded food, tomatoes. I think we can all learn a lot from Charlie.

In our own busy, stressful lives, how can we adapt Charlie’s patience and have our children expand their pallets. Here are a few quick tips that will ultimately shift your dining experience and create healthy family meals.

• Family dinners: Family dinners are a great way to model healthy eating, connect with one another, teach socialization and build attentional skills.

• Avoid battles around food: Food is one of the few areas that our children can control. Engaging in a power struggle with them only leads to more resistance.

• Continued exposure to a variety of foods: Children need time to discover their preferences. If they don’t eat a food this week, they may try it next week. Without pressure and simply modeling and exposing, children will initiate trying a new food over time on their own.

• Removing electronics at mealtimes: Eating while using the iPad or other devices only allows mindless consumption of calories and does not encourage the child to experience the taste, flavor and texture of different foods.

• Assistance in meal preparations: Allowing your child to participate in the preparation of a meal, gives them a sense of ownership and pride. While building independence and self-esteem, they are also eager to try their own creations. Even a two year old, can wash vegetables and help mix and stir different foods.

• Allow your child to serve themselves: All too often, parents are serving their child portions that are too large and overwhelming for a small child. Offering food family style and allowing your child the ability to serve themselves offers them greater independence and a sense of control.

• Shifting our expectations for length of a meal: Some children need to have a break from sitting. Give your child a small task in the middle of a meal such as getting the ketchup or an additional napkin. This allows them a short break from dinner in a task related way.

• Model good and positive communication: If meals are positive and fun, your children will begin to look forward to them

• Allow your child to help plan dinners: For working families, the weekends are a great time to discuss and menu plan for the week. Remember it is okay to be flexible and change a meal. This only models flexibility for your child.

Let me end with a personal tale. My daughter has always loved salmon. One night, she declared, “Mommy you know I hate salmon.” Well I didn’t know as last week, she loved salmon. I told her calmly to choose other foods to eat that were already out on the table such as salad, rice and some fruit. The next night I had left over salmon and paired it with chicken. I put it on the table and my daughter looked at both choices and stated in a matter of fact way, “Mommy, I think I’ll have the salmon.” I looked back at her and said, “but you said last night you hated the salmon.” My daughter looked me in the eye and said, “Mommy it tastes better on the second day.” And that was that.