- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Parenting
Healthy Kid Food tips: add yours.
in an effort to be actually helpful and proactive, post your best tried and true healthy (or even reasonably so) foods, or preparation tricks for picky eaters, or eaters in need of reform.
this is something I really struggled with when J first started really eating solids- I had to become really conscious of healthy but yummy things to keep her interested...and it is hard to feed kids when you would prefer to eat like a college boy.
Apples- sliced REALLY thin (as thin as I can get them) I found that my kids will barely pick at an apple if it isn't sliced, but they'll devour it if it's sliced AND peeled- but the big nutrition in an apple is in the skin- so if I slice the slices REALLLLLY thin, they'll eat the whole thing.
to transition them from skinless apples, sometimes I would sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on them- they will eat them nude now.
Dip- they like to dip everything in everything. dip apples in yogurt,
dip Quesadillas in guacamole (a healthy fat choice!!)
raw almonds in yogurt
pretzels in hummus
anything in peanut butter
anything that can be dipped is a hit.
trail mix is a hit
frozen blueberries go with everything (they're not hard, they're frosty and ice pop-ish)
I throw them on a plate, I throw them in pancake batter, I throw them in oatmeal, yogurt...everything. and they keep forever (but we don't have any problem using at least a bag a week)
I make awesome (though high calorie)quesadillas...I take a whole wheat tortilla (the pale blue Mission brand label) and "butter" it with whipped cream cheese, sprinkle on more shredded cheese, and then sliced tomatoes or spinach, then butter another one with either refried beans or i throw some pinto beans on the cheese pile and slap it on top, put it on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 for like...10 minutes. J likes to eat it with guacamole or salsa with a little sour cream stirred into it. they never fail to finish these when I make them (so I kind of reserve it for dinner on a slow eating day)
they LOVE to make their own pizza with that frozen Rhodes bread dough (whole wheat when I can find it.)
you have to thaw it on the counter like...for at least 4-5 hours (sometimes I take a loaf out in the AM and it is always ready to go by dinner time)
they use sauce, cheese, olives, sometimes tomato slices. easy fast, yum.
roasted soy nuts and craisins are good, too.
Ill post more if I think of anything that doesn't seem too obvious...
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Healthy Kid Food tips: add yours.
Plant a garden. If I put a tomato on my dd's plate she won't touch it, but she'll go outside and eat cherry tomatoes by the handful straight off of the vine if she picks them herself. The key it seems is letting her pick them herself- she's not even interested if I pick them for her.
My kids favorite "ice cream" treat is frozen gogurts....They really think they are getting a big treat....and I don't feel bad if that is their bedtime snack.
Brocolli slaw is the ONLY brocolli I will eat. Love that stuff wrapped in tortillas with grilled chicken, bit of shredded cheese and spicy ranch dressing. Hopefully my kids like brocolli more than I do. They seem to love the slaw too.
Ditto Cleo. My kids will not eat zuchini unless it comes from our garden.
And even though everyone makes fun of them, my girls eat a much better lunch when I make bentos.
taco bars! guacamole, salsa, lettuce, black beans, grilled chicken or ground turkey. Adding in things like a little sour cream or cheese is okay. We them without shells or tortillas a lot.
plain yogurt with fresh fruit or with granola instead of sugary yogurt
oatmeal. I soak mine in a couple tablespoons of yogurt and water overnight, then it only takes a couple of minutes to cook. If you make it with a whole container of fresh raspberries, it turns into a syrup and you don't need to add sugar. I add a little more yogurt or sour cream to make it creamier. I add ground flax meal to my oatmeal.
homemade applesauce (immersion blenders are your friend!). You can add in things like pomegranate juice or other fresh fruits that your kid may not like. It only takes 4 hours in the crock pot, or about 30 minutes on the stove top, and it's so much yummier than store bought!
sweet potato pancakes (no sugar needed at all!) https://southernfood.about.com/od/pancakesandwaffles/r/bl21102c.htm You can substitute whole wheat flour and it turns out just fine!
I'll be back with more.
