by Rachel Howells

Created on: June 23, 2009   Last Updated: April 20, 2011

Young children are notoriously picky eaters. Understandably, parents often worry about balanced nutrition when dealing with a child who refuses to eat anything other than wieners and ketchup. However, a certain degree of pickiness is perfectly normal in early childhood. Parents do not need to be overly concerned about it.

Some children go through phases of food restriction and repugnance because their developing senses can be extra-sensitive to different textures, smells, unusual appearances, and strong tastes. Temporary food aversions are therefore relatively normal and most likely will not have any long-lasting effects on your child's health. With this in mind, there are a few ways to get around a picky child's sensitive palate.

~ Disguise Strong Tasting Vegetables ~

Use a food processor to puree vegetables, particularly strong tasting ones such as broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and brussel sprouts. You can then add the puree to tomato based pasta sauces or mashed potatoes. Even finicky eaters will usually eat spaghetti, so disguising strong tastes and different textures in the sauce is a great way to get those vegetables into your kids. Mashing up a small amount of turnip and cauliflower and adding this mixture to mashed potatoes is an easy way to get nutrient rich vegetables into your kids.

~ Offer Dips with cut up Fruits and Vegetables ~

In addition to pasta sauce, incorporating pureed vegetables into dips can also be tried. Julienne the vegetables your child will tolerate, such as sweet carrots and celery sticks, and serve with smooth textured dips that have the pureed vegetables mixed in. Celery sticks are also a great choice for kids because they can be doctored up with peanut butter and chocolate chip, cream cheese or other spreads your child does like. To get a rich array of fruits into children, try offering different varieties cut up into small chunks and shapes with a dip of vanilla or fruit flavored yogurt mixed with whipping cream.

~ Garlic ~

To get the health benefits of garlic into your picky eater, boil several cloves in water before adding vegetables or when making soup. The boiling process will take care of its strong taste and kids will not even know they are eating it.

~ Present Food with your Discerning Food Critic in Mind ~

Another way to get different foods into your picky eater is by making food fun. Use cookie cutters to cut out whole grain sandwiches and pancakes into interesting shapes. You can

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