Messy quick fix for fussy eaters

TODDLERS should be allowed to play with their food to encourage them to eat, according to latest health guidance.

Permitting ‘messy’ eating and creating ‘relaxed and enjoyable’ mealtimes, rather than insisting on rules, can help fussy eaters to start enjoying food.

The guidance, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which operates south of the Border, is designed to help families with underweight pre-schoolers.

Professor Gillian leng, the watchdog’s deputy chief executive, said: ‘Simple things such as encouraging relaxed and enjoyable feeding and mealtimes, eating together as a family or even allowing young children to be messy with their food can help encourage them to eat.’

The agency also advised encouraging under-fives to feed themselves, making sure mealtimes are not too long and establishing regular schedules of three meals and two snacks a day.

It said too many energy-dense drinks, including milk, can reduce a child’s appetite for other foods.

Experts said all parents with picky children should take note of the advice.

Jane ogden, a health psychologist at the University of Surrey and author of The Good Parenting Food Guide, said the key was not to be too strict.

‘Children naturally make a mess, they drop food, they play with it,’ she added. ‘Allowing them to relax, allowing them time to eat when they want to, without hovering around making sure they are eating, can be effective. Take the focus away from the food, sit around a table as a family, talk, laugh, allow them to make a mess.’

But Professor ogden said certain boundaries were needed, adding: ‘There is a risk of being too relaxed, of trying to feed children when they are in their buggy or walking around. It’s important to sit down at mealtimes, ideally as a family.’

Dr Frankie Phillips, of the British Dietetic Association, said: ‘Getting hands-on with food – whether that is using food for messy play, experimenting with new textures and tastes and helping with food preparation – can all help to achieve a love of good food and the social experiences that help to make up an enjoyable mealtime.

‘So often mealtimes can become a stressful battleground and it’s important to remove the stress.’

Dr Phillips added: ‘Family mealtimes should be positive and relaxed times but the key to family nutrition nirvana means parents need to be good role models helping children to learn to enjoy a wide range of foods by doing so themselves.’

‘Children naturally play with food’