How to Encourage Picky Eaters to Try Nutritious Foods (Without the Mealtime Battles)

Is getting your child to eat more veggies feeling like an everyday battle? You’re not alone—and the good news is, it doesn’t have to be a fight.

In this episode of Clear & On Purpose, we’re talking all about how to help your kids develop a healthy relationship with food—especially if they’re picky eaters. I’m sharing practical, mindset-shifting strategies that we use in our own home to reduce stress around food, increase nutrient intake, and support calmer moods and better energy—for everyone.

You’ll learn:

• Why picky eating is developmentally normal (and when to dig deeper)
• How to encourage food exploration without pressure or shame
• Creative ways to get kids involved in mealtime so they’re more likely to try new things
• Why repeated exposure is your best friend (and what NOT to say when offering a new food)
• Easy swaps to make nutritious foods more accessible at home—without banning all snacks

Plus, I’ll share some real-life examples from our family, including the unexpected perks (and pitfalls) of skipping “kid meals.”

This episode is packed with ideas that are rooted in connection, flexibility, and long-term well-being, not control. If you’re wanting calmer mealtimes, more confident eaters, and a more nourishing rhythm in your home, this one's for you.

🎧 Hit play and let’s get into it!

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Resources & Links

• Follow Christina @christinaslaback
• Email us at hello@christinaslaback.com
• www.christinaslaback.com

Transcript

Nutritious Eating

Christina: [00:00:00] there are things that we can do for our children who are in a picky stage, or to try to get them to try more foods and more nutritious foods. And we're gonna go through some of the different approaches we can utilize to try to encourage more nutritious eating.

Welcome to Clear and On Purpose, the podcast design to help you cut through the noise and get back to what matters most. If you're feeling stuck, but needs to take intentional action, you are in the right place. I'm Christina Slayback, homeschooling mom of two and life and business coach, helping you drop in and align with your values and create more space.

Each week I'll be sharing practical insights and simple. Actionable steps to help you find clarity, boost your energy, and design a life that balances ambition with mates. Let's dive in and get clear on purpose.

We all know that healthy eating [00:01:00] provides numerous benefits for children, including supporting healthy growth and development, boosting the immune system, and enhancing cognitive function. It can also help maintain a healthy weight. It strengthens bones and it promotes stable energy levels. It can lead to improved mental health and better academic performance.

I noticed a distinct difference in mood regulation, energy levels, and overall calm in the household when we're all eating better. But one of the biggest obstacles to getting that regulation is how to get picky children to eat. Children can become picky eaters for a variety of reasons, including developmental factors, sensory sensitivities, and environmental influences.

And it's also really common to have a phase of picky eating throughout childhood. Even if they started out as adventurous eaters, being open to a lot of different foods, they can become picky as they grow older. And that's a sign of their independence and stating their [00:02:00] preferences.

sometimes it's simply a stage. they may grow out of it, but for some children who are very sensitive to food, they should work directly with a therapist to overcome those.

But there are things that we can do for our children who are in a picky stage, or to try to get them to try more foods and more nutritious foods. And we're gonna go through some of the different approaches we can utilize to try to encourage more nutritious eating. 

So let's talk about starting from the mindset and approach. creating a low stakes food exposure. this is where we're just offering different kinds of foods. in a very low stakes way. We're having that ability to have that repeated exposure. a lot of times kids will need to try, foods studies say up to 12 times before they actually decide if they like it or not.

And the taste buds become less sensitive with age. So their preferences can change. And honestly, I just go about this by letting kids know [00:03:00] that it can take 12 times to know if we really like a food or not? How many times have you tried this food Bringing in that knowledge so that they might be more open, even if they didn't really love it the first time that they tried it.

But by having this ability to just kind of kind giving these foods out repetitively, or having them available and just doing it in a very low stakes, playful way, like I wonder what you'll think of it today. letting them come to it with a sense of curiosity rather than a pressure on having to have a power struggle over trying new foods or being forced to try something that they don't like.

And you can also let them know that even if they try it. And they like it. That doesn't mean that they have to eat more of it. a lot of times we'll go like, you can try it and if you like it, you can have more. But even that pressure of if I do like this, then I'm gonna have to eat more of, it can be too much for kids.

