combating picky eating

5 tips from Emily Oster + 5 recipes to (possibly) please your picky eater

Admittedly, this midweek newsletter is for the parents out there! If you are not one — sorry — but consider forwarding this one to a friend who has kids!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the huge privilege of collaborating with Emily Oster on an article that essentially turned into two moms — one parenting author and one professional cook — just being really honest about how frustrating it can be to feed children.

You can read it here.

We shared some of our favorite tricks for combating picky eating, and I learned a lot of new ideas from Emily. I am such a huge fan of the way she uses real data to explore parenting and pregnancy. She shares anecdotes from her own parenting experience, but never shrouds the data with her own biases. She always allows the reader to use the data to draw their own conclusions and use it however they see fit for their own family.

I am a huge fan of Emily’s and if you, like me, are in the throes of attempting to parent tiny beasts, I can’t recommend subscribing to her newsletter, ParentData, more highly.

ANYWAY — let’s talk about picky eating.

cheez-its are an easy sell

5 things I learned from Emily Oster about picky eating

1. Data that shows that giving kids a “dip” (ketchup, yogurt, whatever) makes them eat more food. From EO: “There are several studies -- one in a school in Houston, one where researchers paired veggies with dips (including the horrible combination of Brussels sprouts with flavored cream cheese). They find if you repeatedly expose kids to veggies WITH a dip, they eat more and like them better.”

2. "You choose the food, they choose how much”. Emily’s kids have to sit down and at least try the dinner she has cooked, but it’s up to them how much of it they eat. 

3. Consider having a standard “backup meal” in your home. From EO: “We have a standard backup meal (hummus and raw veggies) that is always available if you do not like the food. We picked this because it’s easy and they like it, but not so much that they’d pick it every day. And then if there is an “experiment” meal that we haven’t had before, you have to try it, but if you do not like it, you can have the backup meal.”

4. Just like you, sometimes kids just don’t feel like eating! From EO: “For me, one thing that has been hard to get used to is sometimes they just do not eat very much. Which is OK! They’ll make it up at another meal. But it’s hard not to overreact.”

5. Don’t make mealtime a big deal. From EO: “Sometimes we can get kids to try things and eat them just by not making a big deal about it. Sometimes. (There is data showing that forcing kids to finish a particular food doesn’t help their enjoyment of it. So we do not do that.) 

top 5 kid-approved recipes from what to cook

But first, to quote myself from the ParentData article, “I jokingly (but not really jokingly) always say there’s no such thing as a kid-friendly meal, because kids are not friendly about meals.” However, I polled y’all on Instagram about which WTC recipes have been the biggest kid-pleasers, and these won.

1. chicken parm burgers: I don’t know what it is about these, but kids cannot get enough. I know several families that make these every single week.

2. healthy-ish turkey bolognese: y’alls kids LOVE THIS ONE. And parents love it too — the recipe makes a double batch, so you can freeze half for a busy night down the road. Plus, there’s over a pound of hidden veggies in the sauce!

3. chipotle black bean flautas: my kids love these, too! We call them “baby burritos” and they freaking devour them.

4. healthy sloppy joes: this recipe was a real sleeper hit. I think a lot of you skipped it because… sloppy joes. But those who gave it a shot have become diehard fans of this recipe. So get in there!

5. greek turkey meatballs with couscous and dill yogurt dipping sauce: kids go nuts for these meatballs. And… dipping sauce! When I feed my kids couscous or rice it ends up literally covering the entire kitchen floor, but I find that mixing the couscous with a bit of the yogurt sauce to help it clump together really helps!

In sum: feeding kids is annoying, so make delicious food that you’re going to enjoy, put it in front of them, don’t force them to eat it, and see what happens. Worst case scenario: they wind up eating veggies and hummus for dinner, while you enjoyed a lovely meal. I’m rooting for all of us!