Convert your fussy eater into a gobbler with these crafty suggestions from baseball star Jorge Posada and his wife, Laura, authors of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way.

It is no secret that most children do not fancy those foods that happen to be the most nutritious. Also, it is important to keep in mind that children’s appetites are affected by their growth cycles, and for that reason they have different taste preferences than adults do. We have all heard the term fussy eater, which means a child is finicky about what he or she eats. From the age of one to five, it is not uncommon for kids to show erratic appetites, and for a child in the formative years, life is too downright exciting to stop for food.

The good news is that there are all kinds of ways to sneak the good stuff into your kids’ diets, clever little culinary schemes that ensure nutrition and satisfaction. Your kids will never know what hit them…

Here is our list of clever little things you can do to give your meals an extra kick of nutrients.

Sneaky Tips

1. Add fresh blueberries, which are chock-full of antioxidants, to a hot bowl of oatmeal or a bowl of cereal.
2. Roast up some sweet potato fries, which are fun and colorful, and you can season them for an extra kick. Best of all, sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A.
3. Drizzle honey on fresh fruit, such as sliced apples, strawberries, or pears, and stick toothpicks in them for a quick sweet treat.
4. Make fun-shaped ice pops using freshly squeezed orange juice or other fresh (low-sugar or unsweetened) fruit juices.
5. In general, smoothies are excellent opportunities to sneak in all kinds of nutrients and vitamins — so milk it! There are endless options for yummy smoothies, like raw cacao with vanilla yogurt and honey for a healthy chocolate milk shake, or bananas with low-fat milk, crushed ice, almonds, and dates for a sweet treat we like to call “monkey milk.”
6. Make fun bowls of healthy trail mix, using almonds, soybeans, raisins, goji berries, and other dried fruit. Keep the bowls out so everyone can nibble.
7. Make homemade soups using fresh vegetables, and zest them up with ginger, coconut milk, and all varieties of herbs and spices. You’ll be a star if you add whole wheat croutons, as kids are typically fans of a good crunch.
8. Quiche is another excellent camouflage for vegetables and has the added bonus of eggs, which are high in protein. It is a savory option for breakfast, lunch, or dinner — a meal in a slice.
9. Barbecues are fantastic ways to gather the family and enjoy food the purist way: slow-cooked on a grill over an open fire. Grilled chicken, meats, and vegetables like corn, zucchini, peppers, and broccoli always taste great on the grill. Add a few interesting dipping sauces, like humus or salad dressing, and you cannot go wrong.
10. In the spirit of hands-on foods, start thinking about foods like artichokes, which are fun, unconventional, and interactive and can be kicked up with all varieties of dipping sauces. Interactive fruits that you can peel easily and quickly like tangerines and clementines are also great to have around.
11. Just as effective as the interactive fruits is a heaping bowl of fresh fruit salad. Commit to making one every Sunday night, and you’ll see that everyone will pick at it throughout the week.
12. Make it colorful. Kids love things that are brightly colored, and wouldn’t you know it — the healthiest foods are popping with hue. Fruits and veggies come in all of the shades of the rainbow; so take this opportunity to make gorgeous canvases out of all your family’s meals.
13. Seeing is believing. What we mean by this is that the more your kid sees something — i.e., sliced apples on the high-chair tray — the more inclined he or she will be to try them one day. So if you have a finicky eater on your hands who does not want to taste broccoli, for example, dare to put a few broccoli florets on their plate (and everybody else’s, as well, of course) every day — and we can pretty much guarantee that one of those days, they will muster the courage to try it. This rule applies to almost everything your kids are not inclined to try.
14. Make healthy foods more fun and playful by cutting sandwiches, for example, into interesting shapes.
15. Try to keep mealtimes happy, social occasions. Don’t get too bent out of shape if a glass of juice is knocked over and spills, and try to keep the general atmosphere of meals positive and joyful. This will condition your kids (especially if they are fussy eaters) to get in on the fun.
16. Bake homemade muffins with your kids, and add carrot, zucchini, and pumpkin to the batter. This proves to them, in a sensory language that they can understand, that vegetables can actually taste delicious.
17. Add chopped veggies such as spinach to soup and pasta sauces; and likewise, add chopped tomato, diced celery, or grated carrots to tuna, chicken, and pasta salads.
18. Make pizza with your kids using a thin crust (ideally whole wheat) and low-fat, part-skim mozzarella cheese, and offer toppings such as chopped broccoli, fresh cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jorge Posada is an all-star catcher for the New York Yankees. Laura Posada is an attorney, a certified personal trainer, and CEO of Laura Posada, LLC. The couple lives with their two children, Jorge Luis and Paulina, in New York City. They are the authors of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way (Copyright © 2009 by Jorge Posada and Laura Posada).

MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHORS

• 7 Ways to Shrink the Sugar in Your Kids’ Diet
• How to Keep Your Kids Moving During the Winter
• Restaurant Rules 101: Tips for Eating Out as a Family

LEARN MORE

• Read Chapter 1 of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way
• Watch a video with Jorge and Laura Posada