Except from: Simple and Savvy Strategies for Creating Healthy Eaters

Many parents hide food in order to get their children to eat what they think is healthy.  There are even several cook books that will assist you in these efforts.  What does hiding food accomplish?  On the positive side it allows parents to feel better about the healthy foods their child unknowingly eats.  All other consequences are negative.  First, a parent that needs to hide certain foods has already stopped being an effective parent.  Parenting is teaching; hiding is deceiving.  There is no parenting expert that encourages parents to deceive a child. 

Parenting is modeling best behavior.  A parent should not be afraid of a child or of making an unpopular decision.  Parenting is not a popularity contest.  Hiding food keeps the child happy but is modeling dishonesty and giving power to the child.  Who do you want in charge of your household, them or you?

Ah, but what about the nutritional gains the child is making?  One can only hide a small amount of undesirable food without a child noticing.  Remember, children have greater senses of smell and taste than adults.  My sister told me her child said “I smell vegetables” when given a piece of pizza after the vegetables were secretly taken off so she could have more plain cheese pizza. 

So how much nutrition is in the two tablespoons of broccoli hidden in the tomato sauce?  Wouldn’t it be better if a child regularly saw broccoli, saw people eating and enjoying broccoli and eventually included broccoli in his regular diet?  This acceptance of broccoli may not come for several years, but if a child learns to accept and eat broccoli his nutritional gain by age 18 will be vastly greater than the child who has been eating small hidden bites of broccoli.  Furthermore, that child will continue to eat broccoli even when there is no one around to hide it in his food.  Studies have shown that once a child realizes that a parent is anxious for them to eat a certain food, the acceptance of that food decreases.  The more parents meddle with their children’s eating, the more likely the chance a child will retaliate, with disordered eating habits or other behaviors.

How long do you think you can fool your child?  By the time a child is in grade school, if not before, they are pretty savvy about what is going on in their environment.   They will eventually find out that you have been hiding food and they may rightly feel like they have been lied to.  What are you going to say when they ask, “Mom, is there squash in this brownie?”  Perhaps later in their teenage years they will think that lies for someone’s “own good” are ok, or that deceiving their parents a little is not really lying.  Developing trust between parent and child is essential for a long term relationship; don’t blow it over a teaspoon of peas. 

On a practical level, how long do you want to keep hiding food?  It takes more time to cook and puree vegetables into some other casserole, sauce or dessert than it does to steam or stir fry the same foods and serve it as is.  Plus, what about the time and effort to hide the actual cooking process from your children.  Is it worth it?  Go for the long term gains.  Be a parent and teach and model what you know is right.  It might take longer and there might be some tears and yelling, but if you’re in it for the long haul do it right.