Don't have kids but I will probably be making some of these for myself. :)

Love the title and idea of this post. Some great ideas here-thank you!

I don't have kids, but as a registered holistic nutritionist have to say: this is terrible! The concept of creating a meal with the expectation that your child will pick things out is horrendous. In addition to the fact that they're all white flour based pastas of course...

Dear holistic nutritionist:

You've obviously never encountered a truly difficult eater in your practice. I've lived with one for the past 5 years. It started with not wanting to wean, and now of course, he will not touch a vegetable. Don't judge parents if you don't have to prepare 2 meals a day for an extremely picky eater, day in and day out. It's really, really hard, and I for one am grateful for ideas beyong hiding vegetables in bolognese.

I tend to agree with the holistic nutritionist. This might sound harsh, but my kids never got to choose what they ate (other than on their birthday), and I wouldn't offer an alternative (or snacks) if they didn't like any part of a meal. I put a lot of effort into shopping for and cooking tasty, nutritious meals for the family, and it would irk me if food and my time/energy went to waste due to pickiness.

Well, holistic nutritionist, it's easy enough to swap out whole-wheat pasta or whatever veggie pasta people have dreamed up...

I'm glad to see The Kitchn representing that middle ground--a place I tend to occupy. I don't have kids yet, but my husband is a very picky eater (he'll eat romaine lettuce, carrots and green beans, that's it) I'm grateful for recipes that allow me to enjoy a gamut of veggies while not treating my husband like a child by "hiding" his vegetables all the time.

Pearmelon (& holistic nutritionist),

I too "put a lot of effort into shopping for and cooking tasty, nutritious meals for the family". I cook from scratch, try to use a lot fresh & in season produce, only serve whole grains, and aim to achieve a balance between new & varied tastes and sensitivity to young eaters with respect to texture, etc. I don't offer alternatives at mealtimes and have never been a short-order cook. Picky eaters have always irritated me, as has waste. And one of my kids eats nearly everything I make for dinner, and the other eats nearly nothing. I used to think picky eaters were made, not born, but some kids have crazy preferences and are really hard to please. Let's not get too judgey-McJudge-y and self-congratulatory about our parenting here; all kids and circumstances are unique. Count your blessings if you got one who eats what you make for dinner without complaint. I'm hoping that day will come for my family, in the meantime, I plan to check out some of the recipes posted about (and make any whole grain or other substitutions as necessary).

These recipes are great, and can even be modified to add a particular type of grain or pasta if you think your kid will give it a go. I have a child who runs the gamut. She can be picky, but it is usually a power thing, not a taste thing. She actually like a wide range of vegetables, not that you would know. I feel confident that she will grow out of this stage, very comforted by this article from a few years back in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/10pick.html?pagewanted=all

"Most children eat a wide variety of foods until they are around 2, when they suddenly stop. The phase can last until the child is 4 or 5. It’s an evolutionary response, researchers believe. Toddlers’ taste buds shut down at about the time they start walking, giving them more control over what they eat. “If we just went running out of the cave as little cave babies and stuck anything in our mouths, that would have been potentially very dangerous,” Dr. Cooke said."

Jeez, judgy people......

@Pearmelon --

If your kids eat everything you make, consider yourself very, very lucky. It's not down to your parenting, it's down to them. The luck of the draw.

I have 2 children -- one is a good eater, and the other isn't. He was born that way. I cook everything from scratch, and am a pretty damn good cook. I buy the best possible ingredients. The parenting suggestion you made -- don't offer them anything else until they eat what you have prepared -- is misguided. When we tried that approach with my son, he just stopped eating. Didn't eat. See, the less you eat, the less you feel like eating. He became anemic. He was at the 3rd percentile on the growth charts. Needless to say, we did not keep up with a "tough love" strategy on food for long! You simply do not understand how wrong you are until one of your children goes through scary episodes with food.

OMG, is there no food post that cannot incite controversy? I find it funny that "holistic nutritionist" is condemning a post that explicitly veers AWAY from making your kids special food for catering too much to picky children! You just can't win, can you? And as a parent I totally agree that: a) you should not make your kids special food; b) but you can be damn sure that some kids will eat what you give them and some will not. Kids are people too and allowed to have their own food likes and dislikes.

Apezalla, Mshatelaine, and Sauermama, thanks for posting about your experiences with picky eaters. I am frustrated every day by my youngest (age 5) especially since I go through so much trouble to prepare fresh foods for my family. I just keep trying new things, and I have a handful of healthy muffin recipes where I add veggies, and I hope for the best. My son would definitely turn food into a major power battle if I drew an ultimatum about what he could or couldn't eat. He's surrounded by lots of healthy choices and variety, but if he just wants pasta with cheese and a pear for four nights in a row, so be it.

I sort of chuckled when I read this article because it's a strategy that I use with my husband who is a bit of a picky eater. He doesn't like olives, mushrooms, or tofu. I love all these things. So whenever I make any dish with these items, I cut them large enough for him to pick out. That way, I'm not making a separate meal for him. He eats what he wants with no one nagging him. And peace and harmony reigns in the house.

