Help! My Child Gags When He Tries a New Food

When I was away on vacation I had this reader inquiry in my inbox. I know this is an issue facing many dinner tables, so I'm responding to the question in a post.

"I just discovered your blog tonight and I think it is great. One quick question about an issue I am having. I have a 3 1/2 year old son. He eats a good variety of foods but not a wide variety. He has never loved meat even as a baby or toddler but will eat it if it is breaded or on a hamburger, in spaghetti sauce, etc.

I have started having him try at least one bite of a new food or a food that he doesn't usually care for at each meal. If I have two things he doesn't usually care for then he gets to pick the one he wants to try. It isn't a huge battle but he gets himself a little worked up and then gags after eating it. He gags on any new food so I can't imagine it is a texture thing since it is just on new foods. He eats a variety of textures in his other foods. He doesn't seem overly upset by the gagging but I feel awful about it, and I'm afraid if I don't get him to try at least a bite he won't ever try new things. That could be totally wrong on my part as my parents didn't make me try new things. I was a very picky eater as a child and now eat quite a variety but tend to still stick with those things I like.

Any tips on how to handle the gagging? I do feel that having him try the food is still a good idea, but then I have also read that can make them even pickier. Help!"

Leah, you are not alone. I get this question often when I present to moms. There are probably many differing approaches to this question depending on who you ask, but here's my take.

I'm on the same page with you. Unless you expect your kids to try what is served, the food introduction process will be very lengthy and your child may be very restricted in their food choices until early adolescence or beyond. As for your concern that expecting them to try it making them pickier, my opinion? It's hogwash. No one ever expected me to try stuff as a kid and I didn't get any less picky because I was given full control over all my finicky food preferences. I do agree that if the mood at the table is negative, or the child is hearing that he's bad or unloved because he doesn't like a lot of food that it could create a negative food experience that would be difficult to break.

However, if, with love, you serve what you prepare, and let him know that it's what you have to offer to sustain his daily energy needs, you are not creating a negative mood at the table. If you lovingly communicate that you know the best thing for him is to learn to eat the dinner you make, and you communicate to him that mom's job is to put it on the table, and kids job is to learn to eat it by trying it, then dinner won't be a hostile environment. If you tell him that you can see he's doing his very best, even if he gags on each first bite, he'll feel loved while he's learning to eat more kinds of food. If you can build his confidence as a healthy, good, growing eater while he attempts eating new food, he will probably grow into a kid who eats a variety of wholesome food.

You should recognize where your child is on the "adventurous eater" spectrum and understand that he has some anxieties about trying new food. Anxiety about unknown things is common for young kids. If you can get him over his anxiety, I think the routine gagging will stop. Tell him you know that trying new food makes him uncomfortable, and that you'll be there for him while he's being very brave. Tell him that after more practice his body won't gag anymore. Tell him that his thoughts about food might be helping his body gag. Ask him if he'd like your help to think of the food in a new way. Think about it's color, it's shape, who else eats it (does he have a favorite cartoon character?). You can get out paper and write down some new thoughts about the food. You can take a bite of it and tell him something abstract. You might say, "let me try this bite of pork chop. hmm, i think this bite right here tastes square. ooh, and this one over here tastes golden. you try a bite, what do you think, is it a bit golden?"

Give him lots of encouragement, even if he gags during a taste. Let him know he's brave and you're proud of him. Lots of hugs!

I want to disclose that I've never faced routine meal time gagging with either of my kids. My response is based on how I would initially approach the situation, and not based on actual success with the method. Both my boys gagged on occasion to newly introduced foods. They initially gagged when they tried mashed potatoes, a food they took years to warm up to, but both eat routinely now. My response to a gag was to say something like:

"Oh, maybe you're not ready to like mashed potatoes yet. Maybe that's a big boy/big kid/grown up food. Thank you for trying them, we'll give it another shot next time and see if when you're bigger you like them more."

