I always receive emails and calls from mums who worry about how to get their picky eating kids to eat better. Getting that side look each time you bring a spoon of food close to your child can really be tiring for both mum and baby. It usually leads to food wastage and an underfed baby, both of which are not favorable, nutrition and budget wise.

However, before you conclude that your baby is a picky eater you have to consider the following:

1. TEETHING

A teething child might want to take only liquid. The age when most mums start to introduce solid food to children are usually the age when they start to grow a tooth or two, hence they get irritable and will not be very accepting of solid food. Consider this possibility when you feed your baby.

2. NATURE IN ACTION

The bodies of your little ones need specific nutrients at some point which might make them crave foods with these nutrients and refuse other foods. So, if at some point your child takes only water or watery foods, please allow them, their body might just be asking for it.

3. NEED TO INDULGE

Before you conclude that your baby is not eating well, think of how they have reacted to food through over a period of time which is typically one week. An example is if they have had a lot of solid food through the week and later refuse to eat solid much later then let them indulge.

4. INTRODUCTION OF NEW FOOD

You need to have fed your baby with a particular food for some number of times before you conclude that the baby will not eat this food. It is natural that getting a child to eat a particular food takes time.

In addition to the 4 points above, also note that moderation is key in nutrition.

GOOD TO KNOW

When starting a baby or toddler on new foods, you should always start with single ingredients. This important step will help you see how they react to each food ingredient.

Now if your baby happens to be picky and only likes the sweet foods, like sweet potatoes, bananas and carrots, you definitely cannot restrict their diets to just these foods, so you need to improvise.

HOW TO IMPROVISE ON BABY FOOD

Use one of the ingredients you know the child tolerates as the base ingredient i.e the larger quantity. Then add a lesser amount of other ingredients to the food such that the taste doesn’t overwhelm that of the base ingredient.

Another way of getting picky eaters to eat is to change the food texture. Food textures can be altered in a whole lot of ways such as

Completely pureed to mashed
Thick to very light textured
Diced to shredded
Boiled to grilled, etc

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ON CHANGING FOOD TEXTURES FOR MY BABIES

Two of my quadruplets happened to be constipated and were refusing to eat their cereal, they were 8 months old at that time and I had started to thicken their cereal. So I made a carrot puree to help with moving their bowels but they still refused to eat it as all they wanted was fluid. I then decided to put a portion of the thick carrot cereal in a feeding bottle, a scoop of milk and filled the bottle with water.

They drank all of it and were pooping in no time. Now everyone is happy and eating again.

HAPPY AND EAGER EATERS

Feeding your babies with a variety of different tasting meals from an early age – usually 6 months is also an effective way of getting your kids to be happy and eager eaters. This can be achieved by making a variety of tasty and nutritious meals at home.

Finally on picky eating, eating time should not be fight time. Babies pick up on little things and begin to believe that it is the norm. Therefore let your kids know and identify with a particular fun activity while eating. It could be a song they like. The song should have registered in their minds beforehand so anytime they hear it they know it’s food time and it’s happy time.

Do you have a picky eater at home? Let’s make food their pals together.

Learn more at http://yummytummies.com.ng/how-to-get-your-picky-eating-kids-to-eat-better/