Let them help fix dinner. DD gets such a kick out of making food, she's more apt to eat it.
Use chopsticks. We have kids learning chopsticks. DD will eat about anything if she can use chopsticks, and thinks is a blast
Limit liquid intake before dinner. DD would eat everything in liquid form. But she hates smoothies. She'll eat much better when we don't let her down a glass of juice.
Christmas 2011
My kids don't mind at all WW pasta vs. regular. It's an easy switch.
My kids wouldn't eat yogurt until I discovered putting a few sprinkles in it they would.
Freeze bananas--then food process them w/ a touch of milk & berries &/or honey--it's like a thick smoothy but I serve in a bowl w/ spoon--I tell my kids its ice cream & they buy it--LOL!
oooh- carol- whole wheat pasta is a good one- I think a lot of people got turned off by it whenever it first came out (it used to be gross...) but it has evolved! it is actually yummy now, I only buy it that way now (oh..except for that giada dilaurentis fusili giant curly awesome pasta at target...I LOVE that stuff...)
I make meatloaf out of Fantastic Foods brand veggie burger mix, and they LOVE it...for some reason.
Blueberries
Frozen corn/peas/zucchini < DS from 2 until now will snack on frozen corn if I put it in a dixiecup.
Lettuce (or sneak in baby spinach) to dip in creamy dressings (peppercorn works well)
Basically anything he can dip works at times (hummus, sour cream, dressing, spicy mustard)
DS likes spicey foods, so tacos is a staple on weeks when he isn't eating a lot. For some reason, he hates tomatos in anything else, but he'll eat them in a taco.... so I make sure to put a ton in his.
I just realized tonight that he likes soup (because of the noise he makes when he sucks it off the spoon). He loves bread, so I let him dip his italian bread into the soup.
Trailmix and dried fruit
In order to get him to eat raw veggies, one day we had a contest to see who could snap the baby carrot the loudest in our teeth.
We do a lot at our house to get him to eat healthy and know what he is eating. I don't like to sneak foods. Then again, my child is very underweight and we have to give him Carnation Instant every morning, so perhaps I should rethink that.
David "BD" 2/8/07 Spencer 9/12/11Instead of syrup on waffles, I use flavored cream cheese. Not much sugar, way less messy, and DD1 hates milk, so it gets her an extra bit of calcium and some more fat.
I also buy the Van's organic whole-grain freezer waffles instead of Eggo or the generic brand. They're noticeably thicker, heartier and taste way better.
Also -- baked sweet potato fries. DD1 scarfs them down like they're candy. Slice up a sweet potato, toss with some olive oil and a bit of cinnamon, and bake -- super simple, they freeze well, and it's an easy veggie.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
Speaking of pasta and meatloaf. We have been getting the ronzoni veggie pasta and it is really good. And I think Grace likes it more because it is fn colors.
And I have been making meatloaf with ground turkey and bbq sauce and they love it!
We have been doing tacos once a week with ground turkey and I think part of what gets them to eat it is that they get to put fun things in it and make it themselves.
I make my own chicken fingers since Reid has food allergies and use chicken tenders and bread them with corn flake crumbs. The kids love meatballs and I have been making them with the italian seasoned ground turkey from Shady brook farms. They will dip anything in ketchup too.
I'll see if I can think of more ideas
Heather
Also....we do a lot of "do NOT eat the rest of those beans (green/black/pinto/doesn't matter) because you will be TOOTING all night!"
yep....reverse psychology mixed with potty humor...my kids will eat it all.
Or I'll say something like "hey, I ran out of room on my plate...I'm going to put these carrots on yours, but DO NOT EAT them."
Its a game, they eat them, and I act all pretend mad when they are gone "hey!! Those were MY carrots! Where did they go?" or "woah! Did a monkey sneak in and eat my carrots? Where did they go?"
Another one that always works for my monsters: soup! They love vegetable soup. I'll usually fill a crock-pot with a very small piece of beef- just enough for flavoring (pot roast, beef soup bone, small round steak, etc.), V8 juice, some broth and then a ton of veggies: carrots, peas, green beans, cabbage, celery, can of tomatoes and so forth.