Your goal should be to make your child feel loved and supported as he builds confidence in his ability to learn to like new food. The same way you would if your school age child said he didn't want to go to school anymore. You may find out what's bothering him about school and teach them how to handle it (as it's likely you wouldn't be able to change it), but you would likely not say, "ok fine, you don't want to, you don't have to."

You may also want to rule out that he's not avoiding foods that might be causing him trouble. Write a list of the foods that make him gag now, and see if they correlate with any common food offenders responsible for allergies, gluten intolerance, etc.

I think learning to eat wholesome food is necessary for a child's development and future, just like learning to read and write. You are on the right track trying to solve this problem while he's still young.

Other things you can say in response to " I don't like XYZ."

• "I'm sorry to hear that, because we eat XYZ every week around here. I sure would like for you to find a way to eat it so it can give you energy and help you grow. You'll have to be hungry a lot if you can't figure out a way to eat it."
• "Some foods we like a lot and some foods we like a little. If you like it a little, eat just a little of it."
• "I hear you. I didn't like many of the things I like to eat now when I was a little kid either. When I got older, I kept trying things and found out I liked most of them. I'm still finding out about food I like to eat even as a grown-up. Eating food is such an adventure."
• "XYZ is not my favorite either, but do you know what I like about it? It makes my brain work/gives me energy/helps me fight off sick germs so I'm going to eat a little of it anyway."

What about you? Was your kid a routine gagger that grew out of the phase? What helped your child stop gagging and start trying new food?

5 Ways to Feed Your School Kid

Among the long list of things to do to get kids ready for school, is helping your young child get ready for school day meals on your radar? If it isn't yet, it should be. Between rushed mornings and cafeterias with beaucoup de kids and few adults to help, nutrition during the week may not happen even if you send the right stuff in the lunch box. Here are a 5 Ways To Feed Your School Kid.

Protein and Fat for Breakfast
Yeah, you read that right. I'm not just going to tell you to make sure your kid eats breakfast, I'm letting you know that for the best brain performance they really should be eating protein and the right kind of fat for breakfast. Carbohydrates are important too as they provide energy for a long day of learning, but I'm pretty sure that between toast, cereal, milk, juice and breakfast bars everyone already has carbohydrates covered. If time permits, feed your kiddo eggs for breakfast. Or oatmeal with nuts. Or anything with nuts, preferably the raw unsalted variety. Fats build your brain.

Practice Using New Lunch Gear at Home
If you've bought new reusable containers, lunch box, thermos or drink mugs this summer give them a few dry runs at home before their first use at school. Serve your lunches at home in them, or tuck their dinner in the gear. They can practice opening and closing lids and reassembling all the pieces at the end of the meal. Kids who can't open their own containers often wait with their hands in the air for 5 minutes or longer until one of the few staffers can make their way over to them to help. Some will get discouraged and put their hands down and return home with closed containers -full of food. Don't forget to teach them to wipe off containers before returning them to the lunch box. My pre-K kid nearly tossed his yogurt thermos back in the box lid off, yogurt dripping down the side, ick.

Get Them Used To Eating Quickly with Distractions
At your next meal, tell your kids knock knock jokes the whole time they're eating and see how much they eat. Talk to them about how important it is to actually EAT their food at lunch. Teach your child that lunch = energy and brain power so they can get smart, focus, have energy for playground and health fitness. When your kid knows what lunch does for him, he's more likely to eat up. Time them at a few meals and see how long it takes for them to eat. If they can eat enough in 15-20 minutes you're good to go. If not tell them they need to take more bites. When they've had enough feel their head and say "Yup, that brain looks big enough, you ate plenty."

