Wondering if any mamas has any experience or advice on the whole “hidden hunger” my son is 3 and is such a picky eater. I’ll cook a dinner of meat potato and veggie and somedays he eats one thing on his plate, try everything, or not want it at all. He’ll want snacks and junk foods but won’t eat fruits very often or veggies. Tonight I made turkey sausage and potatoes and gave him mandrin oranges. He ate one of his oranges and refused to eat. Then ate gold fish and pretzels. At least he’s eating but his moods sometimes as well are crazy to deal with. I keep seeing ads on vitamins like the first day vitamins for hidden hunger. But was looking to reach out to get some advice. Should I just call his pediatrician about maybe getting a vitamin?
If it’s not in the house they can’t eat it. Once we had kids we ended up with an overhaul of our eating habits.
We also just kept modeling the food habits we wanted for our kids.
Stop the snacks and make him eat some of each thing. He’s only 3. It’s control, start early, he’s smarter than you think but he’s so cute, I know, lol.
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Average exposure to a new food is 12 before a child is willing to try. Just keep exposing them. And also remember snacks are always the same taste and texture while fruits and veggies aren’t. Try and figure out the textures he likes and go from there.
While you are the parent Kids just like adults have a right to their likes and dislikes. Please don’t do the “clean your plate” or the “eat it or starve” methods as both have been linked to causing negative food relationships and eating disorders down the road. Taste buds will change as child gets older. The method I’ve found that works the best is see, smell and taste. This method takes several attempts of offering and may have to be repeated every 6 months. On the first time offering a food item let them just visibly see the new food don’t force anything else. If they choose to try that’s ok. On the second offering have them look and smell that item. On the 3rd see, smell and taste it(even if it’s just to lick it). Any subsequent offerings have them continue to taste but if after a few tries they still dislike that item table it and retry a few months down the line.