So just letting them know that regardless of whether they like it or not, they can stop whenever they choose. And I really like to come at this from a place of food neutrality. So not [00:04:00] shaming the food. I know when I started parenting I had very strong, views on having children, eating sugar, or not eating sugar in that case.

and just being very strict about what foods I was providing for them, thinking that I was doing this in the benefit of their overall, relationship with food. But I soon came to realize that having such strict regulations or, coming at this from a place of. Determining whether foods are healthy or not healthy, was just creating more issues for them to deal with later.

And it wasn't the intention I had behind it, which was to create children that wanted to have a lot of different food. So I now avoid terms like healthy and unhealthy when it comes to food, and I start to talk about the nutrition that's associated with them. We also talk about how all foods have benefits, even carbohydrates, sugar.

They give you energy and that can be great. we talk about how those foods give us energy, and they're not always the most nutritionally dense. having a [00:05:00] wide variety, having protein to help us grow our muscles, having fat in our diet, to be able to help our body, to be able to regulate, how all of these different factors come to play an important role in our overall nutrition.

And then when you talk about environment and availability, So offering food without any comments. So a lot of times I'll just make a plate of fruits and vegetables and put it out, and then as they're going by, if they choose to grab some or not, that's their choice.

But I don't even make any comments about it. I don't wanna tell them that they should be eating it or not, but simply having it available and in ways that are easy for them to grab. That just offers an environment of being able to have them try it on their own and when they're young, especially letting them touch and smell and play with new foods without any extra pressure to try it or eat it.

And accessibility really working on, especially when they're younger, but throughout the ages as well, having foods that are available that are prepped and ready. I know that for me, [00:06:00] even if I have all our fruits and vegetables prepped and ready When I open the fridge, I am more likely to take it and it's absolutely the case for my children too.

I'll notice that they may not grab the fruits and vegetables when they're in the fridge, but if I have some cut up on my plate, they'll almost always be stealing from the plate. So just having those available, having something that can go with them having a hummus or even a yogurt or peanut butter dip.

having some seeds and nuts that are ready to go and nutritionally dense so they can just grab when they want snacks, and having that all very easy and accessible for them at any time. I try to limit the processed foods and use them strategically. using those for the on the go moments they're needed for.

we would take the little prepackaged foods the crackers, the snacks, the granola bars, the pouches, and really just try to use those mainly for when we were. Out and about. when we would go on hikes, when we'd go on outings, travel, we needed that food to get us [00:07:00] through to the next thing rather than having it available all the time in the house.

And then they didn't ask for them in the house all the time, either they knew that they had other foods available there and having them utilize and eat the same foods that we eat. a lot of times in the US when you go out to eat they have Kid menus, it feels like they're setting us up for the feeling that our kids are going to be picky and they're only gonna want these certain foods.

And so that's all we're gonna offer them. starting when they're young and just allowing them to eat off of our plates when we go out to eat instead of ordering them a separate kid's meal. Not creating whole separate meals when we cook at home, but making sure that they have food they'll eat and enjoy with the rest of the meals that we have.

And that just kind of creates this ability for it not to be a kid's separate thing and an adult thing, but that we all can eat a wide variety of food. Just a note on this. I do think that this is a really great strategy and having adventurous eaters and kids that want to try new things and have grown [00:08:00] up with adult food.

It's not to say that we didn't go through a picky stage too, They really do enjoy a lot of different foods and it's really great, except our older children are now asking for full adult meals or asking to get the plate of ribs, instead of the kid's meal, which is, half the price.

So just a little caveat in there that, everything comes with checks and balances, right? Involving kids and having them have ownership over their own nutrition and making it part of what they are doing for themselves. So including them in the prep. kids are more likely to try what they've helped make if you get them involved, if you do any gardening, even if there's community gardens around that you don't necessarily do, we don't have a garden at our house, but we have, my sister-in-law that has the.

Beautiful garden. My grandma has a garden. getting the kids involved in that so they can see the plants grow. bringing them into the kitchen while we're cooking and having them be involved in the process, they're much more likely to [00:09:00] try the food that they've made rather than, just food that's presented to them 

Looking at ways to incorporate more fun and playfulness into it and create that buy-in from them. 

