Before kids, I used to dream of a perfect lunch and dinner in which the whole family eats together. That’s what we see in pictures and movies. Ohhh that perfect family laughing while eating together didn’t turn into reality for us.
Fussy eating is a common problem all parents face and for us, mealtimes was a misery. Most of the time I thought that it’s just a phase – but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with my fussy eater. I used to make a variety of foods and without even tasting the food was denied. It was full of stress and at times I lost my temper. But the solution was different, losing temper yelling or being sad wasn’t the solution to this problem.
With time I understood that this is actually quite a normal process in a child’s development. If your child appears healthy and is getting his or her weight and height goals, then there’s possibly nothing to worry about.
Some of the causes after healthy toddlers refusing food are seeing for attention, trying to display their independence or they don’t want to sit in one place.
So, here I put some tips & tricks which worked for me.
Important Tips
- Give your child the similar food as the rest of the family.
- Compliment your child when they do eat well
- Stay calm and be positive
- Avoid force feed – he may develop a negative thought about food.
- Please don’t bribe your child as they are smart enough to demand things in return for eating regularly.
- Sit with him at the table and talk about positive things. Make mealtimes enjoyable.
- Don’t offer substitutes at the table, you can add a variety of foods later.
- Make sure your child is hungry before offering the food.
- Avoid heavy snacks before mealtimes.
- Turn off the distractions while feeding.
- Attempt to eat with them as often as you can.
- Your child can be a slow eater, so be calm.
As long as your kid eats around food from the 4 main food groups (fruit and vegetables; dairy or dairy alternatives; potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates; and beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins) you don’t need to be stressed.
Understand that it is up to you to offer your baby healthy and wholesome foods; it is up to your baby to choose whether or not to eat that food.
Your baby will never go short of food and the finest thing you can do is to just carry on to offer the foods and try and don’t think about how much is eaten or not eaten.
Happy Eating!
You may also like Homemade Food
Mine is a fussy eater. He also eats very slow even if he is hungry. Patience is very important while dealing with kids, that’s all I can say from my experience.
My marriage taught me being patient – my short temper nature disappeared after hubby’s positive attitude towards everything. I wonder what wud be the case after the kids come ?❤️. You have explained everything so well.
You shared Great tips dear. These are really very helpful for me because my baby is also fussy eater.
Awesome and very helpful tips share by you.. Will definitely try as it for my daughter
This is definitely very useful for my mommy friends… I see how they struggle with their little ones
My daughter is 15 months old. She is a fussy eater but she has the sole problem that she doesn’t like to be fed. She eats on her own and tho it takes time, I let her be. I am going to try a few alternatives like the Homemade food.
The tips you have shared are really useful. I am sure you post will help lots of mommy’s to deal with fussy eater kids.
good tips. i find staying calm is the most difficult, and yet the most important in managing the kids or even grown ups who are fussy eaters 🙂
I have never been a fussy eater but my cousin sister was and my elders always forced her and her mother to make her eat due to which she started hating food!
I feel so lucky at this, my son rarely gets fussy during mealtimes. But the tips that you shared are really great and will be helpful for all the parents out there who are struggling with their kid’s mealtime fussiness.
Very helpful tips. Will share it with my mom friends.
Some ideal mommy tipz.. really need to maintain patience.
Am going to start introducing solids to the little one and am saving ur post to read it as often as I can to keep a check.
I totally agree with all the points mentioned here. We do not force feed our kids and we do give them everything that we eat at home, of course homw-cooked food!
My daughter is also a fussy eater. I will follow your tips.
Well, the points captured in your article are really good. We follow many of the points that you mentioned but surely there are few more I can think of following.
Feeding kids is definitely a challenge, we need to use all kind techniques to convince them to take that one extra bite everytime or say the entire meal itself. Sometimes I feel that if I tell them about something good they would get later, inspires them to eat. Again, we all try various tricks for sure to feed 🙂
Some very vital points. Practice and patience is definitely the key with these little munchkins.
Indeed most of the child today are fussy eater. And idea to offer the same family food is helpful.