Hellobee Boards Topic: How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?

Hellobee Boards Topic: How do you get your preschooler to try new foods? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:24:34 +0000 Pancakes on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1691541 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:02:19 +0000 Pancakes 1691541@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Ugh, typed a long response and it the text box disappeared! Just wanted to say lots of great advice and we've tried a lot of these suggestions. @cole: I agree that having someone else introduce the food is helpful...that is how she came to eat watermelon after insisting that she didn't like it. Her teacher made her try it at school and wouldn't you know, she asked for seconds! Too bad meat isn't routinely offered as a preschool snack :wink: I like the idea of a tasting chart! @autumnlove: Let's see...her little sister is due in September, so hopefully this trick will work at this time next year! :happy: @sammyfab: These are great ideas, and we do all of them...they just don't seem to be working for us right now. But I just keep trying and hoping... @looch: sorry you are dealing with this too, on a more difficult level. I had no idea so much is involved with eating either. I just thought for sure since we're adventurous eaters, and we model eating all kinds of foods that I would have a good eater. It's sad that there are so many times I just wish my kid would eat a darn hotdog. Sammyfab on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690999 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:38:32 +0000 Sammyfab 1690999@https://boards.hellobee.com/ There are so many great suggestions already! At this age, some of the things I would try are: 1) Getting her to help out with cooking. She may be more willing to try something she has had a hand in making. 2) Make the food look fun...use shape cutters, design plates so the food makes a picture. If you search the blog posts, you'll find a ton of great ideas. 3) Just keep trying and put things on her plate. Encourage her to try it, taste it, touch it, smell it, etc. but don't make it a power struggle. Whenever my son tastes something new but doesn't like it (he'll spit it out), we still celebrate the fact that he's tried it. autumnlove on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690929 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:09:57 +0000 autumnlove 1690929@https://boards.hellobee.com/ This is a horrible trick but she wants to eat everything that her sister has. So I offer it to sis and LO will ask if she can have some too. She won't eat it if we offer it right off the bat. Sigh! Canoli on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690905 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:00:38 +0000 Canoli 1690905@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I am so with you, except my guy never ate well. Chicken nuggets is actually the only "meal" he will eat. It is so frustrating. We just keep offering but basically he says eeewww to everything. He's basically a snacker on the few foods he will eat. Sorry I don't have any advice, just wanted to commiserate with you. Cole on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690771 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:13:40 +0000 Cole 1690771@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Sometimes it helps to have someone else introduce things. Do you have a friend who might invite her for lunch and serve something new alongside something she already eats? Play dates are good too, kids will eat things not normally on their menu when a favorite friend loves it. We have also played the "yum or yuck" game with some luck, I pick a bunch of things I think they are likely to like, all in the same category though. Once we did spices and smelled them and them tasted (plain), we have done various flavors and types of yogurt (I baked with the leftovers), types of pasta- whole wheat, traditional, colored and shapes etc. We also did a "tasting chart" after trying a new food she put a sticker up and when she got 6 we baked something together. It was nice to make it a food reward for once and I picked recipes that were a tiny bit of a stretch. Also, when baking we always taste or at least offer a taste of all of the ingredients and talk about the fact that some ingredients don't do much for the taste but help with other things, like baking soda is gross but without it our cake would be flat, flour is gross but most of their favorite foods have it as a main ingredient, salt makes some food taste salty but others just taste better mostly salt brings out flavor etc. Doing this with an already loved food like cupcakes means we can transfer the conversation to cooking, not liking the ingredients alone makes no difference but as a whole they make something new. Granted this tactic is a looong term one... looch on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690743 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:02:14 +0000 looch 1690743@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Yes, yes, yes, 1 million times yes. I go through the same thing with my son on a daily basis, it started around the age of 18 months when he just began refusing foods that he had eaten in mass quantities before. I thought it would be a short lived phase, but he's 3.5 years old and eats approximately 10 things. It makes going on vacation a nightmare, he will often not eat at other people's homes or when people are visiting us. So yeah, how did we get here, and more importantly, how do we get out of here? I've met with nutritionists and oral motor specialists. With my son, there is an actual physical issue, so we're working to introduce new things by using them as manipulatives for exercises. Sounds totally wonky, but the therapist will use pretzel rods and she starts by getting him to be okay with touching the food to his lips, then his tounge, then "kissing" the rod, then, putting the rod in his mouth, then biting, then chewing, then swallowing. I didn't realize there was so much involved with eating before this, to be honest. I wrote a book and I realized I have no point, lol. I just wanted to say you're not alone. hilsy85 on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690732 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:57:08 +0000 hilsy85 1690732@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We're not quite there yet, but if she's eating a lot for breakast, and seems like she is hungriest then, can you introduce new foods at breakfast? Or maybe get her involved in cooking the foods--I have heard that kids tend to eat better if they are involved in the process. Pancakes on "How do you get your preschooler to try new foods?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-get-your-preschooler-to-try-new-foods#post-1690726 Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:55:49 +0000 Pancakes 1690726@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Reading another post about not creating drama over foods/eating made me think about this (well that, and it's an ongoing struggle over here!). How do you get your preschooler to try new foods? We introduced a wide variety of foods to our daughter from the time she started solids. I've always cooked most of our meals and I get bored easily so we eat just about every type of cuisine you can think of. So she's been exposed to all this food since she was born, and when she was younger, like 1-2 years old she ate a lot more variety than she does now (age 3). She's at a point though, where she basically just refuses to try new foods and even rejects a lot of things that she used to eat (forget chicken nuggets, she won't touch those!). I do try not to make a big deal about it, but she will gladly skip dinner and then just eat a ton at breakfast. I would like her to get to the point where she will at least try one or two bites of something, but I'm not sure how to do this without making it a power struggle. Her pickiness makes it hard to go to other people's houses or to travel, since it's sometimes hard to find something that she'll eat that will constitute a meal. Sorry this got so long! I'm sure some of it it just kid stuff that she will grow out of, but it would really make everyone's lives easier if she would at least try things (and then I wouldn't have to worry so much about her getting proper nutrition!). Any advice or thoughts are welcome!