Gentle Persistence Will Be Rewarded

The Roman poet Ovid wrote, "Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish." This idea brings us to the fourth of the four Ps: persistence. Sure, there are dietary benefits from incorporating, say, fish into your child's diet, but how can you be persistent in the face of your child's obstinate dislike of fish?

It's simple. Just recognize that you don't have to transform your child from a picky eater into one with a taste for all foods. As a parent, you just have to continue to offer her a wide variety of foods on a frequent basis. Eventually, your picky eater will add a few new "likes" to her repertoire. From there, she may begin to try new foods with gusto and, with luck, may one day decide it's more fun to be adventuresome in eating than to be limited.

How many times is too many times to ask a child to try something? There is no right answer. My general feeling is that you shouldn't give up on introducing a food until you've offered it fifteen times. (But don't re-serve the rejected food fifteen meals in a row!) That sounds like a lot of times to prepare something you're pretty sure will be rejected, but if the rest of the family is having the food in question anyway, you need only ask your picky eater to try one bite at each sitting. If you've also limited snacks between meals to ensure that your child is really hungry when he sits down to the meal at which you'll ask him to try a new food, you're more likely to be successful. And don't forget to reward success with praise while staying positive in the face of failure. Be patient and persevere by revisiting past failures. When you least expect it, your child just might take the bait and decide to eat the fish.

More on: Healthy Meals for Families

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.