As a pediatric nutritionist and mother of two, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to get kids to eat healthy, balanced meals. Many parents feel like they are in a constant battle at dinnertime, trying to get their kids to eat vegetables and other nutritious foods.
The truth is, developing healthy eating habits in your kids is incredibly important for their growth, development, and long-term health. But with some strategic tips and a lot of patience, it is possible! In this comprehensive guide, I will share the best tips I’ve learned over my career and own experience for getting kids to enjoy healthy eating.
Set a Consistent Meal and Snack Schedule
Creating set times for meals and snacks throughout the day provides structure and routine for kids. Aim for 3 meals and 2-3 scheduled snacks spaced evenly, about every 2-3 hours. This prevents kids from getting overly hungry and grabbing unhealthy convenience foods.
I advise my clients to keep a cooler stocked with healthy snacks in their car for when they’re out running errands. Things like yogurt, apple slices, carrots, cheese, and whole grain crackers make great portable snacks. Having healthy options on hand prevents relying on fast food or vending machine snacks when you’re in a pinch.
Get Kids Involved in Meal Planning and Cooking
When kids help plan meals and cook, they feel a sense of ownership over what they’re eating. I encourage my clients to sit down with their kids once a week to come up with dinner ideas and go grocery shopping together.
In the kitchen, have kids help with age-appropriate tasks like stirring, measuring, and adding ingredients. Even toddlers can get involved by tearing lettuce for a salad or decorating their plate. Watching meals come together gives kids an understanding of nutrition and gets them excited to try what they’ve created.
Introduce New Foods Strategically
Don’t expect kids to love every healthy food right away. Their preferences are still developing. Introduce new foods slowly, one at a time, and offer them along with foods you know your child already enjoys.
For example, if your child likes broccoli, try offering cauliflower, another cruciferous veggie, sautéed and served alongside their favorite broccoli. This helps them expand their palates gradually.
Disguise and Sneak In Veggies
While nutrition experts emphasize the importance of getting comfortable with all textures and flavors of natural, whole foods, a little disguising can help transition picky eaters. Here are some of my favorite tricks:
- Make smoothies with spinach or kale. The fruit flavor dominates.
- Add shredded zucchini or carrots to pasta sauce, lasagna, meatloaf or burgers.
- Make homemade pizza loaded with sliced veggies—peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach—under the cheese.
- Bake or roast vegetable fries—zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, green beans. Kids love food they can dip!
Adjust Your Mindset Around Treats
Banning sweets and treats makes them forbidden fruit and more enticing to kids. The key is offering treats in moderation, as part of an overall balanced diet. We refer to them as “sometimes foods” in our house, meaning they’re allowed, just not all the time.
To prevent over-indulging, I recommend allowing one small treat daily, which we call the “daily sweet” in our family. Whether it’s a small piece of chocolate, a couple of cookies, or a mini ice cream cone—letting kids occasionally enjoy treats teaches balance and moderation.
Make Healthy Eating Fun
Kids eat with their eyes first, so make healthy meals enticing through presentation. Cut cooked veggies into fun shapes with cookie cutters, or design faces, animals or rainbows on plates.
Give foods silly, descriptive names like “sunshine carrots” or “superhero spinach.” Have kids help come up with fun names and vote on which ones they like best. Making healthy eating an interactive, sensory experience gets kids engaged and excited to try new foods.
Focus on Family Meals Together
Studies consistently show that kids who eat home-cooked meals with their families have better nutrition and healthier weights. Make sitting down together for family meals a priority as much as possible. Involve kids in dinner conversation and try to keep it upbeat and positive.
Family meals also provide great opportunities to expose kids to new foods and role model healthy eating. When parents enjoy and consume colorful vegetables and other healthy foods, kids are much more likely to follow suit.
Encourage Mindful Eating
Teaching kids to pay attention to their internal cues of hunger and fullness helps them develop a healthy relationship with food. I guide my clients on these mindful eating practices:
- Slow down at mealtime. Avoid distractions like TV or devices at the table. Focus just on eating.
- Notice the colors, textures, smells and flavors in food. Help younger kids verbalize observations.
- Pause halfway through the meal. Ask kids to describe how their stomach feels—hungry, partly full or full?
- Stop eating when full, even if food remains on plate. Praise them for recognizing they’d had enough.
These small steps build awareness and prevent overeating.
Limit Liquid Calories
Sugary juices, sodas, sports drinks and other sweetened beverages provide excess calories without nutritional value. Water and milk are the go-to beverages I recommend for kids.
If they balk at plain water, try infusing with fruits like berries, oranges, melon or cucumber to add light flavors. Dilute 100% fruit juice with water, and save sodas and sugary drinks for special occasion treats only.
Be a Healthy Eating Role Model
Like it or not, your kids are watching and learning from your food choices and eating habits. If you want them to value nutrition and enjoy healthy foods, they need to see you practicing what you preach!
Make sure you’re choosing balanced meals and wholesome snacks for yourself. Verbalize choosing veggie sides over French fries, for example. And avoid negative body image talk; focus on how eating well makes you feel good mentally and physically, not just how it looks aesthetically.
Seeing the healthy eating lifestyle modeled consistently at home makes a huge impression on kids. Lead by example.
Don’t Give Up on Repeated Exposures
Don’t be discouraged if kids refuse foods the first few times. Research shows it can take over a dozen exposures for kids to accept new foods. The key is to just keep including those healthy items in meals.
My rule of thumb is to aim for at least 8-10 exposures for new foods. I know how hard it is to endure the initial complaints and rejections, but hang in there! Eventually those foods will become familiar and go into your child’s comfort zone.
Make the Most of Snack Time
Growing kids rely on snacks to refuel between meals. Make the most of snack time for mini-nutrition boosts by focusing on protein, fiber and healthy fats. Here are some of my favorite healthy snack ideas:
- Apple or banana with peanut or almond butter
- Greek yogurt with berries
- Cheese sticks and whole grain crackers
- Celery with hummus
- Hard boiled egg and veggie sticks
- Frozen banana pops (freeze peeled banana halves, then dip in yogurt and roll in crushed cereal)
Prepare portions ahead of time so you have grab-and-go options on hand when hunger strikes.
Check Your Own Food Beliefs
As a parent, it’s natural to want your kids to eat perfectly. But be aware of your food beliefs and tendencies, as you may unknowingly pass on food anxiety or restrictive eating patterns to your kids.
If you have food rules, guilt connected to eating, or body image issues, it’s worthwhile to explore that further and aim for neutrality instead. Kids are quick to pick up on judgement and negativity around food.
The goal should simply be helping them listen to their bodies, enjoy a variety of minimally processed foods, and develop a healthy relationship with eating. Let go of rigidity and anxiety, for their sake as well as yours.
Seek Professional Guidance When Needed
While these tips will help guide most kids toward healthy eating, some may still struggle significantly with food avoidance and severe picky eating. If you have major concerns about your child’s diet, growth or development, seeking professional support can help get them on track.
A pediatrician can check for underlying issues and refer you to a pediatric dietitian nutritionist for tailored nutrition therapy. Specialists can assess picky eating causes, identify nutritional deficiencies, provide feeding therapy, and support you with making changes. Don’t hesitate to reach out for help.
Keep Trying New Approaches
Take a deep breath and remember that helping shape your child’s nutrition habits is a marathon, not a sprint. There will inevitably be steps forward and steps back. Kids go through many phases of interest and pickiness when it comes to food.
The most important thing is to keep trying new approaches until you find what works for your unique child. With time, consistency and patience, their palette will expand and they will embrace healthier eating. Trust the process and believe in your ability to raise a healthy eater!
