Do you struggle to get your child to eat? Do you find it difficult to introduce new foods? It’s a common challenge which partly has to do with the way kids are wired. They want the familiar, tried and tested.
It’s normal and understandable, but we shouldn’t exactly let them have it their way all the time. Some kids will only eat carbs, some kids only eat food that is white, some kids eat no veggies, some kids eat no meat, some are a combination of all of the above.
Emma is the combination kind, and her desires change by the season. She loves broccoli but turns her nose up at cucumber. She will eat pitta bread but not if there’s cheese in it - she’ll only eat cheese in a regular sliced bread sandwich. But despite these idiosyncrasies she’s a pretty good eater. She will eat meat, and veggies and loves fruit, yoghurt, cheese…. But not every kind you put in front of her, she has her favourites.
I’m pretty happy with her diet and I truly believe it’s because of the way we introduce food to her. I make fun lunch boxes and try to include a new food like that. She loves the fun food picks, cute containers. Another really fun way we introduce food to Emma is by serving it in Muffin Tins.
It’s normal and understandable, but we shouldn’t exactly let them have it their way all the time. Some kids will only eat carbs, some kids only eat food that is white, some kids eat no veggies, some kids eat no meat, some are a combination of all of the above.
Emma is the combination kind, and her desires change by the season. She loves broccoli but turns her nose up at cucumber. She will eat pitta bread but not if there’s cheese in it - she’ll only eat cheese in a regular sliced bread sandwich. But despite these idiosyncrasies she’s a pretty good eater. She will eat meat, and veggies and loves fruit, yoghurt, cheese…. But not every kind you put in front of her, she has her favourites.
I’m pretty happy with her diet and I truly believe it’s because of the way we introduce food to her. I make fun lunch boxes and try to include a new food like that. She loves the fun food picks, cute containers. Another really fun way we introduce food to Emma is by serving it in Muffin Tins.
It’s such a great way to serve and introduce new foods. You get 6 holes and a chance to fill each with a different food. And even if you don’t make cute shapes it’s already separated in child friendly compartments.
They will love the new presentation, they will love the mini sizes, and you could be sure that they will try that new food you added in one of the compartments. If they don’t, don’t despair. It could take 10 – 15 tries for your toddler to accept the new food. You just need to keep introducing the food and eating it yourself.
Now just imagine, you worked all summer to have your angel accept strawberries. You finally get her to eat them and after all that work, seasons change, strawberries go out of season; this may mean you will have to reintroduce again next summer. It’s kind of an out of site out of mind situation. Best thing I can recommend is keep introducing the food even in a different form. So get some frozen strawberries and make a strawberry yoghurt or a strawberry banana smoothie.
Good Luck with it! It takes patience and perseverance, but isn’t that what parenting in general is all about?
Vanja
Emma’s Lunch
They will love the new presentation, they will love the mini sizes, and you could be sure that they will try that new food you added in one of the compartments. If they don’t, don’t despair. It could take 10 – 15 tries for your toddler to accept the new food. You just need to keep introducing the food and eating it yourself.
Now just imagine, you worked all summer to have your angel accept strawberries. You finally get her to eat them and after all that work, seasons change, strawberries go out of season; this may mean you will have to reintroduce again next summer. It’s kind of an out of site out of mind situation. Best thing I can recommend is keep introducing the food even in a different form. So get some frozen strawberries and make a strawberry yoghurt or a strawberry banana smoothie.
Good Luck with it! It takes patience and perseverance, but isn’t that what parenting in general is all about?
Vanja
Emma’s Lunch
0 comments:
Post a Comment