You’ve come a long way, baby.

But maybe not as long a way as you would like.

  • The good news is that if you follow this step-by-step, blow-by-blow guide to introducing new foods, it’s guaranteed to change how your kids eat.
  • The bad news is that no matter how much progress you make, at some point, your child will slide back.

This is the last installment in my series The Step-by-Step, Blow-by-Blow Guide to Introducing New Foods that’s Guaranteed to Change How Your Kids Eat. If you’re new, start here.

Here’s my last piece of advice…and I’m sorry, it might feel like a downer, but it’s meant to be an upper.

You’ve got to plan for failure…er…the future!

In my experience, kids will “play along” for some amount of time…until they stop. (I hate to be the one to break it to you.)

The thing to remember is that these setbacks are just that…setbacks.

If you have a plan then the setback won’t throw you off-track. It will just be a pause. A deep breath. A moment of reflection.

What can you do when your children—who have been doing a really good job tasting new foods— suddenly stop tasting new foods?

  1. Talk to your kids about what is going on in a non-judgmental way.
  2. Take a mini-vacation from tasting.
  3. Take a few steps back. Reverting to an easier step will bring your child back onboard. Instead of tasting, offer a smell, a touch, or just a look.
  4. Pull out the heavy hitters: start offering tastes of ice cream, cookies, etc. This reminds your children that tasting can be fun. Read Take a Walk on the Wild Side.
  5. Remember those shampoo instructions: rinse and repeat.
  6. Have a class of wine!

Got questions? Ask.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~