Dear Dr. Debbie,
Our four-year-old eats the same foods every day for breakfast and lunch and often complains about everything on the table at dinner. I usually end up serving him frozen chicken nuggets while my husband and I, and even the one-year-old, have a healthy variety of foods.
His teacher noted that this school year more of her students than usual are hesitant to try new foods at snack time. Is this another Covid-19 cohort situation?
Food Fights
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Dear F.F.
The forced isolation of families during the pandemic has indeed impacted many aspects of our lives. Among them has been limited sharing of foods outside of our homes. Along with making friends among other parents and other little ones, it just wasn’t done.
Every Day Variety
You may have inadvertently limited the variety in your child’s diet because of the pandemic. He was a one-year-old when all of a sudden grocery shopping became a monumental chore filled with anxiety. One strategy was to buy a lot of prepared foods (such as chicken nuggets) so you didn’t have to go to the store as often. Restaurant dining was forbidden if not foreboding for quite a while. And forget about visiting other people’s homes for meals and celebrations.
The current cohort of preschoolers may still be limited in visiting friends’ homes because of continuing concerns of contagion. Besides at preschool, how often is your son in the company of another child so that he can experience eating the same food as a social event?
Try to maintain a variety of nutritious foods for your family’s diet, with parents being models of enjoying what you eat. You might notice patterns in what your discriminant eater will tolerate – spicy or bland, crunchy or smooth, warm or cold, complex or basic. He may be a person with a sensitive palate that will always have a short list of foods that he will eat at any age in his life. But even if it’s the same green vegetable every day, he’s getting a green vegetable.
Typically Picky Four-Year-Olds
Not all preschoolers go through a picky eating stage, but it is fairly common. Growth slows down considerably and children spend more and more time after toddlerhood sitting still to play with their toys. Consequently the appetite decreases.
As long as what he eats for breakfast and lunch, and any snacks in between, can check off all his daily nutrition requirements, it isn’t necessary to fret over his aversion to dinner choices.
Breakfast and lunch can include a whole grain product (not multi-grain) – hot cereal, pasta or bread, green and other vegetables, fruit, and a dairy product. If he doesn’t like milk, cheese, nor yogurt, find at least one leafy green vegetable for the calcium he needs for his bones and teeth. For protein, as little as 19 grams a day (5 or 6 chicken nuggets, 3 eggs, or 6 tablespoons of peanut butter) will suffice. (Check the ingredients of prepared foods to avoid high sugar, salt, and white flour. Better yet, find a good recipe and make your own1)
For a picky eater, be sure to offer snacks to round out his daily requirements. A spoonful of peanut butter (known as a peanut butter lollipop) is a quick and fun-to-eat protein serving. Popcorn is an easy-to-prepare snack which can cover a serving of whole grains. We are fortunate to have the world’s pick of fruits year-round in our grocery stores. Most children prefer them in their simplest form, however you may need to do some experimenting to find the fresh or frozen fruit, fruit juice, or fruit muffin recipe your son will accept. Vegetables, too, can be served in all these ways and more – steamed, sautéed, quiches, salads, soups, etc.
Pleasant Meal Time
Always have at least one food you know your son likes at every dinner. He can munch on carrot sticks knowing that his parents won’t be pestering him about being so picky. Family dinners should be a relaxing time for reconnecting with each other and not a battleground about how much of what each person is or isn’t eating.
By the way, in keeping with a pleasant atmosphere around the dinner table, dessert should not be treated as a reward for eating the other parts of the meal. It makes sense to have the sweetest part of the meal last, after the appetite has largely been satisfied. However, if the ingredients are just as nutrition-conscious, dessert merely contributes to the wholesome food value of the entire meal.
Count your child’s reluctance to try new foods as part of the Learning Loss that children have experienced from their social isolation. You might look forward to hosting some tasting parties so he and his cohorts can catch up!
Dr. Debbie
Deborah Wood, Ph.D. is a child development specialist and founding director of Chesapeake Children’s Museum. She will be presenting Zoom workshops for parents, on Mondays 7-9 pm, February 13: Why do Children Misbehave?; February 27: Effective Discipline Techniques; March 13: “I Had it First!” Teaching Conflict Resolution; March 27: Ages and Stages 0-5-years.
The museum is open with online reservations or call: 410-990-1993. The annual African-American History Challenge will be held on Zoom this Saturday, February 11 at 10 am for ages 8-12 years. Come dressed as your favorite historic figure!
Read more of Dr. Wood’s Good Parenting columns by clicking here.
