The first step is to figure out what incentive will work best for your child. Finding that one special incentive he so desperately wants to earn can encourage him to try healthy foods at mealtimes. For example, “We can go on a trip to the playground if you earn 15 tokens.” If your family house rule is for him to try new healthy foods, he will not be able to earn Good Time if he refuses to try the foods at mealtimes. We would suggest you keep Goodtimer near the kitchen table during meal times so it will provide consistent positive reinforcement while eating. While every family has to do what works for them, we recommend that the focus is on reinforcing the good choices rather than punishing the bad ones, for example simply trying a healthy food, even if he says he then didn’t like it, would count for following the rule of trying the food. Once he is consistently trying the food, you can increase the number of bites needed to count as trying it. It may take time, and baby steps may be needed, but in our experience motivating kids to try new foods at each meal will cause them to choose better foods down the line.   Another helpful tip that has worked for some Goodtimer families, is making an “Appetizer plate” for snack time. The kids think they are fancy for having an “Appetizer” and the plate includes all fresh fruits and veggies chopped up. In our experience, if they are hungry, they will eat it! When dinner time comes, and they don’t eat every fruit and veggie you can feel better knowing they’ve had their fill of produce earlier. And if they don’t finish the plate at snack time, just add it on top of lettuce, and continue the fancy meal idea of a salad course with their dinner.Here are some more tips about how Goodtimer can be used at mealtimes:Make mealtimes fun – In our experience, anything kids can ‘dip’ tends to make food more exciting for them, (Carrots & ranch, Apples & peanut butter). Getting the kids involved in the preparation of foods will perk up their interests in the foods they are creating for meals and may make them more intrigued to possibly give them a try.Let Goodtimer provide encouragement – While we believe every family should do what works for them, offering desserts for a cleaned plate can send mixed messages to kids, and over time they can make the connection with sweet desserts being the desired outcome. Instead of offering a dessert, let Goodtimer offer encouragement by letting your child exchange tokens for a non-dessert incentive such as choosing a family movie to watch, playing a board game, or taking a walk to the local park.Be patient – Continue to introduce healthy or new foods at mealtimes. In our experience, consistency is key, and while it may take some time, healthy foods will become preferred over time.Sometimes, just getting our kids to eat at all during mealtimes is a struggle. If this is an issue for your family, make a house rule “eat during mealtime” and instruct your child to turn their Goodtimer over if they are not eating during mealtime. For example you might say:  "You can't earn Good Time if you're not 'eating during mealtime'.  If you're not eating, you'll have to turn over your Goodtimer until you start eating your meal".  The most important thing is having the kids realize that it’s up to them. In our experience, If the motivation is there and the kid gets to feel like they have a choice, they’ll choose the positive outcome. When they do start to eat again, let them turn their own Goodtimer back over and provide a lot of encouragement further reinforcing the desired behavior.