Food Priorities of a Six Year-Old

When my nephew, Matthew, visits me for the weekend, I try to offer him healthy food choices.  This can be a challenge for me because I don’t like to keep “kid food” in my house—if it’s there, I eat it. I know what he likes, so I stock up before he comes over, and I generally try some sneaky switch-a-roos too.

It usually fails.

He has rejected my waffles, healthy pizza (Amy’s brand), green smoothies (ok, so that was a stretch), air popped popcorn, coconut milk, Annie’s Cowgirl Ranch dressing, several whole grain breads, coconut water, and now…

He was begging me to go outside and ride bikes, but when I mentioned using the juicer, we got sidetracked (hence, the helmet). I was hoping his playing a part in the juicing would encourage him to drink the juice.  But he cringed and moaned the whole time I strained all traces of pulp out…and then after tasting the juice, informed me that it was de-stusting and did not taste like orange juice. His food priorities are: (1) tastes good, (2) looks good, (3) is familiar.

I was slightly frustrated (mostly because it made a huge mess and I wasted money on oranges), but I understand. I know kids have different tastes than adults (even though he is crazy and wrong on this one—because that orange juice was way better than Tropicana).

My future plan? Buy him the foods he likes, and keep offering healthy choices too. He likes salad and fruit, and I wouldn’t call Tropicana junk food anyway. He sort of rolls his eyes at me for always being so healfy, but I can take it. I’m hoping as he grows up he’ll want to be interested in healthy food too, and he’ll have his memories of my shenanigans to support that if he does!