As the saying goes, every family has a hard book to read. But for parents, almost every family will have this hard book: let naughty children eat on time, or let children not be picky about food and eat something other than fast food and snacks.
In fact, helping picky babies to develop balanced diet habits is not an impossible task for what. In order to reduce [armed conflicts] at the meal point, try the following 10 tips.
1. Don’t oppose your child’s appetite
If the child is really not hungry, he must not be forced to eat.
Of course, don’t use [threats] or [bribes] to force children to eat food they don’t want to eat. These practices will only increase children’s resistance to food, and even ignore their hunger or satiety because of these negative emotions.
It is wise to give the child only a small amount of food at a time so that the child can have the opportunity to ask for more food on his own initiative.
Step 2: Eat regularly
Develop a regular meal time and try to eat or snack at the same time every day.
At the same time, children should try their best to drink pure fruit juice or milk during meals and white water at other times. This can avoid satiety caused by drinking fruit juice or other beverages and affect normal meals.
3. Be persuasive rather than overnight.
In the face of unfamiliar and unseen food, most children will observe it for a period of time before they want to take a small bite to taste it.
When children first come into contact with strange foods, talk to them more about the color, shape, smell and texture of these foods to arouse their interest, instead of directly saying how delicious it tastes. Moreover, when children eat these foods for the first time, it is best to match them with their favorite dishes at the same time.
STEP 4 Spend your mind on cooking
When cooking vegetables, you can match them with your children’s favorite food.
When cutting vegetables, use some moulds or special tools to cut the ingredients into various interesting shapes, and also pay attention to the color matching of the ingredients. Children like beautiful and interesting food.
STEP 5 Involve Children in Cooking
When buying vegetables in supermarkets or markets, you can let your child choose the ingredients he likes. When buying ingredients, you should also pay attention to avoid the foods you don’t want to give your children.
When you get home, you can ask your child to help you wash dishes, make cold dishes, or set up the dining table so that your child can participate in the cooking process.
Step 6: Set a good example
Efforts should be made to be parents who eat a balanced diet, so that children are more likely to eat all kinds of healthy foods like their parents.
7. Creative Cooking
You can put some fruit slices or shreds on the cake, or make vegetables into grass and eggs into sun to make eating more interesting.
Step 8 Reduce dining disturbances
During the meal, turn off the TV and other electronic devices that may distract children’s attention. This will help children concentrate on eating and avoid interference.
Attention should also be paid not to let children come into contact with too many advertisements such as candy or fast food at ordinary times, so as to avoid causing children to crave these unhealthy foods.
9. No Dessert Prohibition
Strictly forbidding children to eat dessert will give children the illusion that dessert is better to eat, which will only increase his desire for dessert.
It is suggested that dessert can be eaten 1 or 2 days a week, or dessert can be directly replaced by fruit, yogurt or other healthier foods.
10. It is not advisable to be on call.
When a child feels hungry outside the meal, some parents will prepare food for the child immediately. In fact, this may even aggravate the child’s bad habit of picky eating.
If parents think that their children’s picky eating has affected their growth and development, they can consult a pediatrician to help them judge their children’s development status. In addition, it is best to record the type and amount of food their children have eaten in the past 3 days before seeing a doctor, which will help the doctor to diagnose.
Finally, all parents should be reminded that their children’s eating habits will not change overnight, so parents need to maintain patience and continuous guidance to help their children develop good eating habits.
Responsible Editor: Fu Ting
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