Nutrition plays a key role in overall health and well-being throughout life, but especially during childhood.
Your little one is past the puree phase and it’s time to replace baby food and offer solid food. It is likely that the first few times your child rejects the food and it is normal, since the texture and taste often change. But what if time passes and the child still doesn’t want certain foods? That’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. We are going to give you some guidelines on teaching your child to eat all kinds of food.
Tips for your child to eat all kinds of foods
Nutrition plays a key role in overall health and well-being throughout life, but especially during childhood. In fact, it is scientifically proven that if during the first years of life there have been certain nutritional deficiencies this can lead to diseases in adulthood. Precisely to avoid this, the best thing is that children follow a very varied and balanced diet and to achieve this, nothing better than the child eating all kinds of food. However, we are aware that it is not an easy task and that during the transition from baby to adult food there are always certain types of food that get in the way and make the goal difficult. Fortunately, there are certain tips that can help. Do you want to know what they are?
Be patient
Educating children means displaying a lot of patience and acquiring more good eating habits. In the face of their refusals, you must stay calm and not despair, because the nerves will only create an unfavorable stress environment for the child to eat.
Show your child why it’s important to eat everything
There should be a relaxed climate in this situation because the child must understand the importance of eating all the foods on the plate. That is why you should explain it in a relaxed and understandable manner. If you are shouting or just angry, the child won’t be receptive to learning and will become angry at their decision not to eat.
At least, they should try the food
It’s more likely that the child tells you that he or she doesn’t eat because they don’t like it without even trying the food. In this situation, try to convince your child to eat a little first and decide whether they like it or not. If they like it, they will continue to eat; if they don’t like it, explain to them that you can look for solutions together.
Search for tasty recipes
It is very important to involve the child in the resolution of conflicts. And a good example is everything related to infant nutrition. If the child, after tasting the food, continues refusing to eat, try to offer the same food, but accompanied by another that he likes. That way they will be encouraged to eat.
You can also place food on a plate in a fun way. In other words, arrange the food on the plate giving rise to shapes that attracts their attention. You can even create your own recipes. For example, if the child refuses to eat fried cauliflower, why don’t you make a cauliflower pizza? It’s the same food, it’s the same nutrients, yet you’re offering it in a much more appealing way to your baby. You can even involve the little one by asking him to help you prepare his food.
Be your child’s role model and eat together
What we’ve seen so far is useless if we don’t give an example. For children, parents are their reflection and that is why as the adults, we must also follow a balanced diet. We cannot expect the little ones to eat fruits and vegetables if we don’t do the same. We can’t expect the little ones to eat fruit and vegetables if we don’t. And for that, there is nothing better than eating all together so that you realize that the whole family eats the same thing.
Establish certain customs
In addition to what has been said, in order to help improve children’s eating habits, it is also important to establish certain customs, for example, that the child does not snack between meals, that he eats at the same time and in the same place and that he even helps set the table.
And what you should never do…
As you can see, there are many options you can carry out when the child does not want to eat. What should never happen is follow your child’s “wants” in food decisions or start preparing another meal. We understand that eating time can be very stressful, but it is very important for the child to get used to eating everything and that requires a good dose of patience, time and ingenuity.