I have been reading a lot of other blogs and I have found that people complain about their kids being "picky eaters" and I know a number of parents with "picky eaters". I am really tired of parents saying that, I will give you some pointers on how to not have a picky eater.

Kids follow by example. If you (the parent) only eats Ho-Ho's then that's all they are going to know or want to eat. If you eat with your kids and you all eat the same thing then it will help persuade them to eat. If you want your kids to eat healthy, you have to eat healthy yourself.

Pediatricians sometimes get on my nerves. I read this article from About.com (it can take forever for the page to load but be patient). It upsets me because they are so scared of being sued that they can't just come out and tell you that you need to just be the adult to the kids and make them eat. It's a good article too because it tells you good serving sizes for little ones. But other than that it upsets me because it just reinforces the whole "picky eating" thing.

When I was little I had to try something once and if I didn't like it I didn't have to eat it again. I use it today with my kids. My kids love to try new foods, "N" LOVES salmon. If I could feed it to him everyday he would need a shovel to get it in as quick as he could. There's one thing that I don't like to feed "O" yet and that's lettuce. I gave her some a few weeks ago but she just doesn't have enough teeth to chew it yet.

I have noticed though, when I sit down and eat what the kids are eating, they will eat it whether they like it or not. I have pretty much cut out the pizza, chicken fingers and fish sticks. Those are for when we have a sitter because it's easy for them to cook.

To have better eaters you just need to have patience and get over the fact that your will scream and say they don't like you. They will kick and scream about it but eventually they won't. Many people I know have told their kids it's time to eat and they won't eat it. The parents then tell them fine you have to stay at the table until everyone else is done and you can go hungry. They then give it to them for breakfast, lunch, dinner until they eat it.

Stop feeding kids kid food all the time. I really hate to eat Macaroni and Cheese because of my kids. I will only eat that if there is absolutely nothing else. When you take your kids out to eat fried foods or greasy pizza places, that's not giving them good eating habits and just reinforces eating junk foods.

Try this instead. Try to have the whole family sit down to one meal a day. Make the kids sit down until everyone else is done even if they don't eat, they have to just sit there. If they don't eat, depending on what it was, put it back in the fridge and keep it until the next meal (remember that you should only reheat no more then once because of bacteria, hopefully you have some left overs to reheat for them too). Eventually the kids will break down and if they have to go a day or two with no food, it won't kill them. They will appreciate the food even more.

Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE IN. That will teach them that it's ok to be "picky" and that's not what we want, we want kids who will eat healthy, well rounded meals. Just remember, you are the adult and they are not.