Shawn Johnson struggles to get her children to eat healthily
The 33-year-old Olympian has daughter Drew, five, as well as three-year-old Jett with her husband Andrew East and revealed that while her eldest is "very, very picky", the same can not be said for her son
14 February 2025
She told E! News: "I have the most extreme of both worlds. I have the very, very picky, and then I have the kid who eats wasabi, so trying to introduce news things and get them to eat healthy is very difficult."
Shawn - who also has 13-month-old Bear with Andrew - noted that almost every time they sit down to eat dinner together as a family, there will be a lot of "kicking and screaming" and it is far from the peaceful dining settings presented on television or film.
She said: "I'd say five or six times a week, we are sitting down at the table together as a family eating dinner.
"And, yes, there is kicking and screaming. Our kids will sit for five minutes. It's not, you know, out of a movie."
The gymnast has tried to combat the issue by serving "buffet-style" dinners, and explained that the whole thing came about because her daughter is a fervent vegetarian despite her young age.
She said: "I do a lot of buffet-style where I put everything out and they can serve themselves. But my husband and I have this agreement where if we put it out, that means we're fine with them eating the whole thing. I can't put it out and say, 'Oh, you only get two.'
"If you want to have an entire bowl of broccoli for dinner, sure. Or if you want to eat nothing but butter noodles tonight, sure. I put it on the table.
"My daughter doesn't like meat of any kind.
"We don't do steak, we don't do chicken. I can get her to eat some fish, but protein is really hard. So she's the one that sparked this whole journey."
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