Are your kids picky eaters? It can be really tough, right? Now, what if seafood is the only thing they don’t like, and the rest is fine? It can be another thing that makes parents upset.
Besides, drool-worthy looks and savors that seafood dishes naturally have, their health benefits are abundant. Impressively, they are delicious and salubrious at the same time. This is why seafood is one of the musts in a person’s sustenance. That’s the reason why a lot of parents get worried and even displeased when their children disregard seafood from their plates.
If you are a parent who’s going through the same matter of having a hard time encouraging your munchkins to eat seafood, this list is here to help you. Sometimes, you need to adjust and to make things better for them to appreciate and love the charm of seafood. Below are 6 tips to make your kids eat seafood without forcing them. Read on.
1- KINDLY TELL THEM THE NUTRITION FACTS!
Unless you enlighten them yourself, your little ones might not know why you have always been trying your best to get them to eat seafood.
Kindly tell them the nutritional boons that they will surely obtain when they eat it. Yes, you have to do it “kindly” because some parents do make kids aware about the advantages of doing so, but they do it in a scary way that’s too insistent. It’s best if they will learn to eat seafood not because they are afraid but because they desire to actually get those health rewards.
2- GIVE SEAFOOD A COLLAB WITH THEIR FAVES!
When it’s their favorite food on the table, kids are extra excited and interested to dig in. Use that fact as an advantage to serve seafood to their bowls.
Give seafood a collaboration with your kids’ favorite snacks and meals. What comes to mind? Shrimp pizza, tuna nuggets, crab and lemon spaghetti, fish chowder, baked salmon sushi and fish tacos are just some sassy suggestions. You definitely have others in your head and in your cookbook. There’s a lot of recipes to find online too.
It’s up to you how to nicely do the love-and-hate combination for your kids to just adore! You can secretly do so by disguising the seafood inside the fillings and layers of their well-liked grub. On the other hand, if you are quite bold in front your choosy eater and if you think they will respond well, then there’s no need to hide. You can just present their favorite food obviously mixed with seafood. See how curious they’ll get!
3- PRETTILY PREPARE SEAFOOD!
Visually appealing food never fails. Presentation covers a big percentage when it comes to making food appetizing and inviting. Many people try food that they don’t even like in the first place. Why? Because it looks magnetizing.
Maybe your kids are not totally haters of seafood but are just not motivated. A little more push and attraction may finally drive them to bite that seafood. The key is prettily preparing seafood!
Do it in such a way that they won’t be able to resist it because they just love it. Especially for preschoolers, designing and customizing their lunch and lunch boxes work well. They will be gleeful and delighted to open their meals to see a beautiful setup. They might forget that they don’t really like seafood; they will just happily dig in!
Of course, taste cannot disappoint and make the thrill drop to the bottom. Value both the outside and inside quality of the seafood you prepare at home.
4- MAKE DELICIOUS SAUCES AND DIPS!
Does your youngster love sauces and dips? Make your seafood dish dippable with a flavorful cream on the side! They will see seafood in a more likeable perspective for sure. This will let you let them explore various tastes incorporating their well-loved sauces too. It’s a win-win!
5- TRY A DIFFERENT COOKING STYLE!
It’s possible that your kids love grilled squid but hate fried squid. That shows they are in favor of the seafood itself only when it is cooked in a specific style that they like.
Try cooking seafood in a way different from what you usually utilize. If you always do garlic buttered shrimp, how about shrimp and broccoli next time? Your kids might want the seafood healthier more than you think! If you monthly cook crabs in oyster sauce at home because it’s your spouse’s favorite, how about the Singaporean chile crab next month for your kids?
In trying out assorted cooking methods, you can discover what kids actually prefer for certain types of seafood. Experiment on the use of ingredients, too, while you use various cooking techniques, so you can present varieties of options for your kids.
6- SHOW THEM HOW YOU EAT SEAFOOD WITH LOVE AND JOY!
If you can’t let them open their mouths while you drive the spoon airplane with seafood into their mouths, make them drool by themselves instead. If it’s not your hands then it’s their hands that will make them get that seafood!
Show them how you eat seafood with love and joy! You know how those commercial models make the food they advertise look so delicious and make the viewers crave? That’s how you will have to do it if you have to! Well, put in some more exaggeration if you want, so your kids will be attentive and moved. Hah!
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SEAFOOD AND KIDS
If your head aches about your kids being hard-headed when it comes to eating seafood because they don’t like it, don’t be too sad and angry. You are not the only parent with that “challenge”.
Yes, you want the teenyboppers to receive the nutrition and gladness that seafood inevitably brings, however, forcing them and making them cry just for them to acquire these is not the best way. There are better strategies, such as the ones mentioned above. When you do these, you will see how your seafood-hating picky eaters will soon fall in love with seafood! Just a little magic, creativity, and more sincerity on top of the power of seafood will do.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Ann Pore is a writer, an events host, and a voice-over artist. Quality and well-researched writing is her worthwhile avenue to enlighten and delight others about things that matter. She is a daytime writer for Manettas Seafood Market Australia, an online and interactive seafood market allowing accessibility to the highest quality seafood from Australia and abroad. Nicole graduated Cum Laude from De La Salle University Manila, Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts.