Is it tough for to feed picky eaters? Are you alone in the race to get your child to try new food? Is it difficult to handle them? Well I know all this question must be popping in your mind.
Picky eating is normal for the toddler. As after the rapid growth of infancy, the baby usually tipple in weight. This leads to slow down the toddler growth rate and appetite.
This is a stage where the toddler begins to develop food preference. So in this article end you will opt to know about the things you are not aware of the ways to get picky eaters to eat.
Check Out These Healthy Tips For Picky Eaters
Tips For Picky Eater:
1. Be Creative With Recipe:
Texture and appearance of food matters a lot and works great to fix a picky eater toddler. The kids gets attracted to the presentation of food. Do give them new and fun dishes as per their choice and likeness.
Another way to make foods look more appetizing to children is to present them in a way that is fun and creative, for example by using star cookie cutters to make fresh fruits and vegetables into fun shapes. You can chopped the vegetables like pepper, carrot, onions, mushrooms and add to the pizza or soup.
2. Be a Food Role Model for Your Child:
Before feeding to a picky eater, one of the valuable tips for you is be food role model for your child. The children learn about food habits, or what to eat and what not to eat is by watching the eating behaviour of people around them.
In fact, research shows that young children are more likely to accept new foods when others around them are eating the food as well. (R) As per a study in 160 families found that children who observed parents consume more vegetables for a snack and a green salad with dinner which as a results helps them to more likely to meet daily fruits (R) and vegetable that are recommend for those children who doesn’t have it.
Make sure you give enough healthy foods like vegetables at meals and as snacks in front of your child. This habit of healthy eating will help the children observe the eating nutritious foods can help them gain the confidence to try them as well as it will built their growth and development.
3. Start With Small Tests:
As a parents it is absolute normal to feed their children a hearty portion of food in order to ensure they get the calories as per their age and healthy. But this doesn’t work for a picky eaters child. So for this you have to use your brain in order to feed them.
So for this you have to start feeding them by starting with small food which would be much better than the bigger and heavy meals. Feeding them large portion may overwhelm them and cause them to refuse the food simply because the serving is too big.
When trying out new foods, start with a small amount and present it before other more favored items.If they do well with the smaller portion, slowly increase the amount of the new food at subsequent meals until a normal serving size is reached.
4. Reward Your Child The Right Way:
Reward your child in the right way is one of the super way to fix a picky eaters toddler. Normally the parents tempt children to try a new food by promising a reward of dessert or treats later. But this may not work great for a healthy tips for picky eaters.
Rather you should reward them like a sticker chart in the kitchen and do make the chart by both of you. Give your child a sticker for eating new foods. When they have collected a few stickers, reward them with a prize.
Rewarding the unhealthy foods like ice cream, chips, soft drinks as a reward may lead children to consume an excessive amount of calories and it will necessary kills the appetite of the child. So as per the experts suggest that using non-food rewards helps to encourage food acceptance in a better and positive way.
Some of the examples of non-food related rewards that you can use to promote food acceptance are like stickers, pencils, extra play time etc.
5. Rule Out Food Intolerance:
This is another valuable diets tips for picky eaters. It works really amazing to rule out the food intolerance and allergies as well. Allergies are quite dangerous as it can leads to ashes, itching and swelling of the face or throat in kids.
If the child tends to shy away from foods such as dairy products, the foods that contain gluten or cruciferous vegetables, they may be experiencing unpleasant symptoms related to a food intolerance.
Make sure you ask your child that they are any foods that makes them feel nauseated, bloated or sick in way and as it takes the answers seriously. Talk to doctor or paediatrician if your child has any food allergy or tolerance.
6. Cut Out Distractions During Meals:
This is an major tips for the picky eater. The parents should create an environment for the children which is much of the distraction free. As it affects the child while eating proper and healthy food.
When the child is eating you should keep them away from TV, smart phone, playing games etc. You have to be very carefully with respect to the environment when the childs had there meals.
Do keep aside of toys, books, electronics etc while you feed your child.
7. Make Meal Time Fun:
As per the expert the child will eat better if they enjoy their meal time. So for the picky eater child the parents has to thinks innovative and creative to make the meal time fun. By creating a fun and pressure free environment the child will eat more.