Protein for Lunch and After School Snack
Protein is important for kids, but so many lunch favorites are little more than enriched (if that) carbohydrates. Bags of chips, and juice boxes are usually the first thing eaten from the lunch bag, and if kids get a false sense of fullness or are enjoying the company of their table companions they may stop there with no quality nutrients. Talk to your kids every day about what protein does for them and which items in their lunch box are protein items. What protein items do I pack for my kids? Hummus, yogurt, peanut butter, chicken salad, beans (salad, chili, soup), cheese and nuts. Lunch meat and hard boiled eggs would work too. Protein in after school snacks is important because a lot of kids don't get a square meal mid-day even if one is available on their tray or in their lunch box. If you notice your kiddo is cranky, has low energy, is bouncing off the walls, or suffers from headache or tummy ache after school, I suspect she needs some protein.

Make the Food-Smart Connection
I think most kids have the Food-Hunger connection down. They know we eat food when hungry, and will readily eat food to make the hungry feeling go away. But do your kids eat food to get smart? When a kid wants to get smart, and a kid knows which foods make him smart, a kid has relevant reason to eat food. Not just food, but smart food. Fat builds the brain. The brain needs protein to make the right connections via biochemical messengers called neurotransmitters. Complex carbohydrates along with protein provide biochemical synergy that allow the two nutrients together to be more powerful than on their own. Micronutrients found in fruits and vegetables help protect the brain cells from damage by free radicals. I'm willing to wager that the more you make the Food-Smart connection with your kids the more they want to eat wholesome food, even when rushed in the morning or distracted by friends in the lunch room.

More Articles to Ready your Child for School Lunch
Help! My Child Doesn't Eat Enough School Lunch
Get Your Preschooler Ready For School Lunch



It has been over a month since I posted, egads! The short version of the story is work with no child care, spontaneous kitchen remodel, a very much appreciated two week vacation, then getting ready for back to school along with a little more work and no child care. I am looking forward to Monday when the boys are back in school and I can work in peace and quiet. My apologies for my absence and not being clairvoyant enough to realize just how little time for blogging I would have.

Calling all experienced moms, what sage advice can you share about kid and food and school? Share it in the comments! I am nervous about little boo. He eats fine but still. takes. an. age. He won't have oodles of time to eat breakfast now that he'll be walking out the door at 7:10a, and I have no idea how he'll do at school lunch. He ate well at preschool lunch, but there were plenty of teachers helping, that won't be so at the elementary school.

What I Found to Sprout About - Sprouted Bread Recipe

As I settle back into a normal routine after 2 weeks of vacation and recover from a kitchen remodel gone awry, please enjoy this guest post by friend and free-lance writer Lesley. Lesley shares her journey of making the perfect loaf of sprouted bread in order to maximize iron absorption for her son.

My name is Lesley, and I have a sprouting habit. It all started with my own little human sprouts, three and one, whose bodies don’t absorb iron efficiently. Our pediatrician pinpointed low iron as a possible culprit behind our eldest’s restless movements and trouble getting to sleep. Lab reports corroborated the hunch. The stubbornly low ferritin levels prompted me to take on a mission in the kitchen: to get a healthy amount of iron into my children’s daily food intake and to make that iron as easy as possible for their bodies to absorb.

Nutritionally speaking, whole wheat owns processed white, right? My faith in this tenet of nutritious living was shaken when I learned that whole wheat blocks absorption of certain vitamins and minerals, including iron. It’s all the fault of the phytates, these unseemly compounds who hang out with fiber and go around inhibiting iron absorption.

Here’s my dilemma: I can’t cut out whole wheat from my children’s diets. You know the drill. Whole grain foods nourish the body longer because they are complex carbohydrates with a lower glycemic index. They tend not to cause blood sugar spikes and crashes. They are fiber-rich. What’s more, they are packed with phytochemicals, plant components that have been linked to lowered risk of chronic diseases. I want my kids to develop a taste for hearty whole grains over processed baked goods. What’s a mom to do?

According to this USDA resource, eating meat and ascorbic acid along with wheat can also work to counteract the inhibiting effect. Well, that’s a start. But sometimes those bully phytates are going to come around in my boys’ digestive systems, and there won’t be enough meat or ascorbic acid there to tell them off. Jenna from Food with Kid Appeal suggested soaking whole grains to reduce the phytates. This prompted me to research soaking, which ultimately led me to discover the world of sprouting. And what a fascinating world it is.

