Full of nonsense
She ate everything when she was a baby, but now won’t touch her food… See our six-point plan for you and your picky eater by registered dietician Zelda Ackerman
WITH HER ARMS folded and her lips firmly shut, she looks you straight in the eye. She doesn’t like potato, won’t touch pumpkin – and meat is simply “yucky”.
There are few things that frustrate parents as much as a picky toddler who doesn’t want to eat anything. Unfortunately, we can’t change anything about the little person who knows better and wants to do everything herself, but the way parents react to their children’s fads and whims could determine how long they last.
Follow this six-point plan to trump your toddler.
1 GET HER TO HELP
Plant tomatoes, pick peaches or get her to help choose fruit or vegetables in the supermarket. You can even ask her to help beat or stir or to sit and chat with you while you’re cooking. Any positive experience will make her less wary of eating unfamiliar food.
2 TAKE NO NOTICE OF HER
Sometimes a small child will refuse to eat something just to provoke a reaction or garner attention. If you make a big deal of her whims, she gets the attention she seeks, and she’ll continue being difficult just to get attention. When your little one doesn’t want to eat something, it’s best to stay neutral and take very little notice. If she unexpectedly stuffs something she’s never eaten before into her mouth, also react as if it’s completely normal. Don’t speak about likes and dislikes – not yours or hers or those of the man on the moon, for that matter. It could just serve to make her dislikes even stronger.
3 DON’T TOE THE LINE
A parent’s natural reaction when their little one doesn’t want to eat is to give her something else; one of her favourite foods. As long as she just eats something; surely, she can’t go to bed hungry. Your little one is much smarter than you think and will put two and two together in no time. She’ll refuse food every time just to get her favourite, and before you know it, she’ll have that morning, noon and night. If you want to outsmart your child, you should not allow her to eat anything but the dish you’ve put on the table, but be sure to serve at least one kind of food with every meal that you know she’ll want to eat. She’s welcome to choose what she’d like from the food on the table, but nothing else.
4 SET AN EXAMPLE
Children learn from watching what Mom and Dad do. So, the best you can do is to not be full of nonsense yourself but eat a wide variety of foods – also not reluctantly but with real enjoyment. Your little explorer will watch you closely and spot that little grimace in between the pretend smiles. So be sure
to make food that’s tasty, even if you know she most likely won’t even try.
5 DON’T FORCE OR BRIBE HER
Reward, punish, manipulate, bribe, negotiate and force are all things that don’t work so well with the will of a toddler. It will just make her less willing to try. Also forget about distraction with television or airplane games. What often works best is not to dish up unfamiliar food for her but just for you.
If she watches you really enjoying a fruit salad every evening, after a while she’ll also want some. If you want to try something new, call it a surprise. Just the word already creates expectation in that little heart. Also use the power of taboo: tell your child that what you made is actually just for adults. As soon as there’s a challenge involved in obtaining something, she’ll most likely want some of it, and then you can share a bite or two when she asks.
6 GET THOSE NUTRIENTS IN
Until your toddler realises that pumpkin and peas actually taste quite good, you have to ensure she gets the nutrients locked up in these veggies. Hide them in mince, stews, sauces, smoothies, muffins and any other edible things. Also give a multivitamin supplement to ensure that she gets all the important nutrients every day.