Is Your Kid Choosy About Food?
It’s only the mother who can realize the pain of having to make a number of dishes for every meal time to please a kid who is a fussy eater. It can be quite disheartening to see your little one creating a ruckus over food and turning a pleasant meal into a distressing affair.
You want her to eat healthy, but his finicky eating habits don’t let you succeed, and the end result would be either you get frustrated or the kid gets hammered. Unfortunately, none of these options are good so here’s your little guide to coping up with a finicky eater.
The first thing to do is to meet your pediatrician and confirm that your child has no medical problem leading to appetite or digestion problems which make him fussy about food. After checking your child’s growth and general health the doctor would also be able to advise you on what is good for him and what is not.
It is important to set down some meal time rules, like nobody can move from the table till the food is finished, all meals must be had at the table only, nobody is allowed to throw or waste food that is served in their plates and nobody talks while they are eating. Ideally there should be no television in your dining area, but if there is one it should be turned off at meal time. Now an important point here is to understand that meal time is not the time to punish a child for behaving weird all day long. You can reprove of his meals related issues on the table and nothing else.
Bribing, threatening or chiding should not be the approaches to make your children to eat his meals. You have a problem with his eating habits; lecture him at any other time but not on the table. Be reasonable about the quantity of food that you serve and fix the time in which your child has to finish eating. A good way to set out is to serve the low preference food items along with small quantities of preferred food first, and telling your child that if he finishes these he will get a second serve of his preferred food items.
If you want your child to eat well you will have to restrict the amount of fluids he consumes before and at the time of meals. Ideally nothing should be served at least two to three hours prior to the meantime, and you’ll find half of the fuss about food disappearing. And lastly, the golden rule is to serve the desert only if the child finishes his meal in proper time.