They can't get enough of it, especially the celery and cabbage (two things they normally wouldn't touch at all.) I can always count on them eating at least two big bowls each at dinner and it's almost entirely veggies.
Of course you could also make a vegetarian vegetable soup if you wanted, mine just happen to prefer vegetable beef soup.
Baked potatoes are another favorite. They love potatoes topped with broccoli (this is a good use for the frozen chopped kind) and just a sprinkle of cheese.
Baked sweet potatoes are another hit- a dab of butter, the tiniest sprinkle of brown sugar and some cinnamon. Yum!
And for whatever reason, mine love salmon as well. Sounds weird, but take a piece of salmon and brush the top with BBQ sauce. Bake at 425 for 5-8 minutes until done (depends on thickness.) They devour it.
fruit smoothees (with veggie mixed in if possible)
frozen berries/cherries
I hide spinach in a lot of things.
For a healthy snack on the go I use the Ella's Kitchen packets. They are technically baby food but are the texture of apple sauce but are a combination of organic fruits and veggies with no added water. I always keep them in my purse to have if we are out. Carter LOVES them and it's a really easy way to sneak veggies and fruits into a snack.
Maile really loves these, but the older 2 like them, too. You can buy them at Target and the grocery store, and BRU, but the best part is that some Starbucks sell them, so I can get 3 while I'm getting a coffee
Edamame from Trader Joes (so you don't have to take them out of the pods). The baby loves to shovel these in her mouth.
Yogurt with walnuts, both my kids love this.
Barilla Plus pasta. I don't buy white flour pasta, they don't know the difference.
Homemade hummus, super easy.
Vegetable soup with carrots, celery, onion, dill, cabbage, zucchini, navy beans and barilla pasta. Grate some parm cheese on it and a little bit if mozzarella....they love it.
Raw carrots. If I cook em, they won't eat em.
Spinach pancakes..the baby loves these....
SFL
Thank you for all the fantastic tips!
My only addition is that my DS loves the dehydrated fruits (like the Just Tomatoes brand). He'll only eat bananas fresh and applesauce, but in dehydrated form, he'll eat almost anything.
I made this banana bread earlier: https://allrecipes.com//Recipe/whole-wheat-banana-nut-bread/Detail.aspx
You can definitely do the applesauce trick or use a healthier oil. I added more banana, and added 1/2 cup ground flax meal and 1 cup rolled oats (you need more banana to make it moist). It was fantastic, and I'm a banana bread snob.
Mine is edamame. My kids LOVE it, and it's such an easy appetizer or snack to whip up. The concerns regarding soy products do not apply to whole soybeans.
Also, since they were old enough to eat regular table food, I always served up the vegetables first. Every once in a while, they'll be hungry enough at mealtime to devour something they've always "hated" before, and found out they liked it after all. This is how I finally got TB onto broccoli and squash.
We also do make-your-own-pizza night, make-your-own-spring-roll night and make-your-own-burrito night. I offer healthy fillings/toppings, mixed with some fun offerings, and they'll eat it because they made it.
Look at all these helpful tips! I love it!
My kids think that raisins are candy. We get the golden raisin blend from TJ's (has cherries, blueberries and cranberries) and they love it. Add in yogurt covered raisins and they are in heaven!
I meant to come back to this post the other day and forgot. Thanks for bumping it up Peekaboo!
We've been having a hard time with DD eating fruit and veggies lately. She just won't eat them. The kids are always running up to the counter for a bite of whatever veggie I am cutting up (we have a salad just about every night). I used to tell them they had to wait for dinner so they would eat. Now, I let them have whatever veggie they want while I am cutting it up. Tonight I am going to have DD help cut them in hopes of her eating more (and I'll do the Dandr trick and tell her she better not eat them). The other thing we've started doing is giving both of them a salad while I am cooking. They tear it up!
Another thing, I'll hand DD a bunch of grapes or apple slices while I am making lunch. I tell her I am running behind and she can snack on this while I make lunch. She thinks she's getting away with something because she's eating before she's actually supposed to.