Healthy meals for fussy eaters

How to provide a balanced diet

Although you may feel your child’s fussy eating is restricting their diet, if they are eating all the main food groups, are active and not losing weight then it’s likely that what they are eating is good enough.

Try not to focus too much on what they ate today, and instead look at what they ate over the week as a whole. Be sure to offer meals and healthy snacks that include fruit and vegetables, potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbs to help provide the calories, fibre, vitamins and minerals your child needs, as well as dairy or fortified alternatives, beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein sources to support their growth and development.

Whatever the age of your child, read our helpful guides to check you’re fulfilling their nutritional needs:

• Health eating: what young children need
• Healthy eating: what schoolchildren need
• Healthy eating: what teenagers need

No one wants to cower to their child's demands, but it is easy to fall into the trap of offering multiple meal choices when your instinct is to keep your child fed. But whether you believe in staying firm or being flexible, here are some ideas to help achieve happier and healthier mealtimes.

How to win over fussy eaters

1. Get them involved

Browse through a cookbook or cooking app together, or take a look at our healthy kids' recipes, and let them suggest ideas for the weekly meal plan. You could also try taking them shopping and letting them select a new fruit or vegetable to try.
Growing your own produce brings a host of benefits, including fresher produce, less wastage and money saved. Try something that's easy to plant and look after, like a cress head, herbs or tomatoes – choose the right variety and these can fit into a window box. Kids will love the growing process and enjoy giving the cress a 'haircut' or picking tomatoes for their supper.

2. Sneak in vegetables

If you've got a serious veg-dodger on your hands then there are plenty of sneaky ways of getting the good stuff into them. Recipes like spaghetti & meatballs with hidden veg, more-veg-less-meat summer bolognese and pasta with tomato & hidden veg can soon start racking up their 5-a-day. Finishing a meal with fresh puds like frozen fruit sticks is a great way of adding extra nutrients, too.

Read our guide to find out what portion sizes count as 5-a-day.

3. Small portions are less intimidating

Try offering really small portions of a new food so it doesn't look too overwhelming; you can always top up as you go along. A starter of daintily sliced, colourful veg crudités is a good way of getting some good stuff into your kids – choose a time when they are at their hungriest. Keep sweet foods well out of sight until the end of the meal – if you are packing a lunchbox, then try two separate boxes for sweet and savoury foods.

4. Stay patient and persevere

Don't expect immediate results: changing your child's attitude to food can be an ongoing journey and you may need to present a particular vegetable/dish a number of times before they are brave enough to give it a go. Persevere with plenty of patience and remember familiarity is often key. It is widely reported that if a child initially rejects a particular food, it normally takes at least 10 times for it to become accepted.

5. Show them the way

Your household eating habits play a major role in whether your child accepts or rejects a new food – so do your best to lead by example. Watching parents and siblings get stuck in makes a great incentive for younger children to follow suit.

6. Make mealtimes enjoyable

Put on some relaxing music and try to sit down and eat together as a family. Making it a relaxing experience from the start can work wonders at defusing difficult mealtime behaviour.

7. Be prepared

Ironically, kids who are over-hungry tend to be the most difficult to feed – miss the window and mealtime meltdowns might be on the cards. Batch-cooking freezable recipes, like our hidden veg ragu, is another great way of reducing stress, meaning you should be able to sit down with your children as they eat and give them your full attention with a clear mind. Besides, cooking after a long day at work with a toddler clinging to your knees is never easy anyway.

8. Don’t resort to pudding bribery

Offering sweet treats as a reward for eating the main meal has the potential of setting up the idea that healthy, savoury food is to be endured rather than enjoyed in its own right. Alternative treats like stickers for a reward chart might be just as effective at getting them to eat up. You could also try giving them a sticker for other achievements like trying something new or sitting patiently at the table.

Healthy meals for kids

Easy fish cakes
Lamb tagine
Beef stew with sweet potato topping
Summer vegetable curry

Found this useful? Now read…

5 vegetables your child should eat
Healthy foods kids will love
Top 10 healthy meals for kids
Healthy snacks for kids

Got your own top tips for dealing with fussy eaters? We'd love to hear your suggestions...

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