Motherhood

Why You Should Eat Meals That Children Don't Like Sometimes

Why You Should Eat Meals That Children Don't Like Sometimes

Cooking child-friendly meals every night flattens family eating and burdens the cook. Adult meals — with spices, vegetables, complexity — should appear regularly even if children don't fully eat them. Children gradually expand their palate by exposure.

How to balance

Cook adult meal main dish. Set out child-friendly side or component (rice, plain veg, bread). Child can eat what they want from what's available. No separate cooking; no negotiation.

Over months, children expand their range significantly. Cooking different meals for adults and children entrenches narrow eating long-term.