How to hide food for fussy eaters

Hiding nutritious ingredients in food for children seems to be a growing trend. Whether it is cauliflower in Mac & Cheese or beans in brownies or spinach in berry smoothies, there are books and websites dedicated to the craft.

I totally get why this is really tempting. Especially if you have a fussy eater, and they are not eating a wide range of foods. Finding ways you can fuel a child without the battles and the food refusals seems like a no-brainer.

However, I have three pieces of advice around this.

№1 — don’t

№2 — don’t

№3 — still not a good idea!

Why not hide foods for fussy eaters?

I appreciate that as a parent it’s really tough to watch a child plow through a kilo of carbs and ignore anything of colour that’s not straight out of a packet. And how tempting it is to mix in a bit of spinach with the morning smoothie or grated zucchini (no skin of course) into a burger.

But, I still say it’s not a great long-term strategy and I can think of at least 10 reasons why I wouldn’t advocate it.

10 reasons not to hide for fussy eaters

1. We are the most important relationship for our child. I believe that trust between us and our child is critical for a strong bond whether it’s in the eating department or not. If we break that trust, who can they turn to?
2. If our child is at all food anxious then finding something unexpected in their food can be truly distressing. Coming across a piece of zucchini in the muffin for a child who doesn’t like veg is similar to us finding a hair in ours. It would certainly put me off!
3. We will almost always get found out. This makes selling our child on that food, or other foods much more challenging. I have seen children refuse to eat a favourite food — EVER AGAIN — as they have found an ingredient in there they weren’t expecting.
4. If we do get caught it can set us back. This is especially worrying if we have a child who is already existing on limited choices.