My husband and I are self proclaimed foodies.  Its hard to indulge our cravings for good ethnic foods with children around.  Like many kids, mine don’t always enjoy trying new foods.  Let’s think about that, everything they have eaten was new at one point.  Even mac and cheese so we know that it’s possible to get something new in their mouths. 

Here are some of the techniques we have used to get our kids to eat different foods.  First of all, we ensure that they are hungry at dinner time.  That means we cut snacks out two hours before, and go down to only water for drinking.  The idea here is that a hungry kid will be more willing to eat.  It helps to serve dinner at roughly the same time each night, but I’ll admit I sometimes struggle with this. 

Next, don’t force it.  Serve whatever new food you have with something familiar as a side.  This way, if nothing else your kids will eat something!  Try to include them in the cooking process.  If they see what goes inside the dish while preparing it, they won’t be so shocked at seeing it on the plate. 

And of course, you must be patient. It might take several attempts before your child eats something new, but rest assured that they will.  Don’t fuss about whether or not they do, or even mention if it tastes good.  Talk about colors, and textures not so much as taste.  Allow then to experiment if they want to, touching it with their hands.  It might be messy, but the more comfortable they are with the food the more likely it will go into their mouth.  My daughter wore her first curry.  But now she eats it willingly so long as it isn’t too spicy!

-Stephanie Wright