How to teach a child to eat healthy - advice from nutritionists and psychologists. A variety of foods, tastings, culinary experimentation and other ways to form healthy eating habits.
Is your child too picky about food or does it seem to you that he eats little? Then you may need our advice.
During the first two years of their life, babies learn to sit, stand, walk, speak, and they also taste solid foods. According to nutritionists, it is very important to start eating food on time, in the right amount, consisting of foods that are really useful for the body. This skill can and should be trained, as eating habits that are formed in early childhood continue to influence tastes throughout life.
1. Be patient
When the baby took his first step, you did not expect that he will soon run a hundred meters. Follow the same principle when organizing his meals. Do not expect that the crumb will willingly eat healthy food as soon as it first tastes it. According to nutritionists, a child will fall in love with a vegetable or fruit only after he has tried it 10 times. So do not rush to call the child a "baby".
2. Introduce variety
Offer your baby as many different foods and tastes as age norms, your imagination and financial capabilities allow. If you decide to feed him with rice, cook first round, then "jasmine", another day - brown.
Experiment with original presentation of dishes: put vegetables on a plate in the form of a rainbow, cream stars on broccoli puree, make a chicken fillet caterpillar or a hedgehog owl with mashed potatoes. At the age of 2, babies experience an “appetite crisis” when they start giving up their previously favorite dishes, but with such a variety, its menu will not become completely scarce.
There are children who refuse to eat anything other than certain kinds of cheese or noodles. At the same time, they also demand that the cheese be cut exactly as they like, and all other food is disgusting, up to and including gagging. Nutritionists explain that this is not an ordinary whim, as parents might think. This happens if by the age of 2 the child has not been introduced to the different forms, textures, tastes, aromas of food. So you have to catch up, only it will take more effort.
“I have met children who eat nothing but a certain type of cheese and pasta,” says nutritionist Marina Vlasova. - Moreover, the cheese must be cut in a certain way. All other food is disgusting to the point of vomiting. Unfortunately, this is not just a whim, as many parents think. This is the result of the fact that by the age of two, the child did not get to know dishes of different consistency, shape, taste and smell. Now we have to start all over again, but with great effort. "
3. Experiment with textures
Nutrition experts advise giving children different consistencies. It can be one product that changes its structure depending on the method of preparation and serving (whole banana, banana puree, banana slices) or different (bread, cereals, meat, vegetables, fruits). Practice shows that children who, at the age of 6-9 months, were fed not only mashed potatoes, but also food in a different form, have fewer nutritional problems than those who were offered only food from a blender.
4. Allow your child to behave freely at the table
When a baby runs his finger in a plate of puree or spreads porridge on the table, he does not indulge, but examines the food and gets to know it by touch. This is as important as tasting it and getting the taste.
5. Ignore grimaces
Do not pay attention to the expression with which the child tries a new dish. Even if he wrinkles his nose by taking a piece of zucchini in his mouth, do not rush to conclude that the toddler is disgusted or he will never eat it again. According to experts, grimacing while eating is absolutely normal. Often babies frown, but at the same time continue to eat with appetite.
When older children say they don't like a certain food, sometimes it means that the dish is simply unfamiliar to them. Don't say anything - just remove the plate and offer similar food again a week later.
6. Teach your child to taste food
Getting to know a new taste means putting food on your tongue. Explain to your baby that it doesn’t have to be chewed or swallowed. When you shift the focus from eating to tasting by allowing the spit out of the food you don't like, you are more likely to whet your child's appetite.
In addition, the baby takes small portions of 1-2 tablespoons with more enthusiasm than a huge plate filled to the brim.
7. Don't force me to eat
The norms for the amount of food for children of each age are individual. They are influenced by various factors, including physique, body weight, physical and mental activity, and metabolic rate. If you force a child to eat another spoon when he no longer wants, you only form in him a negative attitude towards food. Over time, this will lead to the development of a conditioned reflex, and, sitting down at the table, the child will experience stress every time. Appetite will definitely not appear.
Psychologists say that in most cases, what mothers take for eating disorders is not: it is just that the mother thinks that the child is eating too little, or she has not established a diet.
The following story clearly demonstrates what persuasion can lead to to eat another spoon for mom and for dad.
One psychologist said that a boy of about 4 years old was brought to see him. The reason was not nutritional, but the specialist noticed how his little client was chewing an apple while waiting for a consultation - purely mechanically, without emotion. Later it turned out that the parents and grandmother, by their persuasion and blackmail like "finish the soup, otherwise the bunny will drown" (and a hare was drawn on the bottom of the plate), achieved a complete lack of understanding of the feeling of satiety, hunger, and perception of taste. The boy learned to take food in any form and volume when his mother or grandmother decides that it is time to eat. This food abuse soon turned into a nervous breakdown, which had to be treated by a psychologist.
8. Don't order kids' menus in restaurants
Contrary to expectations, you can often find not the most healthy dishes in the children's menu in restaurants. Therefore, it is better to order a small plate of something healthy from the adult menu and share the food with your child. This will make the baby feel like an adult - it is quite possible that he will even eat the entire serving.
9. Lead by example
Of course, a child will not gobble up spinach by both cheeks, watching with what pleasure his parents eat hamburgers. Your personal example is the most effective way to convince a child to try the taste of a dish that he didn't like the first time.
How to persuade your child to eat vegetables: 7 tips:"Hide" vegetables in the dishes that the child loves, serve them beautifully, feed them with cartoons - whatever parents can think of for the kid to eat carrots. We will tell you how to help your child to love vegetables.
