Ensuring kids get nutritious and balanced meals can feel overwhelming. Helping kids eat a variety of foods can not only help improve their physical health and mental well-being but helping kids understand nutrition basics can improve long-term health outcomes. While childhood obesity is multifactorial, having a well-balanced diet can decrease risk of childhood obesity for your child (Almonacid-Fierro & González-Almonacid, 2022). Encouraging kids to eat a variety of food groups and foods of different colors helps to ensure meals and snacks are nutrient dense to ensure proper nutrition (Blumfield et al., 2022).
Involving your kids in meal planning and creation can be a great opportunity for connection and education. If you have a picky eater at home, you are not alone. There are many components that can contribute to children's food choices including, sensory, emotional, cultural, social and environmental factors (Kamarudin, 2023). Micro-portioning or introducing a variety of small amounts of new food options at the beginning of the meal has shown promise in promotion of trying new foods (Ludolph, 2025).
Here are some helpful resources and tools for teaching kids about nutrition and healthy eating:
- What is the Rainbow?
- Family Games
- Recipes to try!
USDA My Plate: MyPlate.gov | U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Personalized Quiz
- Budget Friendly food ideas
- App for meal tracking and tricks
Food insecurity: Find Food - New Hampshire Food Bank
- Food insecurity can happen anytime to anyone.
- Find a local food bank to you
- Talk to your school about your options for food assistance for your child(ren)
Almonacid-Fierro, A., & González-Almonacid, J. (2022). The pandemic of childhood obesity: Challenges and possibilities from physical activity. Health Promotion Perspectives, 12(3), 229.
Blumfield, M., Mayr, H., De Vlieger, N., Abbott, K., Starck, C., Fayet-Moore, F., & Marshall, S. (2022). Should we ‘eat a rainbow’? An umbrella review of the health effects of colorful bioactive pigments in fruits and vegetables. Molecules, 27(13), 4061.
Kamarudin, M. S., Shahril, M. R., Haron, H., Kadar, M., Safii, N. S., & Hamzaid, N. H. (2023). Interventions for picky eaters among typically developed children—A scoping review. Nutrients, 15(1), 242.
Ludolph, S. (2025). Reducing picky eating in children: a nutrition education seminar for parents and caregivers of head start participants (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Tech).
