How to Get Your Kids Interested in Food

While it may seem easier to just whip up dinner as quickly as possible while your little ones are engaged elsewhere, there are other options that could help them get interested in food. Getting your kids to develop an interest in food from an early age – and not just eating it – will help to turn them into the Chefs of the Future and could avoid life-long fussy eaters.

This doesn’t mean you need to get them to help you with absolutely everything in the kitchen. After all, that could make a quick cup of tea an absolute nightmare! Instead, plan activities and do some fun things that help them see how fun food can be.

They may not be able to serve you up a three-course meal any time soon, but getting them interested in food early can make a huge difference to their feelings about food later on. Here are a few ideas that could help:

Letting your children watch you when you’re cooking is an easy way to start them off in the kitchen. You can set up an area for them to sit and talk them through what you’re doing. This will probably mean you’ll need to answer a million questions on why you do each thing, but that’s all part of their learning process.

Get your kids interested in what they are eating by allowing them to choose their meals. A really great way to do this is to draw some meal plans on paper plates – which will allow you to make sure they are fully balanced with the food groups – and then let them pick their favourite.

When they get older, they could even help you put a meal plan together, which will get them thinking about what foods are healthy.

Rather than dishing up the meal they choose as you would for an adult, try and make it a bit more interesting. Make their meals look like smiley faces or cut things into fun shapes. Even things like sandwiches can be made more interesting with cookie cutters. This may not be the most practical option, especially if you’re in a hurry to dish up, but it could get them excited for tea time.

It can be easy to stick with the same foods and meal combinations, especially when you’ve found things your kids really like. However, this can make them fussy about trying new things as they’ll be more likely to insist that they don’t like something they’re not used to.

Try and add new ingredients or food to their diet on a regular basis and adopt the old ‘you don’t know you don’t like it until you’ve tried it’ approach. So long as they have tried something and can tell you why they don’t like it, you can take it off their plate, but if they are just being fussy, encourage them to try again.

You’ll be surprised at what foods they do like and this will encourage them to try new things all the time.

Rewarding your children when they do try new foods – even if it turns out they don’t like it – and eating all of their dinner can help them to see how important it is to vary things and make sure they eat vegetables.

Create a star chart that matches a certain type of food with a coloured star, such as red for meat and fish, gold for carbohydrates, silver for dairy and green for vegetables. When they eat all of each type of food included in a meal, they get a star for it.

At the end of the week, if they’ve got all or a certain number of stars, they get a treat. You can then make the treat something interesting, such as a tropical fruit or a meal they haven’t tried before. Or if they’ve tried lots of new foods that week, serve them up their favourite as a reward.

Of course, a great way to get them interested in food is to cook with your kids. Even making no-bake treats like chocolate crispie cakes are a great way to get them cooking, while things like fairy cakes can help them learn and get them to be creative when it comes to decorating.

Build up what you teach them as they get older and you could end up with the next Michelin-starred chef in your kitchen.