The tension and force full environment will make the child to shut down and refusal attitude towards not eating food. This way will help to create an interest in kids to eat food.
For this just make sure the child expose food by touching and tasting the food without getting frustrated and irritating from it. The experts recommended that meals should take no longer than 30 minutes and that it’s okay to remove food after that time.
8. Have Patience With Your Picky Eater:
Patience is all and all for the parents of picky eaters. You have to deal with your level of patience as your kids has a lot of variety of food preference.
As per a study at about 4,000 children found that the prelevance of picky eaters was 27.6% at age of 3 where as it was only 13.2% at age 6.
Don’t ever pressure your child for eating food as it can increase the risk of pickiness and prone the child to eat less. I know it can be tough for you to maintain patience as some times you may get frustrated. But believe me having patience with your picky eater is one of the biggest ways to get the picky eater to eat.
9. Get Your Kids Involved In Meal Planning And Cooking:
This is a superb way to of children‘s nutrition tips for the picky eaters as this will help the children to develop a keen interest to eat the fruits and vegetables then are involving in the cooking process.
Make sure you ask or involved the kids in the meal planning and cooking as per the kids capacity . This is really going to be fun as it leads to increase of kids appetite.
You can also take the children to the grocery store and allow them to pick few items that they wish to eat and some that you can make the meal time fun and exciting.
As per the research shows that children who are involved in meal preparation are more likely to consume vegetables (R) and calories in normal case than those kids who doesn’t eat.
10. Keep Exploring New Foods:
You have to be very creative and exploring with new foods. You have to keep on trying and trying. The child will loves to try new foods with course of time. The picky eater will not trow the new food.
As per the research suggest that at about 15 exposures the children may need new food before accepting it. You can serve the new food with the food they already like. The ratio is like about 3:1. You can serve them a small portion of new food with a large portion of the food that already they like it.
11. Use Mindful Eating Habits:
This tips leads to a positive change for the picky eaters as the creative and mindful tricks helps the picky eater to eat the food easily. This act as an positive motivation.
This makes the children more tune to feel hungry. Don’t force them to eat. Give them a chance of exploring how hungry they are and what they need for.
12. Get Help From Specialist:
As I said above also picky eaters are common in children. Some times in some case it can leads to serious problem.
You should always refer to the the doctor if you find certain signals of serious issues like-
- Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
- Abnormally slow growth and development
- Vomiting or diarrhea
- Crying when eating, indicating pain
- Difficulty chewing
- Anxiety, aggression, sensory reactivity or repetitive behaviors
- Autism
In this case you can always contact to pediatrician or a registered dietitian that specializes in pediatrics.
13. Encourage Eating With Friends:
Just parents are not enough for making the picky eaters to eat. From pears and friends the children get influence and start eating. As per the studies the children with another children with same age trends to eat more than the normal children.
The children with their friends tends to enjoy the food when you try to add in a few new foods along with foods that’s the child enjoy. It will moreover allow the picky eater to enjoy and may encourage the picky eaters to taste them as well.
14. Cut Back On Unhealthy Snacking:
One of the healthy tips for the picky eater is to cut down the child snacks for certain unhealthy snacks such as cold drinks, chips, candy, soda etc from the children healthy diets.
It has an negative effects on the intake of meals. If you allow the children to eat full day with snacks then the child may be full with that. This will inclined the child to to eat less meals.
It should be a combination of of both meals and snacks in a day. You should feed snacks in every 2-3 hours in a day as per the studies. As a result which will allows the kids to develop an appetite before the next meals for the child.
15. Pay Attention To Your Child’s Taste and Texture Preference.
Picky eaters are too prone to taste and texture of food. That only attracts them to eat well. The basic things you should start with by figure outing what types of foods do your kids like most.
This will help to feed them better and they will eat the food that they like. Do the dish as per the child preference if they like soft food then go for it. Whatever they like in fruits and vegetables just serve the dish from that of it.
Picky eating is normal for the toddler. As after the rapid growth of infancy, the baby usually tipple in weight. This leads to slow down the toddler growth rate and appetite. I hope this article has provided you a good number of healthy diets tips for picky eaters.
