To round out my attempt to make healthy food more appealing to all my children, not just my daughter, I brought out my second secret weapon, time outdoors digging in the dirt and soaking up the sunshine in our sizeable garden.
I made spending time in my vegetable and herb garden with my kids a priority because, as schools with successful gardening programs all across the country have proven, involving kids in food production and preparation has a positive effect on all aspects of their health.
Unsurprisingly, my daughter usually won’t eat most vegetables from the supermarket, but when she has had a hand in planting, watering, growing, and harvesting something, she is much more likely to try it.
She has nibbled sugar snap peas off the vine, bit into a sun-ripened cherry tomato from our yard, and loves fresh cucumbers snatched from our trellis. I’ve learned that getting my babies involved in the growing and preparing of our food goes a long way. It not only helps to educate them and make them feel like they are an important part of something, but it also subtly encourages healthy eating habits in a more relaxed and fun way. Gardening together is so much better than: Eat this kale. It’s good for you. Because I said so.
When we get outside and garden together as a family, we are growing roots.
We aren’t just growing the physical roots of the plants we carefully tend, but deeper, more impactful ones as well.
We are growing closer together as a family, laughing and playing and working together in the dirt.
We are cultivating healthy habits that will last, hopefully for a lifetime, as we soak up vitamin D and work our muscles digging and stretching and planting.
We are encouraging love and appreciation, not only of each other, but of all the hard work that it takes to see something through from seed to plant to harvest to table. This makes it harder to refuse the final product on their plate, especially when all the labor involved was their own.
The ideas above (and in the previous introductory episodes) are not, by any means, a one-size fits all solution.
They also haven’t entirely eliminated my family’s picky eater struggle.
There are still refusals to try something new, still grumpy moments at the dinner table. I still have to work constantly to get her to try new things and come up with nutritionally dense, sneaky recipes.
But this approach has eliminated a lot of my concern about her general health and attitude towards food.
As this series continues, I’ll share recipes, successes and possibly some hilariously epic failures. (I once attempted some almond flour-based cheese crackers that my oldest daughter claimed were the worst things to have ever happened to her taste buds!) I will also share tips and our misadventures in the garden, kitchen, and around our table.
Here’s to lots of healthy eating! I hope that in the Great Battle of the Picky eaters, that the healthy moms (and dads, grandparents, and all other caregivers responsible for the feeding of the littlest humans) come out victorious. With the health and nutrition of our children assured and protected, everyone wins.
