Ive tried everything!! ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

[cfred]

An approach I've tried that's so far been very effective is cheering them on. It sounds silly and I feel ridiculous doing it, but it seems to work. When one child takes a bite, I cheer, clap, shake my arm in the air and say "Hoo Hoo Hoo!" I can't tell you how well this has worked for my group! The kids are now trained in it and will eat pretty much anything I put in front of them. Of course, when they take a bite of something, they look at me expectantly, smiling and clapping. One of my littlest girls (1 yr) now throws her hands in the air and yells hurray and has just started shaking her hand saying 'oo oo oo'. Super cute! I think it works because it's just plain fun and they want to be part of it. At Christmas Dinner, my 19 month nephew (also one of my group) was being fussy with dinner. I got him to take a bite, then cheered. Of course EVERYONE at the table had to participate and he ate his whole dinner. We actually did the Wave for him at one point. It was fun and he ate everything! While it's a bit of a pain in the beginning and requires a fair bit of consistency, my kids are now to the point where I only have to cheer them on for things they don't like so much. Hey, it got them all to eat steamed broccoli today, so no complaints