I have a picky husband and a picky daughter. I HATE the Satter method and would not use it. I short order cooked until my daughter was in kindergarten and it really didn't make a difference for us. She was told she had to eat one vegetable and one fruit. She got to pick what they were. She chooses raw carrots or cauliflower. She alternates her fruit choice, but she really doesn't like many fruits and by this time she has tried every fruit I can find in the store. She just doesn't like them.

When she got to kindergarten I sat her down and talked to her. I told her that she had to start being more open about food choice because I couldn't send her to someone's house for a play date or a birthday party and worry about whether she would eat the meal served. She wouldn't eat pizza or hamburgers. So I made a deal with her. I will make a family meal and if she eats it, she gets a dessert (we don't do dessert during the work week -- only on the weekend). If she doesn't want it or tries it and doesn't like it, I will fix her something I know she will eat.

This has plan has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. She will try anything now and will eat very nearly everything. She will even tell me that she wants to try something new. We can go to almost any restaurant and she will eat a solid meal. It has been a night and day change.

Calm down. They will grow up and either eat "everything" or be "picky". If you introduce them to everything and they are still picky, then you did your part. There is nothing wrong with a picky eater.

I'm a good eater, ate my first raw oyster before the age of 5. I still have never met a meal I did not like. I love McDonalds and I also love me some proper beef wellington. This was the way I was born.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so what if there is no "family meal"? I don't get home from work in time to cook a "real" meal for the kids who need to eat immediately (3 and 1). So I end up serving them generally what they want and then either eating what they had (pasta) or making a "real" meal later for my husband and I. I think they've definitely become more picky because of it, but I'm not sure what else to do because there's no time to cook!

can they eat your and Dh's leftovers from the night before?

Let them have a snack.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I have never heard of Ellen Satter, nor have read her books. I am extremely rigid about dinner, I do no short order cooking. They either eat it or they don't. I think that I started this around age 2. Personally I think 1 is too young, and I would focus on giving him a selection of appopriate foods that he will actually eat. You can also add in things from your dinner table just to have him try it.

I of course don't force my children to eat all their dinner, but I still use the must eat one bite of everything method with great success in my house. Sometimes kids get it into their minds they won't like something, then they try it, and they realize it tastes good.

PP, can you say more about how you get them to even try one bite? Short of jamming it forcefully into their mouths, I'm not sure how you accomplish this. I agree- once our kids actually try something, they often times like it, but it's the getting them to try it the first time which is hard. We don't do dessert so I can't use that as a stick/carrot.

Offer fruit and vanilla yogurt (full fat is delicious!) as dessert. Sometimes we'll also do dark chocolate. Or find some other carrot--make a chart. If they follow the one bite rule M-F, they get to choose a movie/special outing for the weekend.

Yes, we use bribery to get him to try things...a single gummy bear (actually we often bribe him with his chewable vitamins...he hasn't caught on yet) or if its a particularly "weird" food a t.v. show or something else that he has in his mind he wants to do.

You know you can do what you want, but using sugary foods and dessert type foods as a "reward" is a pretty bad idea. When one eats these type of foods it releases dopamine in the brain. When you use these foods as a reward, your brain becomes even more hard wired to tell you that after a stressful time (IE forcing a child to eat all on their plate or forcing them to eat foods they dislike) you are then made to feel better and rewarded by sweet treats.

Many people use food to self-medicate and really end up struggling with obesity and food addictions. I'm strongly against using food as a reward in any situation. Food if fuel and not a reward.