ALL ABOUT FOOD: Getting the kids to eat their spinach

Elle’s 15-month-old grandson will eat nothing but bagels and blueberries these days. Terry’s daughter Emily lived on peanut butter and jelly and Kraft macaroni and cheese for a period of her life.

Sound familiar? Children are notoriously picky eaters. Harriet Worobey, a childhood nutritionist at Rutgers, says fussiness about food is a normal part of childhood development. “Children are naturally neophobic — they have a distrust of the new.”

In their frustration to get children to eat something, parents often cave in and feed their children McNuggets and Pop Tarts on the premise that something is better than nothing. With childhood obesity dramatically on the rise, parents are at their wits end to have their children eat a healthier diet but don’t know how.

Debra Appel, supervisor of Food Services for the Laguna Beach Unified School District, bravely introduced a salad bar at Top of the World Elementary school, and surprisingly it was a big hit!

We have recently come across some interesting opinions on the subject that we would like to pass along.

Worobey has some very helpful tips for anxious parents, and Keith Dixon, in the New York Times, talks about feeding children the same food their parents are eating, with some modifications of course.

Parents, worried about little ones being around hot stoves, boiling water and sharp knives, shoo them out of the kitchen, but studies have shown that one of the first steps to get children to try new foods is to involve them in an age-appropriate way in meal preparation.

As they get a little older, they might even enjoy taking a cooking class at the Laguna Culinary Institute.

Around Christmas time, there is a cookie baking class but better still, in the spring, they will be offering a healthy food cooking class. During the summer they offer a four-day series featuring American, Mexican, Italian and Asian recipes. Call 494-0745 for information.

“Just have one little bite for Mommy.” How many times have we said those words?

As we all know from experience, it rarely works. Once again, studies show that kids react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods. Offer them a reward, and they may eat it one time; but when questioned later, they express dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.

The suggestion is just to put new food on the table and encourage a child to try it. Don’t complain if they refuse and don’t offer praise if they taste it. Try to stay neutral. With young children it may take 10 or more tries over a few months to introduce a food.

In fact, a Tufts University nutritionist, Susan Roberts, uses “the rule of 15.” Yup, that means do it 15 times before giving up. If they eventually eat it, next try similarly flavored or colored foods. If the kid likes pumpkin pie, try mashed sweet potatoes and then mashed carrots.

Baby foods don’t have to come in a jar. It will take a little bit of extra effort and probably some degree of patience, but your kids may surprise you.

No matter what you do, some kids aren’t going to eat anything except chicken fingers and Cheerios for several years, but Martha Rose Shulman in her book, “A Dozen Ways for Kids to Eat Better” suggests that “…children who eat well and don’t fear variety often live in households where cooking and sitting down to meals is part of family life. They pick up on adult habits.”

They also may pick up on adult tastes if given the opportunity. Keith Dixon describes the day when his wife pureed her pasta Bolognese with mint and fed it to their baby daughter who was delighted to finish every bite. Not every child is that easy to please.

If you want to try new foods, start them slowly and wait five to seven days before introducing another. Experts disagree, but some advise against giving babies egg whites, shellfish, nuts, honey, citrus fruit, beans or wheat before age one.

Dr. Jatindor, a pediatric nutritionist, says feeding a baby or toddler a range of foods encourages them to be more adventurous and develop likes similar to your own. How else would Indian children learn to like curry?

You should, however, be aware of possible allergic reactions, so talk to your pediatrician first before serving children adult foods. If you plan to share your meals with small children, be sure to limit the salt sharply.

Pureed foods are good for babies between 6 to 10 months, but when they begin to eat chewable foods, they should be cooked until they squash easily and bites should not be larger than a blueberry. Any food that is placed in the child’s mouth should be able to be swallowed whole, no chewing required. One tip for making food more palatable is adding some pureed fruit, like pears, to meats, turkey or chicken, which can be dry after pureeing.

Don’t serve boring vegetables. Calorie-conscious parents often serve plain steamed veggies. Big surprise, kids don’t like them. Nutritionists say it is actually better to use a little fat to help unlock fat-soluble nutrients. Add a little butter, ranch dressing, cheese sauce or brown sugar. The extra calories are worth the trade-off if it gets them to eat their vegetables.

It turns out that one of the biggest mistakes we make is keeping treats out of reach. A large body of research shows that if a food is restricted, children just want it more.

At Penn State, researchers placed some cookies on plates in front of each child and others in a clear cookie jar in the middle of the table. The children were told that after 10 minutes they could take cookies from the jar. Consumption more than tripled compared to the plated cookies.

Good advice is not to bring foods into the house that you need to restrict. Buy more healthful treats and let kids have access to them.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected]