Kids Eat What You Eat

When it comes to meals, kids can often be quite picky about what they want to eat or don’t want. They shouldn’t be controlling the household meals though, and you shouldn’t be catering to their desires in terms of food. Plan out what you’re planning to eat and stick to it, even if your child throws a fit. Ultimately, kids should eat what you eat for each meal. If not, they can wait until the next meal.

Fighting with kids over food is one of the number one ways that you’ll get kids to not want to eat whatever food is being served. Fighting in general won’t get you very far with most people, but kids simply don’t know how to properly control their feelings and emotions. Fighting with kids will teach them that meals and food is a bad time. They will have those negative feelings when it’s time to eat.

You don’t want to stress your kids out over food. You shouldn’t stress yourself out over food either. If your child chooses not to eat, then so be it. Your job isn’t to give them whatever they want to eat - you’d be eating a lot of pizza, chips, cookies and other delicious and unhealthy junk food if that were the case. Your job is to prepare healthy meals, and then eat those meals as a family.

If your child won’t eat the healthy food that you prepare, then that is their choice. Make sure that they see you eating those foods though. Your child is far more likely to eat healthy food if they see you eating it. They’re also far more likely to eat a lot of unhealthy snacks if they see you eating those items. If you want your child to eat healthy, then you have to start by eating healthy yourself.

While you should try to serve your child a well-balanced diet, you shouldn’t stress too much over the exact amounts of each food group that they’re getting. Remember that over the course of a week, your child will get many of the nutrients they need from different meals. Sure, your child may skip vegetables one night because they don’t like what is being served, but they may eat only vegetables the next night.

Taking a broader look at your child’s diet will help you to worry a bit less about the details of every meal. You don’t have to make a perfect meal every single meal time, and you don’t have to stress out about exactly what your child eats at that meal. Let them eat what they will of what is served, and then move along to the next meal. Don’t fight over what they do or do not eat at each meal.

Some kids are really great eaters and they’ll try anything. Others, not so much. Make sure your kids see you eating a variety of different foods and they don’t hear you complain about how you don’t want something. Your kids will take on many of your eating habits, and if you always complain about different foods, then it shouldn’t be a surprise to you when they do the exact same thing.

Prepare and eat the best meals you can, but don’t stress over having perfect meals, and don’t fight with your kids about what they’re eating. They eat what you eat, or they don’t.