My two stepchildren are 15 and almost-13; the older, a boy, proudly declares himself a 'Meatatarian' and will eat almost nothing but meat, white rice, and Rice-A-Roni. My girl eats pasta with cold jarred Ragu. Stepfamilydom is very new to us all, and they lived mainly with their father who does the best he can (their mother doesn't cook. Ever.) And of course the two kids love junk food, as does their father. We're working on changing things, but it is very hard.

I see some encouraging signs in my stepson, who loves hot chilis, and has recently discovered the goodness of the onion. I may never get him to eat broccoli, but if I can encourage him to eat more spicy things, we may be able to branch out into ethnic cuisines; Thai and Indian. A spicy sauce covers a multitude of sins. Or vegetables.

One thing that has worked for me when they're being particularly picky and obstinate about what I or their father have prepared, which will not work for those of you with small kids but may work on teenagers:

If they don't want to eat what we've cooked, they're perfectly free to make something for themselves, as long as they prep, cook and clean up everything they've used, and eat what they've cooked. Amazing how it works; oftentimes they'll find that what we've made isn't so offensive to their delicate palates after all.

I read that kids need to try something at least ten times before they start to like it. So don't give up hope. The rule at our house is our 2 kids have to try everything. They have the right to say they don't like it. I usually make a plain veggie at every meal so if they don't like the main course they can have as many veggies as they want. I love to hear comments from people who don't have kids. Good luck with that!

@ Apezalla and Mschatelaine. I'm not offering parenting advice or judging anyone else's parenting, merely stating what has worked for us since the post is about strategies for dealing with picky eaters. And I'm speaking as the parent of both good and picky eaters (didn't like, amongst a whole host of things, salad, most cooked veg, and 'round' foods such as peas and pizza!) Ignoring these dislikes was just my way of ensuring we all ate a balanced diet and preserving my love of cooking and eating. To each his own!

Oh, and one of my kids was adamant that he disliked 'long' vegetables - cucumber, courgettes, aubergines! We can joke about it now, and he's quite a good cook himself.

I am that picky child -- all grown up. I'm 46 years old and I can tell you that when my mother didn't give me a choice in food I just didn't eat. Didn't bother me a bit to miss dinner. We also had some battles where I sat at the table with my plate in front of me for HOURS -- sometimes I would put food in my pockets, but I never ate what tasted bad to me. I used to like carrots, and then one night I was forced to eat them -- can't even stand the smell of them now. This had nothing to do with my mother or father's parenting skills. They were good parents. I am still that annoying picky eater. Most vegetables make me gag and trust me I've tried to eat them -- prepared many different ways. I truly cannot stand the taste. I believe that someone has categorized us a super-tasters. Please do not judge others, and call them bad parents or rotten kids. You have no idea what it is like to walk in their shoes.

While there will no doubt always be controversy about how picky eaters came to become picky eaters, and how parents should deal with their childrens' developing taste buds - having a repertoire of meals that kids (or grown-ups) can pick apart is a handy thing to have! The majority of people would probably agree that forcing other people's children to eat everything is a battle best not undertaken. So, thanks Kitchn for providing meal ideas for at least serving my kids' friends, or any guest, for that matter.

I can't help but add that everyone can agree parenting is hard. Wonderful, amazing, and hard. Why would anyone criticize aspects of other people's parenting online? This should be a supportive community. There are better ways of trying to help and educate.

I think these are all great recipes and I wonder if you pureed some of the "throw-in" ingredients (i.e. peas, basil, kale, etc.) into the sauces with a little parmesan, if that would help get it into the picky eaters?? I have two little ones, one if which is EXTREMELY picky and have learned to keep a small puree machine on-hand for times when I know he will look at the "green stuff" and then shut down the whole meal entirely without trying it. Is it so bad to try and 'hide' these ingredients in these awesome dishes and then leave them whole for the ones that will eat them? I think these are great, healthy ideas for the dinner table and the pastas can certainly be substituted for whole grain or brown rice pasta........thanks for the ideas!!

I am the parent of one picky and one non-picky child and I used to try to make my picky kid eat stuff, which resulted in super unhappy dinners and lots of tantrums (on both our parts). Then I read Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter and dinner is a million times better now. Once I relaxed, he became far more willing to try a bite of new things (although he still mostly doesn't like them -- for him it's sensory issues around textures). Recipes like this are often key to our successful dinners and I'm excited to add a few more to my repertoire.

I feel for you! I have a 22 month old and I know I am VERY lucky that he is a complete foodie like me. He will eat anything!!! If you're looking for ideas I have a bunch of pasta recipes on my blog bitesforbabies.com. Maybe you could find something that you could try for your child! ;-)

I can't imagine how hard it is for parents with picky eaters (like some of you!) My son eats everything! I'm already making 2 meals all the time (my husband doesn't eat gluten/dairy-free and I have to!) so I know how time-consuming it is! I can't imagine having to think up a nother meal on top of that for my son! I've been cooking for my son since he started solids (at 4 months) and introduced ALL kinds of food,spices,herbs, etc from the get-go. I don't know if he innately loves all food or if I had something to do with it. I think the trick is hiding the "yucky" stuff when you can, adding spices and herbs to increase flavour AND if at first you don't succeed, try again!!

Well said! This topic really hits home for me (check out my other two comments! lol!). To each his own. I just say give it a try at least and if you don't succeed then try again (at a later date!) or do what works for you!