Posted September 8, 2010 - 2:17pm by Kate Kinne
Picky eaters
Have you ever fed a toddler? Ugh. Perhaps you share my sentiment. I have a two-year-old son, B, who I would call a “picky eater.” Ok, I’ll give him a little credit, he has gotten much better. However, as a dietitian, I have these fantastic notions that he will eat beans, spinach and almond butter on a regular basis, and he, of course, wants nothing to do with them. Or, he’ll devour something (like salmon, yay!) one night, and next week he won’t touch it. What’s a well-intentioned mom (or dad) to do?
I went to the pros. I spoke with a couple pediatric dietitians who assured me that my son was quite normal. They suggested some tips, and I’ve realized some on my own, that have helped us quite a bit, mostly by taking a lot of stress off of my husband and me.
1. Don’t cater to the pickiness. For awhile, my son would only eat hot dogs or mac & cheese. What kid wouldn’t, if he knew all he had to do was refuse the grilled chicken and veggies and the hot dog would appear? I’m embarrassed to admit that if he didn’t eat what we gave him, we took it away and gave him something we knew he would eat. He was pretty low on the weight curve, so we were so concerned about getting him calories and we made that our priority, instead of creating healthy eating habits. When we stopped catering to him, our stress level went way down. We realized that B was not going to starve. Some meals he completely skipped, refusing to even taste anything. But he typically made up for it by eating well the next day, and he did start to try some new and unfamiliar foods. We’re still a work-in-progress.
2. Your toddler should be part of the family dinner table. Eat together, as a family, and feed everyone the same thing (assuming its age appropriate, of course). In other words, don’t be a short order cook! Think about how much easier this will make your life. Your child will learn a good deal from experiencing his meals with you. Watching everyone else enjoy a strange new food may make him curious enough to try it.
3. When introducing new foods, serve it with something you know he/she will eat. If your child loves berries, when you introduce the salmon for the first time, give him/her a small side of berries as well so there is something familiar on the plate. Also, introduce new foods when you know your child is hungry. If your child’s biggest meal is at lunchtime, try new foods then, when you know the chances of him/her eating it are best. My son was allergic to eggs, so he had never eaten French toast or scrambled eggs before. We had to take him in to the allergist for a food challenge, and bring in French toast and eggs. I was afraid he wouldn’t touch them because they were unfamiliar to him. But, they had advised us to not feed him anything for breakfast that day, so he was HUNGRY. He ate an entire piece of French toast while we were there!
4. Try and try again. Repeated exposure is going to make your toddler more likely to try something. If he/she doesn’t eat your famous casserole the first time, put a few pieces in the freezer so that you can try again sporadically. On the fiftth or twelfth time (yes, it may take that many tries!), he/she may eat it.
5. Keep the snacks in check, and beverages too. I’ve had clients tell me that their kids don’t eat very well at mealtimes. However, these moms are constantly using snacks to pacify their tired, irritable, or (fill in the blank) child. Don’t offer as many snacks if your kids aren’t eating at mealtime. They probably aren’t hungry! Kids who drink a lot of milk or juice are also likely to eat less food. Instead, try offering milk with meals, and water in between. Juice is a special treat in our house (especially because B eats a good amount of fruit already).
6. Involve your toddler in making the meal. Granted, this takes a lot of patience and extra time for clean-up. But, B gets a kick out of helping put his meals together. Today we made some blueberry muffins and all he did was put the cute monkey paper cups in the muffin tin, and stir the batter a little bit, but he loved it! Pick a couple steps in the recipe that he/she couldn’t do much harm, and get them involved. It may make eating the food more fun. Also, think about making foods into fun shapes. Use a cookie cutter to make a butterfly or car sandwich, or make faces on the plate with the fruits and veggies.
7. Kids like to dip! Ketchup, light salad dressing, hummus, whatever. Dipping is fun!
8. Limit distractions. No TV, no toys, no books. Sit in the high chair/booster seat only to eat. Establish a consistent routine – eat in the same place, about the same time, with the family if possible. I know there will be busy nights that will cause exceptions to this rule. But for the most part, try to be as consistent as possible.
9. Finally, don’t make a big deal of the eating issues in front of your child. Don’t beg or plead with him or her to eat, and don’t discuss your frustrations with your spouse in front of your child. Offer the food, make sure he/she knows that this is what he gets, and then if he/she doesn’t eat, you simply carry on with your day. If he/she does eat well, offer some calm encouragement “Oh wow, my good boy was hungry today!”
Let us know how it goes! Have other ideas? Please do share!
Healthy Regards,
kate
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