For the first few months of her life, a baby's hunger is easily satisfied with foods that are given to her. She is not at all selective about her diet. When she is close to a year old, she starts to become fussy about food. She develops definite likes and dislikes. And feeding becomes a challenge.
Your baby develops dietary preferences, as she becomes aware that she can decide what she would like to eat thereby also asserting her independence. The baby's appetite and liking for particular foods change from day to day. Feeding problems can also stem from teething, sibling rivalry, illness or other worries which needs to be looked into.
Battles over food create stress and anxiety not only for your fussy eater, but also for the rest of the family sitting down to a meal, too. With a little patience and creativity, you can feed your fussy child the foods she needs to stay healthy and strong. Getting your child to eat isn’t really as hard as it looks. Try some of these tips below, and you'll be well on your way to changing your children's eating habits for the better."
1) Trust your baby's instincts: Left to decide on their own children over time can surprisingly choose foods that are a part of a well-balanced diet. Their appetites vary from meal to meal and day to day. Anxious parents worry that poor eating can lead to nutritional deficiency and development problems. Children seem to have an inner mechanism that somehow works to ensure that they have a balanced diet. Children rarely develop vitamin deficiency or malnutrition because they are poor eaters. Therefore it is sometimes wise to trust your child’s instincts, let him decide for himself and give him some leeway when it comes to eating.
2) Force feeding is never an answer: When your child has a feeding problem, meal times become a battlefield as anxious and frustrated parents try to persuade their child to eat. A feeding problem is often the result of parents pressurizing their children to eat. In most cases this fails. Forcing your child to eat will only worsen the situation because it reinforces the child's dislike for food.
3) Mealtimes should be pleasant affair: Avoid making the child's diet a bone of contention at every meal. This will make the child dread meals even more. Make every effort to make your child look forward to mealtimes. Give her the wholesome food she likes best for 2 to 3 months and omit all the foods that she dislikes. This will help to make her less averse and tense about food.
4) Problem with junk food: If you have a child whose diet of choice would consist of only junk food, the problem is more complicated. Give her what she likes for a few weeks. Once you have gained her trust, slowly introduce more healthy food that she had no severe objections to. Do not try to make her eat something she hates. Do not make an issue about the new addition to the diet even if she leaves it untouched. Try again after a couple of days or try something else in between.
5) The main course is a dessert: If your child has an unreasonable sweet tooth and wants to eat four helpings of dessert compared to a single helping of the main course, give in to her. Sometimes if you show that you do not care one way or the other, children come around to a reasonable diet on their own. However, cut down on the number of times that you serve dessert at home. Introduce fruit after a meal instead. Do not bargain with your child promising her that if she finishes the vegetables, she can have another helping of dessert. You will make her feel that eating vegetables is a punishment, which will only serve to reinforce her dislike for them. Never make them eat at dinner what they have refused for lunch.
6) Having a very small appetite: If your child is a small eater, give her smaller servings of food. Give her less than you expect her to eat so that she voluntarily comes to the conclusion that the food is not enough. Let her ask for more. Don't press food on her eagerly as soon as she finishes. Also, remember that when the child sees what appears to be a huge mountain of food on her plate, she will be discouraged right from the beginning knowing that there is no way that she can eat so much.
7) Spoon-feeding your child: A child of two should be able to feed herself. However, some parents whose children are fussy eaters feel that their children eat more when they feed them. While this may be true, parents sometimes go to an extreme by feeding their child until she is 2 or 3 years old. In these cases, the child gets into the habit of being fed and has no desire to feed herself. In addition, the child perceives feeding as an expression of love and concern on the part of the parents. Consequently, when the parents stop feeding the child, deciding that she is old enough to feed herself, the child is hurt and becomes resentful. Parents usually give in at this point and resume feeding the child. Thus, the child learns to manipulate the parents.
8) Let the child eat on his own: The way to wean a child off the habit of being spoon-fed is to give her a favourite food and then leave the child to eat on her own for a few minutes. You may still have to feed her half the meal initially, but she will soon begin feeding herself. Do not get into the habit of feeding her the last half of the meal. If she asks you to feed her after she has eaten a few spoonfuls herself, casually tell her that you think she has had enough. Her hunger will soon naturally lead her to finish the meal herself once she realizes that she cannot expect any help from your end.
9) Avoid convincing tactics: You will always hear how parents use ingenuous ploys to convince their child to eat. Some parents have to tell a new story or put a cartoon on T.V for every mouthful; some have to take their children outdoors to distract them; some parents bribe their children with gifts for every plate that is wiped clean of food. This is not advisable. Eating should not be linked to any bribe because you are indicating to the child that it is an unpleasant act for which they should be compensated. The child should eat because it wants to and for no other reason. Let meal times be a pure activity.
