Is your child a picky eater? Try out these steps

New ways to handle picky eaters Once upon a time, not too long ago, in a land not far from here, parents would force children to clean their plates during meals, regardless of their hunger level. We now know that

Parents, get this straight:

You are responsible for providing your children with food. It is our children’s job to decide if they want to eat the foods we serve. But yes, we can encourage them to eat well and develop a liking for various tastes and flavours.

Stop pushing them:

this feeding strategy can teach children to ignore their own hunger cues and subsequently overeat as adults.

The next contingent of parents educated themselves about nutrition to the degree that they earned the moniker

Instead of harping on a child to eat new foods, accustom children to tasting new foods. This could be tasting a new variety of apple, a yellow cherry tomato instead of a red one or even a new type of cookie. It is widely shown that many children need to taste a food at least 10 times before they decide they like it, so getting kids enthusiastic to taste new foods is an imperative step.

Don’t beg and plead with them all the time:

It makes dinner time a battleground and the child may well be primed to never enjoy that battleground food. Instead, parents should continue to offer foods under no-pressure situations. If a child huffs and puffs and doesn’t taste it, she doesn’t taste it that night. No big deal – there is always another night. “helicopter.” They progressed from expecting their kids to eat every item on a plate to expecting them to eat some of every nutrient on a plate. This reinforced a generation’s tendency towards picky eating. Neither of these resulted in

Help children understand new foods:

Because children don’t have as many food experiences as adults, they can’t anticipate what something might taste like. This makes it scary for them to try an unfamiliar food. Help them understand how something tastes in an honest, non-manipulative way (in other words, don’t tell them plain yoghurt tastes just like ice cream), they will be more open to trying it. ■ healthy eating patterns for children.

So how should the story be rewritten for this generation? It boils down to taking all pressure off of children to eat and always making mealtimes positive.

Allow young kids to play with food:

It’s okay if children push food around their plate, smell it or mix it. Experts say the interplay with food is part of their development. So don’t shout and scold the young ones when they are simply discovering new tastes and colours and forms.

Lower your expectations:

Of both - how much kids should eat and how much they should try. Take it easy and allow them to develop their own pace. When parents provide children with the opportunities look at, smell, touch, play with, or take a tiny bite of new foods, kids are more likely to meet those expectations.