So one of the things I like to do with kids, and I've done it with my kids and when kids come over too, is talk about, eating a rainbow of food. that's usually from plant-based sources. and what each of the different colors. Does, and the vitamins and phytonutrients in our fruits and vegetables.

So we talk about those benefits in a really colorful and kid friendly way. So Red helps promote a healthy heart, and orange helps you see in the dark. Yellow helps us to heal our cuts and always faster and green because we wanna help build that shield to protect us from germs. blue and purple foods really help your brain.

So by talking about it that way and approaching it in a way that they can choose. What they want for each of those colors. It's not that I'm telling them to eat the carrots for orange. [00:10:00] Just saying, Hey, did you get your colors in today? what colors are you missing and what foods might we be able to bring in that would help I find often they start looking to try to fill that rainbow and to try to get those foods in and it really helps 

Increase the amount of fruits and vegetables that the children are getting in their diet anyway. in a fun, low stakes, playful way. 

But talking about foods in a way that promotes what they do for us and how they benefit our body and our overall system. As opposed to simply stating whether they're healthy, whether they're not, and really kind of creating those strict labels around what we should be eating, I find works much better in getting buy-in from the kids.

And then finally modeling and conversation about it. So really leading by example. if you want adventurous eaters, if you want kids that are gonna try new things, are you trying new things? Are you trying new recipes? Or when you go out to eat, are you checking in on new things? Are [00:11:00] you preparing things in different ways?

A lot of times kids can get. disoriented because when you bite into a blueberry, for instance, sometimes it's sweet and sometimes it's really sour, and sometimes it's firm and juicy, and sometimes it'll be a little bit mushy. And the fruit or vegetable itself can change.

They don't know what to expect. And at the same time, the preparation of the food can also change what it tastes like, what the texture is. talking about all of those things and trying different ways of preparing or different types of the same foods, green, apples versus red apples, and all the different varieties 

It helps approach it with more curiosity and with looking at it as opportunities to test and try out new things like little scientists. And normalizing the tastes change. So a lot of times we think that, especially for kids, if they think that they've tried something once, that they think that they don't like [00:12:00] it, then they might not want to try that again.

But normalizing the tastes do change throughout our lives. So I'll, I'll tell my kids, like I used hate tomatoes too when I was a kid, but now I enjoy them. Or I really used to love peanut butter as a child, and now I don't like it that much. Allowing our taste to evolve and not labeling our children as picky or good eaters.

 just allowing them to have the space to change their taste, to change their preferences, to change, and doing it in a way that allows for that space and vulnerability Opens it up rather than shaming and really trying to keep it positive.

So keep it light, keep it playful. We want to create interactions that are positive around food, and then looking through and implementing any of the strategies that maybe resonate with you. But also following your child's lead, so ensuring that you are offering foods that they like consistently and [00:13:00] not just focusing on trying to get all of these different nutrients or all these foods that you think that they should have in there.

Sometimes children have reasons for not liking or trying different foods that we may not be aware of, and not everyone can or even should be an adventurous eater. So as long as they're getting the nutrition that they need. Really let going any over the stress about them not trying every little thing or not liking every little thing.

Not all of us are meant to like everything and being able to trust our kids in a way that's supportive of them. And helps them to grow and to be able to mature in the waythat they are best for themselves, but allowing them to trust their own intuitive bodies and helping them to tune into what feels really good in their body, not necessarily that.

They just wanna eat sugar all the time because it tastes good. But really being able to tune into what makes them feel good when they eat it, what helps keep them satiated, what helps them feel [00:14:00] really regulated and grounded, and helping them notice that, to create lifelong habits of nutritious eating in adulthood.

So these are some things that we've tried to encourage nutritious eating in our household. And I'm curious what you do in your household. Do you have any Tips or strategies to encourage your kids to try a bunch of different food or to be able to get all those different nutrients in.

If this episode resonated with you, please let me know. I love hearing from you And if you know someone that would benefit, I would love it if you would share this episode or any of the episodes, especially in this Intentional Parenting series. So thank you and I'll see you next time.

Thank you for tuning in to clear and on purpose. If you're ready to take intentional steps toward a more fulfilling life and wanna customize the approach, I'd love to work with you. Visit www.christinaslayback.com to schedule a free consultation or explore current offers [00:15:00] designed to help you gain clarity.

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