Are meal times turning into a battle? These tips will help you understand and encourage your picky eater.

The eating habits of toddlers are often frustrating and mysterious. At times they seem to survive on less food than a bird requires, and at others they appear to be an eating machine, consuming everything in sight. They claim something is wrong with the food, such as one thing on their plate is touching another! Young children often resist new foods, not because they are being difficult but because of their sensitivity to textures, smells and tastes.

Here are some tips to help you help your picky eater

• Many young children appear to live off air. If you actually watch what your child eats throughout an entire day you might be surprised. Most young children are “grazers”. They eat little bits of this and that throughout the day.  As they are SO active, it’s probably a good way for them to eat at this age. If they graze throughout the day they are constantly re-fuelling their active bodies.
• Keep a written or mental journal of what your child is eating during the day. Now you’ll really be able to get an idea of how much food is eaten and when the eating is happening.
• Ensure you toddler is not filling up on milk and juice - toddlers only need 1 or 2 cups of milk a day and 1 serve of juice.
• The trick with children who graze is to make sure you have plenty of healthy grazing food available. A friend of mine keeps a vegetable and fruit plate sitting out for most of the day for her children. They take what they want, when they feel they need it.
• Avoid giving your young child lots of processed snacks. They will fill up on empty calories and will have trouble getting all the nutritional needs met during the day.
• Serve lunch and dinner on a plate that has a nice variety of food on it. The main meal can be incorporated as well but just pop on a few raw chopped vegetables with a yummy healthy dip. Have your child mix the dip with you and place the veggies on the plate in a fun pattern or make a funny face out of them. The point is to make the healthy food fun!
• Some children do not like the taste of cooked vegetables. You could try serving a variety of  raw vegetables and see which ones your child likes. If all else fails you can puree some vegetables and include them in spaghetti sauces and casseroles. You can make muffins with vegetables in them. My children adore the apple and carrot muffins I make.
• Try growing a few vegetables in your own garden. I have seen many “non-vegetable eaters” consume loads of the “dreaded green stuff” when they have grown and picked it themselves.
• Don’t draw meal times out and make it a struggle. You want your child to feel positive about healthy foods.
•  A child needs to be exposed to a food at least ten times before they become used to taste and texture of it. So be patient and keep offering small servings of new foods in as many ways as you can.
• Try to respect your child’s food dislikes and don’t insist that they be a member of “the clean plate club!”
• Serving small portions will help. Since children burn up a lot of calories quickly and they have smaller stomachs.
• And remember, children can be very demanding about wanting certain foods, especially sweets. Reserve these for treat time only and don’t become a hostage to food demands. For a “sweet treat” give fruits (peaches, strawberries, apples, grapes etc.) and non-fat dairy products like yogurt. These are nutritious complements to a healthy diet and often turn “picky eaters” into real gourmets!

Parent Tips

Melissa

Sally was a great eater as a baby - we used to call her the baby bird because she would open her mouth and the food would go in. When she was around 2 years old she was ok at breakfast and lunch, but when it came to dinner hardly any food was going in. Meal times where going on forever! The whole thing became ridiculous with me performing all kinds of tricks to get her to eat. I realized I needed to change my expectations. I gave her a smaller plate and put much less food on it - this seemed to help her to think  what she was eating was achievable. I also had her help me prepare some meals so she could choose how many of certain foods would go on her plate. I changed my expectation on the variety of foods I expected her to eat - I had her try really small amounts of foods she didn't like and after awhile she did develop a taste for a bigger variety of foods. I was dubious about the letting her try it at least 10 times rule, but it really does work! She now eats a variety of foods - I still get a kick out of her saying "This dinner looks yummy."

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