Toddler Food Hacks for Picky Eaters (Your Kids Will Eat EVERYTHING!)]-

Welcome back, I got my sous chef, although we're not cooking today, we're eating. Today I'm sharing my top 20 food hacks for picky eaters. Sage has always been a pretty good eater, but I will say once she turned one, I really started to notice like the toddler pickiness and I know I'm not alone. So today I'm sharing all my hacks that I have actually tried on Sage and that have worked. So you guys can hopefully do them with your toddlers and hopefully have some success. Cause honestly feeding toddlers is a lot and when they're refusing to eat what's on their plate, it's even more stressful. So let me show you how to get your toddler to actually eat their food. Separate their food. There's something about their development once they hit like one or 18 months that they actually don't like their foods touching. I think it has something to do with like foods being safe to eat or not. These little divider plates are great and there is a purpose to them. So separating their food so they can clearly see the differences between them and they're not just like all mixed together on one plate, honestly helps Sage eat and determine which one she wants to eat. Don't overcrowd the plate. So even if you have extra that you heated up, don't put everything at once on the plate. It can be a little bit intimidating if there's just like a lot of food on the plate. In the past, if I put like way too much on her plate, she's kind of like, whoa, and maybe doesn't feel like eating it. But if I just kind of sparsely put it on that there's like some negative space on the plate, she's more likely to kind of dig in and look around. Today for lunch, I'm actually introducing a new food. We're doing fish sticks that I made last night. And when introducing new foods, add a safe food that they're already familiar with. For today's meal, I'm gonna add some strawberries that those are like her favorite thing ever. She is familiar with it. She knows it. She loves it. If I give her a plate and there's something new on it, she at least can be like, oh yes, I like the strawberries. Goes right for the strawberries. If I give her a plate with nothing she knows on it, she will instantly just be like, no, I don't want it. This is a really great tip to try new foods. Make sure they're in a good mood. If you find you're getting ready to serve them a meal and they're maybe a bit fussy, they're upset, they don't wanna eat. I try to get her like in a good positive spirit because if you put them in their high chair and they're freaking out, they're not gonna eat their food. They're gonna throw it on the ground. They're gonna have a tantrum and it's just not gonna be a good time. So have a little dance party, get them in a good mood and then serve them their food. Add a dip. This could be hummus, yogurt, some warmed up berries for like pancakes or waffles. Or in this case, I just have a sugar-free ketchup that I like to give to Sage for like chicken nuggets that I make or sweet potato fries. And right now she's trying the new fish sticks and I think they're a winner. Are they good? My little Portuguese girl eating her codfish fish sticks. If you're looking for some more recipes to feed your little ones, definitely check out the Baby Health Nut Cookbook. It's a digital cookbook I created with all the recipes that I created for Sage from six months and up. It's great for toddlers. There are over 30 recipes, everything from purees to handheld to baby led weaning foods. And there's definitely something that your toddlers are going to love. Thousands of parents have already purchased a copy and there's so many glowing testimonials on the site. Definitely go check it out. Change up the location. So as you see right now, Sage is eating next to me at the counter. This is good if they're really fighting the high chair. You can bring them to the table and actually have them eat with everyone at the table instead of like off to the side on the high chair. Even just like if I have her food in her plate, sometimes just transferring it to the tray at the high chair sometimes works too. Just like a small change can sometimes make a big difference. This one may seem odd, but sometimes just ignoring them and letting them do their thing, not putting pressure on them will help them try new foods or get interested in what's on their plate. This happened last night. I served her what she's eating right now, beef broccoli. And she looked at it right away. It was like disinterested cause it looked like a new food. And so I was just eating my food and kind of ignored her. After a couple of minutes, she was digging into her plate saying, mmm, delicious. Sometimes that's just like walking, washing a plate or something, not standing over them, watching them and putting a lot of pressure. Cause sometimes like I feel like it puts her on the spot and she's just like, mmm, I don't want it. More? Okay. Using sign language can be really helpful, especially before they can actually use words because it just helps them let you know what they want, if they're all done. I have a full video on how I taught Sage to use sign language. I'll link it here. Offer the same food in different ways or shapes. So if your toddler doesn't like a fried egg, try a hard boiled. If you normally serve your cucumber in little pieces like this, try strips. When we switched to strips, Sage really liked them, especially like steamed carrot sticks. Those are fun and really good to dip too, right? Sometimes it's the smallest change that makes a huge difference for them. It's all about the sensory experience. You're being so silly. Eat the same thing. If everyone is sitting together at the dinner table and your toddler notices that your plate looks different from their plate, they're probably going to want what you're having. Oftentimes I find this happens with Sage. So if we're eating hamburgers, she's eating hamburgers. If she's having stir fry, we're