The idea about letting your kids help cook, is a good one. My (non-CAH) son is the picky eater in our family (mostly about vegetables), and if he helps cook, or even better - if he helped grow those "green things" in our garden, he’d try just about anything! We have the "one bite" rule in our house: the kids must try one bite of everything - sometimes they’ll decide they like it, sometimes not. I guess the big thing is not to make too big of a deal about it, or they know that they have a way to "get your goat".

Interestingly, my CAH daughter (7) will eat ANYTHING ... always has been like that. We have family and friends from MANY different cultures, and my kids have been introduced to lots of different kinds of foods since they could sit in a high chair. Dd will eat squid, hot peppers, East Indian food, Vietnamese, etc .... Both our kids LOVE to go for Dim Sum (chinese) and Ds loves spicy Mexican and Italian food. We get together once a week, and the kids choose a main course meal from one of my many ethnic cookbooks, and they help plan, shop and cook for it ... it’s surprising what they’ll choose sometimes! And they almost always eat it (or try it, at least) because they’ve had a big part in preparing it.

When Ds was smaller, I’d puree’ veggies to add to soups, stews, etc. I’d add extra bran and/or ground flax seeds to muffins and meatloaf ... anywhere that I could hide some nutrients! Dd is also a SW, and does gag easily too, but usually just from smells or if she has a phlemy cold (she’s not a big breakfast fan, either! Usually just some fruit, perhaps some dry cereal or an egg. She also drinks LITRES of milk a day!). Just keep trying new things, cheer your kids when they try new things, and don’t let them see how freaked out you are about them not eating "properly"! Another trick that I used (which is kind of sneaky!) was to let them try new foods when a friend of theirs was over for a meal! They’d hardly ever fuss if their buddy was watching, especially if "buddy" was eating it with gusto!

Good luck ...... this, too, will pass!