How to get your child to eat meat

You want your child to eat a well rounded diet, but all she wants to eat is pasta and bananas with the occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich thrown in. How can you get them to try new things or eat things they have rejected in the past?

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Food of choice
• Condiment of choice
• Patience
• Did I mention patience?

1. 1

   Kids are picky, but you don't need to be told that. There are ways around it, however, and the clever parent uses all the tools they can get their hands on!

2. 2

   Take a lesson from the advertising industry, and try clever packaging. Chicken nuggets or fish sticks (frozen or homemade) can be a good way to get them used to the texture of meat.

3. 3

   Show them how to dip (in moderation) meat into condiments. For my son, it only took about a tablespoon of catsup to get him to eat a whole chicken breast. BBQ sauce, ranch dressing and honey mustard are all good choices.

4. 4

   If they don't like it now, keep offering it EVERY time it is served. One of these days they might surprise you and eat half a chicken. Kids need to be offered food about 20 times before they accept it, and many times it takes much, much longer.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure to cut the pieces very small. Toddlers and small children sometimes have a hard time chewing up meat, and will initially reject it if the pieces are too big.
• Children who are not feeling well will reject even their favorite foods.
• Some kids actually don't digest meat as well as others, so if your child complains of an upset tummy after eating meat, you want to limit their intake or consult a doctor about food allergies.

on 12/6/2008 Good suggestions. Meat portions don't need to be very big, and if it's a big issue you can always seek other sources of protein

on 12/6/2008 Excellent suggestions!