This article focusses in providing tips to deal with the little fussy eater in your home. Fussy eating is the most common problem every parent comes across. Children are born with fussy eating skills, which sheds over the course of time. One day your child will love eating bread and jam, the next day they might start hating it. Children share a love and hate relationship with food, which becomes tough for the parents to deal with.
Trying to get a child to eat a nutritious meal can be frustrating, and if you’re not careful, you could find yourself in serious power struggles and ongoing arguments. Fussy eaters give rise to parents who are constantly running behind their children, trying to force feed them the nutritious meals. If you have a little fussy eater in the house, here’s how you can tame them.
Offer new foods: It is possible that you might be feeding similar type of food, which might make your child fuss. The hungrier children are, the more likely they are to eat whatever meal is put in front of them. Offer one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon snack but skip any pre-dinner snacks.
Involve your child in grocery shopping: Your child will be more likely to eat the food you’ve prepared when they are involved in the process of making it. The next time you go to buy vegetables, take your child along. Let your child pick out the vegetables and fruits and appreciate them for the same.
Make cooking a fun process: Break free from the mundane process of cooking and add some fun to it. A child is more likely to eat a food that’s colorful, cut into fun shapes or paired with a dip. Of course this will add onto the work load on your shoulders, but it’s worth if your child eats healthy. Invest in cookie cutters that can create fun shapes out of sandwiches, create ants on a log with celery, peanut butter and raisins, or create a rainbow out of brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Do this and see how quickly your child will empty their platter.
Offer condiments: Your child hates broccoli, right? Every child does. So why not offer broccoli with some condiments to make it even more tasty? You can perhaps offer some mayonnaise or cheese dip with the broccoli or some ketchup to go with that sweet potato.
Serve small portions: Your child might be overwhelmed by a large portion of a food that’s unfamiliar or not their favorite. Serve bite sized foods to your toddler, which will encourage them to eat the whole serving. This way you will be wasting less food.
Allow them in cooking process: Allow your child to give you a helping hand in the cooking process. If your child helps you cook the dish, they are more likely to eat it. Praise your child’s cooking skills and see how quickly their plate is emptied.
Fussy stages are normal: Every toddler is a fussy eater, which is normal. You must not worry about it. Children tend to be the pickiest between ages 2 and 4. If they don’t outgrow pickiness, talk to your pediatrician about whether they’re suffering from a sensory disorder that truly limits the number of foods they can tolerate.
Don’t force feed: Encourage your child to eat, but don’t make them sit at the dinner table all night before they are excused from the table. Let your child leave the plate if they are being fussy. You can cover the food and set it aside. Your child is most likely to come back hungry, which is how they might end up eating whatever was served in the first place.
Hope this article helps you all as parents to deal with the little fussy eater at your home. All these are my personal experience and it has really helped me deal with my little munchkin. 🙂
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