NUTRITION - How To Raise Kids To Be Good Eaters

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Summary - 

If I received $1 each time someone told me how “lucky” I am that my kids are good eaters, I’d have someone else cooking all of our meals. Truth be told, luck has had nothing to do with it and in this episode, I’m sharing everything I did to ensure that both of my kids were raised to love and appreciate a diverse range of foods. 

Things I Mention - 

  • The one book that I credit for  helping me raise unfussy eaters.

  • Why I decided to go against the norm by not offering our kids pureed food. 

  • A little tough love approach that works wonders to ensure an empty plate is left by the end of each meal.

  • My go-to websites for healthy & delicious kid-approved meals & snacks.

PLUS, I share 3x things that you can start today which will dramatically change the way your kids think about food. 

Links & Helpful Resources - 

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of my practical tips & tricks and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks!

If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, then you’ll know that my kids are the most incredible eaters. In fact, sometimes I feel like they are a little too obsessed with food. They will try everything and they regularly consume a really large variety of foods and spices. This is no fluke or stroke of luck though, a lot of research and time has got them to this point. About 12 months after having my first child, my Aunty told me how lucky I was because I’d been blessed with a baby who wasn’t fussy and in a somewhat selfish way, I couldn’t wait to have another baby to prove that luck had nothing to do with it. Both of my kids are great eaters because we made them great eaters and this is how we did it - 

I attribute this to being the main reason my kids eat so well and that is because we chose to introduce solids by using the Baby Led Weaning approach. If you’re unfamiliar with Baby Led Weaning, it’s a way of introducing your baby to solid foods without having to spoon-feed purees - my kids have never eaten pureed food. Contrary to popular belief, there is no research that supports the current mainstream view that babies should be weaned by being spoon-fed purees. Instead, Baby Led Weaning is all about letting your baby feed themselves. Self-feeding allows babies to use their natural abilities to explore taste, texture, colour and smell. It encourages independence and confidence by allowing them to experiment with foods at their own pace and helps to develop hand-eye coordination as well as chewing.

When my first child was just a few months old, I read a book called Baby-Led Weaning and it completely changed the way I was going to feed my kids. The book made so much sense to me and so as soon as my first hit 6 months old, we hit the ground running. The book explains how to introduce this approach safely and what foods to introduce at what age but from memory, I just began offering my daughter some of the softer foods that I was eating - things like banana and avocado and she absolutely loved it.

To add to this and again the book explains the theory behind this a lot better than what I’m about to but can you imagine as an adult and as someone who has quite a mature and diverse range of foods already their belt, what it would be like to be force fed a spoonful of mushy food? It would be awful and I’m sure there’s not one part of you that would enjoy that. So you can imagine now what that must feel like for a baby who has no concept of what food even is or tastes like?! 

A few words of warning though if you decide to go down the Baby Led Weaning path - this approach is messy. In those first few months, more food ends up on the floor than in their mouths but it’s all part of it - this is how they explore food and they have the best time doing it. In my opinion, a bit of mess was a small price to pay if it meant that my kids weren’t going to be fussy eaters. Another thing to note is that everyone has their opinion on this, family included. A lot of my family members weren’t familiar with this approach and so they struggled to sit back and watch a 6 month old baby feed themselves and make one hell of a mess whilst they were at it but trust the research, trust your gut and know that you are the one teaching others a new way of doing things - an approach that’s been proven time and time again to create great eaters. 

Now I’m sure everyone will have an opinion on my next piece of advice too but it’s worked brilliantly for me and continues to work for me on the rare occasion that my kids don’t enjoy a particular food and that is - Don’t Offer Other Options. This is where a little tough love comes into the mix and I truly believe that kids are incredibly smart and it doesn’t take them long to figure out how to get what they want. I’ve never offered my kids another option. If they don’t like what is served up, they either eat it or they go without. My youngest is 3 right now and he has known since a very young age that if he doesn’t like something that there is no other option until the next meal so he either eats what he is given (which is always healthy, nutritious, whole foods) or he goes without. We are a very privileged family who can afford to put good food on our table - 1 missed meal is not going to hurt your child and I can guarantee that this won’t be something that happens regularly because they will learn very quickly what it feels like to be genuinely hungry which isn’t the most pleasant feeling however let’s not forget that it is a feeling that a lot of kids world wide know and experience every single day. 

My final tip for raising great eaters is to get them involved. Yes, cooking and doing absolutely anything with kids takes 5x as long as it would usually. There’s always a mess involved, it requires an incredible amount of patience but what’s worse … I think having fussy kids is! Plus as painful as it can be, I like to use cooking with my kids as a way to slow myself down too. What’s the rush?! Is it absolutely necessary to be go-go-go all the time? Kids can be such a blessing in this instance. There’s a few ways I like to get my kids involved with food - 

We Grow Veggies Together - we are mad green thumbs around here and have 6x garden beds full of home grown fruit, veggies and fresh herbs. The kids play a huge role in this. They water the garden every morning, they help replenish the soil when it needs topping up, they plant the seedlings and they help prune the plants. We even watch Gardening Australia with our kids every Friday Night to keep them interested! Now instead of receiving plastic toys for their birthday from friends, they receive seeds and they get so excited about it. 

My Kids Help Me Unpack The Groceries - Whilst unpacking, we always talk about the foods we are handling - what’s their favourite meal using this food? Does this food grow above or below the ground? How many ways can you eat this food? It’s actually a really great way to practice mindfulness and just being present in the moment. 

And of course, We Cook Together - Every week, I let my kids choose a healthy and nutritious snack that they’d like to have in their lunchbox the following week and we make it together. Some of my favourite websites for healthy snacks are Wholefood Simply and Teresa Cutter The Healthy Chef - I enjoy home-baking because it’s highly likely that I’ll end up eating their snacks too so I want them to be healthy and nourishing for me as well. Oh actually whilst we are on this topic, my past client and now beautiful friend Abbey also has a great Instagram account called The Lunchbox Nutritionist. She is a qualified Nutritionist and helps parents create simple, nutritionally balanced lunch boxes. My kids love browsing through her lunch box options and she has some great recipes as well as lots of handy hints & tips too. Her account handle is @the.lunchbox.nutritionist. 

So there you have it, that is how I have successfully raised 2 unfussy eaters. I really hope this episode helps some of you. I know it’s not a typical episode for me given that it’s focused on kids however I do get lots of questions about this and the large majority of my listeners are Mums so I thought you might appreciate me sharing what has worked for us because I can assure you, luck has very little to do with it.

Elisha CasagrandeBrisbane Personal Trainer, Brisbane Health Coach, FEEL BE LOOK, Womens Confidence, Confidence, IIN Health Coach, Healthy Eating, Fussy Eaters, Fussy Kids, Kids Nutrition, Healthy Kids, Teresa Cutter, The Healthy Chef, Wholefood Simply, The Lunchbox Nutritionist, Babyled Weaning, Gardening Australia