Wheat berries and other whole grains, when they enter their active growing state, alter nutritionally and become easier to digest. The Nutrition Diva explains this topic objectively and without hype. Most importantly for my purposes, sprouting hydrolyzes phytates, which is believed to enhance iron absorption. Check out the source here. Eureka!

Show Me the Sprouts

Where can you find bread made from iron-friendly sprouts? It’s in the freezer aisle of many grocery stores due to its shorter shelf life (there’s moisture in them thar loaves). However, it’ll put you back around four dollars per small loaf.

I decided to check out the home-sprouted, homemade route. I found this sprouted wheat bread recipe online, and it seemed to entail only a few more steps than a bread machine recipe. Kneading was kept to a minimum. I could do this.

But Does it Taste Good?

I did do it. I have now made several loaves of sprouted bread over the past month or two. The recipe yields a robust, grainy, yet very moist loaf that is reminiscent of German pumpernickel – you know, the one that comes in a perfect rectangle. I thoroughly enjoy it, but that’s not saying much; I like everything. Much more impressive is the fact that my children have consistently gobbled up their sprouted bread P&J sandwiches. I made their first slices of the bread extra tempting with a pat of butter, then used fruit preserves, then moved on to peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. They liked it all, and they didn’t tire of it after a couple of days. This has given me a great sense of achievement and relief.

I have used it for my smoked turkey, apple, roasted red pepper hummus sandwiches, a favorite lunch-time treat that I adapted from the Self Challenge. A slice of this bread is also the perfect vehicle for peanut butter topped with banana slices and cinnamon. It has yet to disappoint. The description in Weesner’s article is spot-on:

“It makes other bread seem like a saltine.”

This Loaf Wasn’t Built in a Day

If you want to try your hand at baking sprouted bread, be prepared for some trial and error before you finally craft that perfect loaf, the one that has beams of light radiating from it and angelic choirs bursting into song when you gaze upon it. Don’t give up – you’re not in over your head.

I’ll share with you some of the practices I have found to contribute to sprouted bread success, following this recipe:

1. My best loaves have been made with hard red winter wheat grains, though I also recommend barley because it gave the bread a faint, satisfying beer taste. My quinoa-wheat loaf came out very dense. Like a brick. It’ll be a while before I try that again.

2. I soak the grains in a bowl for about 12 hours, then put them into a colander and give them a good rinsing. Then the whole colander goes into a bigger bowl and gets covered with plastic wrap.

3. The grains get several rinsings over the next couple of days. They should sprout quickly, and they should always smell fresh.

4. I use the mini-chopper to puree the sprouts for the dough rather than the blender. This requires working in batches. The smell is fresh and invigorating, like newly mowed grass or sliced cucumber.

5. The recipe requires only a minute or two of kneading here and there. I spend those minutes in quiet contemplation, taking in the yummy aroma of the yeast and wheat.

6. Experience has taught me to respect the thermometer. For best results, the internal temperature of the loaf must reach at least 200 degrees. It will have a dark brown crust, solid structure, and satisfying hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

7. After it has cooled, the loaf is bedecked in plastic wrap and/or foil and sent to the refrigerator to await the fulfillment of its ultimate purpose. At mealtime, I whisk it out, saw (yes, saw) off a slice with a bread knife, and warm it in the microwave for a few seconds or toast it.

Here’s to Grains Yet Unsprouted

I expect bowl of moist wheat berries sunning themselves in a bowl on the counter will be a familiar sight around my house for years to come. May your own sprouting efforts be as rewarding as I have found mine to be.

LESLEY CLINTON is a freelance writer and educator with an MA in Teaching. She is increasingly enamored with the theme of nourishment.

Do you sprout? Please share your legume, nuts and seed sprouting stories (or bread making flops and prize winning loaf stories) in the comments.