Feeding the Little Picky Eaters
Picky eating is one of the most common complaints among parents. It’s rare to have child who eats anything and everything, gamely taking on new vegetables, foreign cuisine, and walnuts in brownies. Instead, most kids (like most adults, only more so) find some foods unpalatable. Vegetables are a frequent offender; processed desserts and chips typically aren’t.
According to extensive research studies “It’s very normal for kids to go through phases where they’re a little pickier, specifically when they are trying to declare their independence. Suddenly it’s I want to put on my own shoe; I want to brush my own hair; I want to choose the snack that I eat.
As kids grow physically a lot of change happens even to their internal organs. For instance their tastes buds start to develop, so it’s only normal/natural if the toddler who thankfully ate whatever he/she was served without any argument becomes more selective as he matures.
Strategies that would help
Get to his/her level:
Don’t force. Play nice and reason out with them. While as parent we want out kids to eat all sorts of vegetables (of course for all good reasons) forcing them to reason as we do might just work for a little while; but end up with worse cases such as having a distressed kid which in turn builds up bad bonds.
If your child’s pediatrician says your child is healthy and he/she has been eating an assortment of foods, don’t pick a battle over every green vegetable. #OurThoughts
Be adventurous!
Kids pick up habits from the people they hang around mostly. As you try to cab the picky eating issue with your child, be a perfect role model. Be open to new food adventures together. Make it fun (probably make a game out of it…or even be a bit artistic with food. Simple art-like shaped & colorful meals/snacks arrangement goes along side exciting a Childs’ brain to food adventures. “So, What do we try out tonight? “..should be your main line before preparing dinner for the family.
Keep Score.
Just as you encourage good grades in school, try keep score on every little effort to taste the new food. Keep trying and assuring them that it only gets better. By example, always explain to the young one that you’re giving it another chance because your tastes may have changed.(at this they might want to give it a try as well). The idea is to show kids that we are adaptable.
One, II, then… 3
At any one given time, you’re not to introduce new foods in large quantities. Not a large bowl of beans or cabbage or chicken. Studies show that we should always begin with pieces so small that they could literally be blown away. For instance, try a single pea (then 2, then three), part of a noodle, or a piece of meat. Encouraging words such as.., “This is easy peasy — you could be done in a second.” Once your child eats it, give him/her a food he does like. Then, at subsequent meals, increase the portion of the new food and phase out the follow-up food. Works like magic!
“Monitor” snack-time.
Enough visits to the pediatrician and you would relate when asked to record what your child has eaten and drunk for at least the last three days. This at the “back office” is used to analyze tell-patterns of the Childs’ feeding habits. Kids who resist new food are generally found to be snack or drink lovers to the core. This habit limits their hunger sensors and in turn cultivates a poor eating pattern.
Baseline cut down on snacks before meal time. Three meals and one to three snacks at relatively consistent times and you’ll find that your kid will be more receptive to trying something new because they’re truly hungry.
