BATON ROUGE — Good nutrition is important to help children grow up healthy and strong, but getting kids to eat and enjoy new foods is not always easy.

Most times, being a picky eater is a normal part of growing up.

Many young children go through periods of preferring certain food colors or textures, but eventually grow out of that phase. Until then, parents are advised to repeatedly try a variety of unprocessed, healthy foods. It may take time for children to acquire a taste for new foods.

“It's 15 to 20 tries to get a kid used to it, you know, and our instinctive responses, they make one face when they try something. Then we're like, oh, they don't like it, we're gonna try something else. No. A try can be a lick. A try can be a smell or a taste,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital pediatric doctor Stephen Cook said.

Parents are also encouraged to be good food role models. Children are more likely to try something if they see you enjoying it.

Also, avoid a bunch of grazing on snacks during the day. Hungry kids will be more encouraged to try and eat new foods at meal time.