Introducing new foods to ds age 4 - How do you do it?

[dietqueen]

at 4 yrs old my ds is now examining and taking note of whats given to him.

I find it hard to introduce new foods to him now.

I'd like him to eat curry. IF I did a korma I know he wouldnt touch it

How do you go about introducing new foods

Our DD is a nosy madam, so generally we eat something (smoked mackeral being a recent example) in front of her and she will ask if she can try it. Sometimes she likes it (the smoked mackeral was a bit hit), sometimes not and then we don't force the issue. We also give her lots of praise for just trying new things even if she doesn't end up liking them. I do realise we are lucky. The other thing we do is try and call new things like curry by the name of a familiar well like dish ie: curry is indian stew. Seems to make it less daunting

I get quite bored and tend to decide every now and then to just try something completely different. If ds refuses to try it I say that is fine and that it will be available until the next meal time but there won't be anything in between. Our dinner is usually about 5/5.30 and he is allowed some fruit about 6.30 before teeth and stories at 7 so it is not a huge time to wait if he decides to refuse, generally he will give most things a go to be honest. If he really doesn't like it then I will allow him a sandwich with the fruit at supper time.

Put just a tiny bit of the new food in his plate and say that is all he has to eat. If he likes it, there is more. But he needs to eat just that much (2 spoonfuls, for example) to get his stories/desert/etc.

The only thing that seems to work with mine is the presence of less fussy children. She'll eat everything she's given at school but at home she sticks to the same few things. We had visitors at the weekend and I was very impressed that she tried a few new things, as their kids will eat the same as the grown ups.