Healthy Eating for Picky Kids: A Parent’s Guide to Nutritious and Fun Meals

Getting kids to eat healthy can feel like a never-ending battle—especially if they’re picky eaters! Whether they turn up their noses at veggies, refuse to try new foods, or stick to the same three meals, you're not alone. But with a little creativity, patience, and the right strategies, you can help your child develop a love for nutritious foods without the stress. In this blog, we’ll explore fun and practical ways to make healthy eating enjoyable for even the pickiest eaters. Let’s turn mealtime struggles into success!

Here are some fun and creative ideas to encourage picky eaters to enjoy healthy foods:

1. Make It Fun

• Food Art – Arrange fruits and veggies into fun shapes, animals, or smiley faces.

• Colorful Plates – Kids love bright colors! Offer a rainbow of fruits and veggies to make their plate more exciting.

• Build-Your-Own Meals – Let kids assemble their own tacos, wraps, or mini pizzas with healthy toppings (buffet style is always a good idea!) 

• Theme nights - Create fun themes around meals like "taco night" where they can customize their toppings

2. Sneak in the Nutrition

• Smoothies – Blend spinach, carrots, or cauliflower into fruit smoothies.

• They really can not taste it! 

• Try this simple recipe: milk of choice or coconut water, banana, handful of spinach, and greek yogurt for added protein 

• Hidden Veggies – Add pureed carrots or zucchini to pasta sauces, meatballs, or muffins.

• Healthy Swaps – Use whole-grain pasta, cauliflower rice, or mashed sweet potatoes instead of less nutritious options.

• Banza pasta is a good way to sneak some protein in 

• add protein to it or leave it plain for the pickiest eaters and do butter noodles; they will still get some protein from the noodles :) 

• Cottage cheese in eggs (added protein boost and they can not taste it)

• Shredded chicken or ground turkey into mac n cheese

• Stir mashed beans or lentils into pasta sauces, soups, or quesadillas.

3. Make It Interactive

• Grocery Shopping Together- Allow them to go through the store with you and pick out some fruits, vegetables, and any other items they may want to try.

• Cooking Together – Kids are more likely to eat what they help prepare. Let them stir, mix, or choose ingredients.

• Dipping Fun – Offer dips like hummus, guacamole, or yogurt to make veggies more appealing. What kid doesn’t love a good dip?! Honestly, let’s be real- even adults love dips! They make sometimes blander/boring meals more fun and tasteful!

• Garden to table- If your family has a garden in your backyard, take the kids out to help you plant, care for, and harvest fruits and vegetables. This is a great way to get kids excited about what they are eating!

4. Offer Small Portions & Choices

• Tiny Tastes – Start with small bites to avoid overwhelming them.

• Choice Power – Let them pick between two healthy options (e.g., "Would you like carrots or cucumbers?"). This helps them still feel like they still have control! 

• Visual aids of food choices can be helpful, especially for younger kiddos. Providing them with a “menu” or choice board is a way to make choosing easier and less stressful. 

5. Be A Model 

• If your kids see you eating healthy and prioritizing nutrition, they will see that it's something you value in your life. Kids are little sponges- they soak up everything! Soon enough they will want to make a smoothie just because you did! 

• Make yourself healthy snacks during snack time such as raw veggies, yogurt parfaits, or hummus and pita chips. When they see that you like it, they may be more willing to try it.

6. Use Positive Reinforcement!

• When your kids are brave and try a new food, reinforce them :) This can be as simple as praising them, giving them a sticker, or they could earn a special treat for dessert for trying a new food. Make it fun! Applied Behavior Analysis pro tip: reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again in the future. So if you want your kids to try new, healthy foods again, reinforcement will help to make that happen! 

7. Be Patient & Keep Trying

• Kids may need to be exposed to a new food 10-15 times before they accept it. Stay positive and avoid pressure! This is called gradual exposure. Slowly adding more and more of a new food into a familiar dish will help your kids become more comfortable with new foods. 

PRO TIP**: Make the adult meal and then deconstruct for kids. 

• For example, if you are having burger bowls for dinner, make the bowls for the adults in the household, and then make deconstructed plates for the kids (beef on one portion of plate, sweet potatoes on another, avocado on another, and put some ketchup or mustard on the side). Kids tend to be simpler, so they are more likely to eat things deconstructed versus all mixed together. 

Let us know if you try any of these for your kiddos! We would love to hear about what works for you!

With love,

Kylie and Annie