There’s a great new coupon available for $1/1 Dole Fruit Bowls in Sugar Free Gel. Find a good sale, especially a BOGO or super doubles event, and you should be able to get these for a real bargain!
We were recently sent a variety of Dole Fruit Bowls to try. While I wouldn’t normally buy prepackaged fruit of this sort (one 4-pack won’t even feed all of my kids), I will buy these again in the future if for no other reason than they got my ultra-picky 3-year-old daughter to actually eat!
She loved the little just-her-size cups — giving her small bowls just doesn’t have the same effect. For the fruits in juice, I just open the package a tiny bit and drain the juice so she can eat them as a finger food.
BONUS: I’ve got four coupons good for a FREE Dole Fruit Bowls in Sugar Free Gel that I’d love to share with four of my readers.
Just leave a comment sharing your favorite way to entice a picky eater to actually eat! I’ll close the comments at noon EST on Tuesday, October 6th and select four comments at random.
Nancy
I sometimes put out a plate of raw vegetable slices with a low-fat dip an hour or two before dinner. The theory is: if they are hungry, they will eat it! This would also work for slices of fresh fruit. Maybe if you let your picky eater select and buy a small plate, bowl, and cup of their very own – in a favorite color or design – that might help also. Good luck!
Stephanie
We have a rule in our house that you’re not allowed to not like something. Sounds cruel, but it works! Our kids eat anything and everything! :)
Stacey Carter
To get my picky eater to eat (17 years ago) we used to tell him he could use “dipping sauce” with his food. It started as thousand Island Dressing and Ranch dressing. By just calling it dipping sauce he would try foods, dip them in one of the sauces, and then tell us which one was better. It worked for us because he still eats baked potatoes with Ranch dressing.
april humphreyl
ketchup or ranch dressing or peanut butter!
Jessie
A selection of little bits of lots of different foods. Something has to get eaten!
Stephanie
Hide in other food :) Thanks.
Amy
It might sound mean, but we’ve gotten to where we just offer one thing (one meal) at each meal, rather than mini-meals for each child. If the child refuses to eat it, he or she has to eat it at the NEXT family meal. This goes on until the food is either consumed or just too old to eat. There have been a few times where the item in question has been reheated four or five times, but our children have become much less picky! I have five children, and they all generally eat what they are served now.
melissa w
thankfully i dont have this problem very often, My son loves his veggies and fruit but I would love to win to give him these. He would love them!
sara
you know, i catered to my picky child’s tastes (cheese, lean meat, sweet potatoes, bananas) until he got sick of it and was desperate to try anything other than the aforementioned items. tonight he ate chicken pot pie!
Crystal
Ranch dressing was the key to getting my boys to eat raw veggies. Now, about a year later, they don’t even ask for it, but still eat the veggies. Two of them still use ketchup on scrambled eggs or meatloaf. But, honestly, I’ve found variety the best way to keep them trying new stuff. Having fun new kid-friendly stuff on hand (because of using q’s) is a big treat for them. In the past, I rarely bought anything pre-packaged but now I can. :)
katie klein
When it comes to veggies if I can show them that the dog or rabbit will eat them then my son seems to gladly eat them as well.
Melissa
I do alot of the “sneaky chef” kind of cooking right now to get my kids to eat veggies! I puree and hide anywhere I can!
Brandi
I use my 6 year old daughter as the ultimate peer model for enticing my picky 2 year old to try new things, or finish whatever it is that he is eating.. Having the older sister is the best blessing!
Lana
Add food coloring to foods to make them colorful and exciting to eat. Also, we name our foods funky names.
Dawn
I usually let my children help with the planning.
Dawn
My tween just now became a picky eater. I could always pack her lunch and no matter what she would eat it. No more :(
Linda B
My grandson will eat anything with Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.
Jeaneen Clayton
Ranch on anything is golden for my kids to even consider eating the good stuff. My 3 yr. old even dipped her strawberries in Ranch dressing this eve. I was shocked, but she liked it, apparently!
Also, I add green spirellina powder to their fruit shakes. Its a “hidden” secret! Shhhhhh!
Stephanie
My kids will eat something scary if they can put “dippy sauce” on it (ketchup). Thanks for the giveaway!
Katie
I’m always confused on how many coupons I can use on one item. I get them out of the paper, internet, peelies etc. Are you allowed to use an internet and a paper one together? Can you use two of the same coupon on an item? If anyone can clear this up for me, that would be great.
Thanks!
cherie
Ranch dressing. Ranch dressing on or in almost anything worked. Now, at 4, he mostly forgets to add the ranch and just eats his vegetables and salads.
Jennifer Laxson
Dips…Cheesy dip is a #1 pick!
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Mary
One way is to let them help prepare the food. Although it is a little trying on my OCD nerves, the clean up is worth it in the end because they have eaten something nutritious.
Also, I agree with Jennifer, give them something to dip the food into. It always makes it fun even for girls.
Another thing for little girls…tea parties. Even at the regular dinner table, have their very own tea set. These dishes will seem so much more their size yet more special than the rest of the family. This way they can eat extra helping and it can be fun while, hopefully, learning good table etiquette, ie elbows off the table, napkin in lap, feet on the floor-not under toosh.
Jamie Yonash
I try to give 2 choices….hopefully they will like one of these!!!
Jessica Hunt
FUN names! We introduce new foods with funny names. ‘Magic rice’ is sticky rice………. ‘Pickle sticks’ are cucumber cut length wise (my son loves pickles…) LOL! He’s 2.5 and falls for it every time ;)
Allison
I agree that Ranch dressing will get kids to eat up raw veggies.
Amber
Sometimes we use fun names for food too…also, my brother-in-law introduced us to the “man bite”. WE make a it a really big deal when my son takes “man bites”….like it makes him masculine! SO funny!! But it works!
jessica
My kids know if they don’t eat their dinners, they won’t get any treats.
Stacie
It may sound bad, but we often eat dessert every night. So no dinner, no dessert!
Trista Teeter
I try and put veggies out to snack on while I start cooking dinner/ 9/10 times my 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old have gobbled all of the veggies up by the time dinner is ready!
LOOOVE these Dole cups!!…almost more than my kids, I think…hehe.