{"id":6010,"date":"2021-05-19T22:07:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T22:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/s37407.p1377.sites.pressdns.com\/resources\/moms-sticker-hack-picky-eaters\/"},"modified":"2021-05-19T22:07:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T22:07:16","slug":"moms-sticker-hack-picky-eaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/moms-sticker-hack-picky-eaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom&#8217;s vegetable sticker hack is blowing parents&#8217; minds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Picky eating is a common hurdle for most parents of young children. Many kids are reluctant to try new foods, or they prefer standard kid&rsquo;s menu items, like chicken nuggets and macaroni, to healthier options their parents try to serve. Mom and writer Jane Stine is no stranger to this struggle, and she recently shared a simple, yet brilliant food hack she uses in the grocery store to get her children excited about eating fruits and vegetables.&nbsp;<\/p><p>&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s my best parenting hack,&rdquo; Stine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221916936173365&amp;set=a.10204215701693566&amp;type=3&amp;theater\">writes in her post<\/a>. &ldquo;You know how kids always want Paw Patrol yogurt or Disney waffles or whatever? Bring your own stickers to the grocery store and start sticking. Today we&rsquo;re having Winnie the Pooh brand spaghetti squash. It goes perfectly with Toy Story broccoli.&rdquo;<\/p><div class=\"kinsights-embed\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221916936173365&amp;set=a.10204215701693566&amp;type=3&amp;theater\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><p><script async=\"1\" defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v6.0\"><\/script><\/p><div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221916936173365&amp;set=a.10204215701693566&amp;type=3&amp;theater\" data-width=\"552\"><blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221916936173365&amp;set=a.10204215701693566&amp;type=3\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\"><p>Here&rsquo;s my best parenting hack. You know how kids always want Paw Patrol yogurt or Disney waffles or whatever? Bring your&hellip;<\/p><p>Posted by <a href=\"#\" role=\"button\">Jane Stine<\/a> on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221916936173365&amp;set=a.10204215701693566&amp;type=3\">Monday, March 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div><\/div><p dir=\"ltr\">It&rsquo;s so simple, yet parents all over the Internet are stunned by its genius. In only a week, the post has been shared more than 106,000 times and received over 14,000 comments.&nbsp;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">Most parents are cheering Stine on and calling her tip an &ldquo;A+ parenting hack,&rdquo; but a few parents aren&rsquo;t so sure. Some wondered if it&rsquo;s a good idea to trick kids into eating fruits and vegetables while others took a hard stance that kids shouldn&rsquo;t have a choice about what they eat. &ldquo;Just parent up and make them eat what&rsquo;s in front of them,&rdquo; one commenter writes. &ldquo;No choice or gimmicks.&rdquo;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">Stine&rsquo;s sticker trick is one of a million different strategies parents have used to get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/stories\/3497\/12-tricks-to-fix-a-picky-eater\/\">picky eaters<\/a> to try healthy foods, from bribing kids with cookies to telling them it&rsquo;s mom or dad&rsquo;s way or the highway. So, what&rsquo;s the best approach? The right answer has a lot to do with your individual child, says Jill Castle, a pediatric nutritionist, registered dietitian and author of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Try-New-Food-Picky-Eaters\/dp\/1732591814\">Try New Food: How to Help Picky Eaters Taste, Eat &amp; Like New Foods<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">&ldquo;The research is clear on using food as a reward to get kids to eat: avoid it,&rdquo; Castle tells Care.com. &ldquo;But using non-food items, like stickers, can be motivating to some children. I believe it boils down to how your child is reacting to the &lsquo;trick.&rsquo; Do they seem motivated to try new food? More interested in eating?&rdquo;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">If your child seems hesitant or disinterested, it could be a sign that it&rsquo;s time to find a new strategy. &ldquo;Some kids may feel manipulated to eat,&rdquo; Castle warns, &ldquo;especially if there is a history of negative interactions around food, such as sneaking veggies into other foods a child may already like.&rdquo;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">It&rsquo;s hard to encourage children to try new foods and make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/stories\/3246\/16-ideas-for-healthy-school-lunch\/\">healthy choices<\/a>. A lot of parents feel like they have to stick to the same limited menu or engage in arguments or trickery to get children to eat. Castle says that&rsquo;s not actually the case. To help children develop good eating habits, she recommends a few simple strategies.<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">1. Offer a variety of foods.<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">&ldquo;Exposure is a powerful way to help children become familiar with a variety of foods,&rdquo; Castle says. She advises parents to make fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods show up regularly as a part of meals and snacks.<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">2. Don&rsquo;t pressure kids to eat.<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">&ldquo;Be relaxed around children who are eating and resist the urge to encourage or pressure them to try or eat new foods,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I think a good first step for parents is to take a look at their own approach with feeding. Pressuring kids to take a bite, try or eat food is one of the most common and counterproductive interventions used with choosy kids.&rdquo;<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">3. Model a positive approach to eating.<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">&ldquo;Be a good role model,&rdquo; Castle says. &ldquo;Be a parent who eats all food with pleasure and appreciation and who gets excited about fruits, vegetables and healthy eating, too.&rdquo;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">Stine&rsquo;s sticker trick may be the missing fix parents have been searching for this whole time &mdash; or it might not be. Every child is different. The important thing is for parents to keep exposing children to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/stories\/15852\/17-healthy-snacks-kids-on-the-go\/\">healthy foods<\/a>, have patience and don&rsquo;t give up. Over time, they can absolutely learn to like something besides chicken nuggets.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picky eating is a common hurdle for most parents of young children. Many kids are reluctant to try new foods, or they prefer standard kid&rsquo;s menu items, like chicken nuggets and macaroni, to healthier options their parents try to serve. Mom and writer Jane Stine is no stranger to this struggle, and she recently shared <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/moms-sticker-hack-picky-eaters\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1264,"featured_media":36678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"","last_update":"2021-05-19","view_count":2137,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,17,13],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-6010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-child-care-advice","vertical-kids-health-safety","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":"2020-03-11","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}