10) Exercising control: While the child should be allowed a certain amount of freedom in her diet, it does not mean that the parents should indulge all her whims. Give in to your child's preferences only to the extent that it does not inconvenience the rest of the family. Parents need to control the intake of sugar, chocolates, colas, desserts, junk and other less nutritious foods.
Some of my tried and tested tips which will definitely help you-
a) Remain calm and collected when trying to feed a fussy child her meal- From your child's perspective, every minute she's spending at the table is a minute she's not playing, so it's important that you patiently explain to her that she will be hungry later on, and there won't be anything for her to eat then.
b) Set a good example- Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods in front of her. If she sees you eating vegetables, fruits and whole grains, she may eventually want to sample what you have. Seat your fussy child at the table along with other family members during mealtime. Although she may refuse to try certain foods, seeing others eat might make her more willing to eat her own meal.
c) Encourage the exotic -Children often have more sophisticated tastes that we might think. Mild curries with rice are often relished more than regular dal rice. Besides, just sticking to a few favourites will only encourage extreme fussiness or get them bored of the dishes they once liked. Use seasoning as much as possible to enhance the flavor of the dishes you cook. Try out different spices and herbs; your child may not like bland flavors but will easily eat the same thing when it's seasoned.
d) Get hands on help from your child- Children like to assemble their own food, so you could lay ingredients out in bowls and let your child have food where they have to use their hands. Let your child try a roti roll using roti, chicken, cucumber, lettuce and sauce/ chutney or let them arrange their own smiley faced pizza or sandwich.
e) Make meal times fun- It's fun to serve up your child's stir fry vegetables or noodles in a bowl and let them eat it with child friendly chopsticks that are joined at the top or forks and spoons. The novelty of their new decorated utensils will mean they barely notice the fruit and vegetables on their plate.
Another way could be creating fun themes to make meal times easier for kids. Allow your children to act like their favorite cartoon character or animal and encourage them to eat as that character would.
f) Get them to eat when they are hungry- After school/ sports is a great time to get your child to eat something healthy as they generally come home starving. The trouble is most children and even parents make a mistake of letting them grab a biscuit tin, packet of chips or a chocolate bar after school and you miss this window of opportunity. Have something ready prepared on the table. A simple roll or fried rice can be prepared ahead and is even easy to carry in Tiffin. Alternatively try encouraging some exotic fruits like mango, pineapple (as per seasonal availability) or make an exotic fruit salad with yoghurt.
g) Set rules about when your child can eat- Don't allow snacks in between meal and snack times. If your child refuses to eat at lunch, don't give in and let him snack shortly after lunch or it's likely that he won't eat by dinner time.
h) There is nothing wrong in offering healthy rewards- Do your children say they don't like something or refuse to try certain foods. Reward schemes like a sticker chart on the kitchen refrigerator can work well with older children. Make the chart yourself perhaps using pictures of their favourite things to decorate it and give your child a smiley or star sticker for every new food eaten. When he has collected a few stickers, reward him with a prize which could be an evening at the park or a few hours at the library.
i) Friendly peer pressure always works- If your child is wary of trying something new, inviting another child / friend over for a snack, tends to work. Invariably you will find that your child will eat what is offered provided their friend is eating it too!
j) Let the meal be a family affair- There's no reason to cook a child's meal separately from the rest of the family, even if you are having something really spicy. Let your meal be spicy enough so that your child can eat as well as it does not change the palate for the rest of the family members. You can alternatively also remove your child's portion before adding too many spices or curry so that their meal has a milder taste.
k) Sneak in the healthy foods- Some disguising health food in dishes doesn't help children appreciate healthier food in the long run, but it is sometimes the only way for some kids. You can sneak vegetables into popular dishes such as rolls/ paratha, khichdi, noodles or hide vegetables under grated cheese in pizzas or sandwiches or idlis or hiding fruits in a pancake or milkshake.
l) Offer your fussy child snacks throughout the day if she doesn't seem interested in eating three large meals- She can easily obtain the recommended daily allowances of all food groups if you feed her healthy and nutritious offerings as snacks as well as during meals.
A picky child can be extremely challenging for any parent. Remember kids who are fussy are often that way due to phases and personality traits and must not create any guilt in you. As parents you must take the appropriate steps to ensure your child is eating well, while remaining calm and patient with the situation. With time and care, a child will grow and develop healthy eating habits that will stick with her for life.
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