Very common, food selectivity in children is often challenging for parents. We’ve sorted some tips that will help you deal with the situation. Check it out!
If your baby refuses to eat anything other than a certain food or prefers to “play” rather than eat, know that you are not alone! Food selectivity in children is a very common – and challenging – problem for most parents.
Before preferences appear, check out 6 tips that can help you prevent mealtime “battles” and help your baby develop healthy eating habits.
1. Establish a routine
The first tip for dealing with food selectivity in children is to try offering meals and snacks around the same time, every day. You can offer milk or natural juice as a snack, but try to provide water between them. Allowing your child to snack, and drink milk or juice throughout the day can reduce the appetite for food and compromise his health. Babies over six months can drink fruit juice, as long as in a small volume (100 to 120 ml) and at snack time. However, it is worth remembering that the ideal is to wait until the child’s first year.
2. Offer a variety of foods
Serve as many different foods and flavors as you can for your baby’s first two years. Most children become less tolerant and begin to refuse new foods around age two. Therefore, if they are exposed to a wide variety of flavors early on, they will eat more types of food when the “pampered” phase passes.
3. Allow a little “mess”
Do not rush to clean your baby’s face or discourage him from playing while eating. Children need to experience food with all their senses. Crushing and spreading their meals teach important lessons about texture and build familiarity with different foods. Children are programmed from birth to explore with their hands and mouth. So a little mess is part of the journey.
Photo: Pinterest
4. Include fruits and vegetables in the meals
Try to set this goal to ensure your baby’s regular exposure to fruits and vegetables. The more familiar your little one is with a kind of food, the more he will accept it. Your child will also grow knowing that vegetables are eaten at all times of the day, not just at dinner (when he is too restless and tired to be receptive to new foods). And even if he only takes a few bites, that results in several servings a day!
TIP: try to offer vegetables before other things, when they are really hungry.
5. Let them just taste
The more your baby tastes a kind of food, the more likely he is to accept and appreciate it. So, allow him to just taste, making the food touch the taste buds. If you give up the pressure to make him chew and swallow, allowing him to spit things out, you will encourage him to try more food.
6. Make the “meal time” more enjoyable
Serve broccoli and other vegetables with their favorite sauce. Try to cut food into various shapes (such as stars, balls, animals, etc.), mix elements of varied and bright colors, and change the menu from time to time, serving at dinner what would be served for breakfast.
Photo: Pinterest
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Also, read our article on Postnatal Exercises.
