How to coax a three year old to eat his/ her meals
From ArticleWorld
To coax a three year old to eat his/ her meals can take on psychological overtones if allowed to get out of hand. The problem with fussy eaters is that the more the parents fuss over them, the more mulish they become when it comes to eating certain things on their plate or even their whole meal. Most children go through periods of being fussy eaters as part of growing up. Then many times they only want to eat certain food items and not the others and yet are quite active and healthy. As parents the only thing you need to keep in mind is not to worry unnecessarily and get hypersensitive. Here are some guidelines to make your toddler take an interest in his/ her food.
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A few suggestions
- Remember, never force a child to eat or you may end up doing more damage than good with the child developing an aversion for food and dreading mealtimes.
- A hungry child will want to eat something. If it does not show an inclination to eat a certain type of food then you as a parent should be prepared to present the child with a choice of many things to eat. Just make sure that all the different food choices are healthy and nutritious choices.
- Ensure that the food is freshly cooked and served in an attractive way. If the child so desires cut his /her sandwiches up, with a cookie cutter, into different shapes.
- Make meal times happy, relaxed and something that the child will look forward to. Talk about food and allow the child to eat whatever he/ she wants to eat from the choice that you presented them with.
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Do’s
- You might indulge the child and tell a story while they are eating. This habit is not to be encouraged but helps during certain tricky times when the child becomes so distracted with the story that it eats up the meal without any fuss.
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Don’ts
- Don’t ever force feed children; it puts them off their food as sure as you shut the door on their stomachs.