Green Child Magazine Back-to-School 2014 | Page 62

Nutritional Nuggets
Expert Louise Goldberg answers your questions!

My daughter wants the same thing packed in
her lunch every day. I’d like her to try something new, but I worry she won’t eat it and
will end up feeling hungry and cranky for her
afternoon classes. How can I get her to eat
what I send in her lunch?
Unfortunately you can’t make her eat anything,
especially when the food you pack is competing
with a noisy lunchroom, limited time and other
distractions. The best strategy: change or add
only one new thing a week (e.g. change the fruit
or the type of sandwich) and keep the remaining food the same. This allows her to eat the
familiar food and get used to the new one at the
same time. Keep in mind your job is to provide nourishing food and her job is to decide
whether to eat it and how much. This “division
of responsibility”, as termed by Ellyn S