having stir fry. It doesn't mean we eat the same thing as her every single time, but if we're eating a meal together, I really try to have us all eating the same thing. And that way too, if she does want what's on my plate, I can just give her a bite and be like, "'Mommy's eating the same thing as you, see?" And she can kind of see that they look the same. Preload a spoon. This isn't just for new eaters. Even when they're toddlers, sometimes just putting the food on their fork like that just kind of encourages them to put it to their mouth. Especially if maybe she's not eating something on her plate, I will just like preload it and leave it there for a bit. And a lot of times she will pick it up and try it. Switch up the utensils. A lot of times if Sage is like getting bored of her fork or threw it on the floor, I will either go grab another one. Sometimes she'll have two. She'll sometimes even use measuring spoons to eat with. She thinks that's fun. And she'll steal mine as well. And as long as I'm watching her, I'm fine with her using mine. And it also just gets her used to using a real fork and she thinks that's fine. So I'm not going to do it right now. She's good with hers, but that is another tip that I found really helpful. Interact with their food. If they're getting bored or disinterested like she's doing right now, you can actually get right in there and maybe give a dinosaur chomp. Are you a dinosaur? And sometimes just like eating off of their plate encourages them like, ooh, mommy or daddy is eating. It must be safe and delicious to eat. Cause sharing is caring. Let them do it themselves and make a mess. I know this is really hard for some parents that are just like, don't want food on the floor, but letting them just feed themselves and making a mess, getting familiar and exploring their food is really important. And honestly, I feel like as her food has become more solid, it's like less of a mess to clean up. When it was purees, it was just like soupy mess everywhere. Hopefully more of it gets into their mouth than on the floor. Stay positive and avoid negative talk. So I'm really big on this one. And a lot of times I'm even catching Matt when he does it. Cause it's just such a habit to do, but saying things like, no, you don't like that. Or yuck, like mimicking if they're like, yuck. And sometimes like we'll also mimic it. No, you don't want any more. You're almost telling them to say like, no, I don't want any more. I don't like it. A lot of times I just try to redirect or just be like, yes, yum. And maybe I'll take a bite or just change it up. I just try to avoid using the N-O word. Have them cook with you and get involved more with their food. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know Sage and I have baked together. We've made pie, we've made pancakes. Recently we made French toast. We even went blueberry picking, which she doesn't even like fresh blueberries, but just the experience of being able to actually pick blueberries right off the bush and pop them into her mouth, just got her to all of a sudden like fresh blueberries. So it's really interesting to see how when kids are more involved with their food, they're more likely to eat them. Right, we went blueberry picking. No. Yeah, we did. Eat together. So this is something that I actually grew up doing with my family. We all eat dinner together. And I think this is a really important habit to introduce Sage to as well. Obviously we don't eat all of our meals together because she has like an earlier eating schedule, but eating dinner together is something that I've been trying to do more. Cause I just feel like it's a really good habit and just a great way to get everyone enjoying a meal together without like screens and distractions and for some extra family time. And honestly, when Sage sees us eating, she's more likely to eat what's on our plate too. I'm calling this the fruit bowl hack. I realized that when I have the fruit bowl filled with like bananas and apples and different kinds of fruits, Sage will actually point to one of the foods, usually the bananas and ask to have one. And this is great because Sage doesn't really love fruit as much as she does veggies. So I've been trying to incorporate more fruits and stuff. So even just having things like some freshly washed grapes or cherries on the counter, or, you know, bananas or apples in the fruit bowl, just lets them visually see the food and ask for it. Instead of just like always eating like dry foods from the snack cover, they can have a fresh piece of fruit as well. This is a really big one and it is to respect their eating choices. Don't force it, listen to their cues. If Sage is done eating, I don't force another bite. I'll give her a little bit of time to see if she's still hungry. Maybe while we're doing something, she can just kind of hang out in her high chair. But I don't agree with forcing her to completely clear her plate because every day is different and maybe she's full. Maybe she doesn't like something on her plate. And obviously you know your kid best. So if they took one bite off their plate and they're like, nope, I'm all done. Like obviously you want them to hang out there a little bit longer. But if normally she eats two servings and she only ate one this time, you know, it might just mean that she's actually full and she's all done and maybe we'll have some fruit or something later on. And maybe she had a big lunch that day and she's not as hungry for dinner. It's gonna be different every single day. And I think it's really important for us as parents to respect that their eating habits are gonna change day by day, just like ours do. If you enjoyed this video, definitely check out my other one on 10 ways to help your baby love food. And thank you so much for watching. Leave me a comment down below, letting me know your best trick for getting your taller to eat their meals. And don't forget to like and subscribe and I will see you guys next week. Bye.