Food Fight!

oes every mealtime turn into a fight between you and your children over the foods they eat? Amidst all the unhealthy temptations your kids are exposed to, it makes sense that you are facing an uphill battle when you try to teach healthy eating habits. But it can be done! Below, some real moms provide tried-and-true suggestions on how to encourage healthy eating habits in your children.

Groom Your Own Celebrity Chef
My daughter and I attend a weekly young kids' cooking class. The classes focus on making nutritious and easy, yet fun, recipes. When my daughter gets to do the prep work and the cooking, then she wants to eat the food! We also take the recipes home and make them again later. Sometimes we invite a friend over for a "cooking" play date, in which the kids again use the healthy recipes, play chefs and prepare the family dinner (with some supervision, of course!).
--Betsy Gibson, mother of one in Weston, Massachusetts

Make It a Mix
When my toddler has a negative reaction to a new food, I "distract" him from it by giving him several bites of one of his favorite foods, like rice or mashed potatoes. Then I slowly incorporate small amounts of the undesired food into the bites of desired food. I add the undesired item in larger and larger quantities so he can slowly get accustomed to the taste. Eventually he is reaching for the food that he originally shunned! Another trick is to alter my old standby recipes just a bit, so the kids don't get used to having the same dishes prepared the same way every time. For example, rather than giving the kids just the plain old spaghetti they love, I'll add a new and different healthy vegetable each time I prepare it.
--Lisa Field, mother of two in Rye, New York

Keep Them Entertained
Although my kids eat super healthy as a general rule, there are a few tricks we use during meals to get them to eat more of the healthy foods on their plates. One that works well: we retell the kids' favorite stories from books, TV shows, or real life (such as happy or funny memories), and they have to take another bite before hearing what happens next. We do the same thing with a laptop computer, showing funny pictures of the kids, but not letting them see more until they eat more. We also did an art project that had a great impact: We all made our own placemats, labeled them with our names, and laminated them. The kids get really excited about eating when they can dine atop their very own creations!
--Ilene Klein, mother of two in Baltimore, Maryland

Play By The Rules
In our family, we have a rule that everyone must take at least one bite of everything on his plate. On more than one occasion, the boys have turned up their noses at a new food, but then ended up loving it after being forced to taste it. They are more likely to eat all their vegetables if I put out some tasty dipping sauces. To a kid, a yummy dressing makes any vegetable, raw or cooked, taste yummy!
--Robin Craddock, mother of three in Louisville, Kentucky

Meagan R. Dubreuil is a freelance writer, and the mother of three young children, in Covington, Louisiana.