One of the most vital aspects of parenting is ensuring your child receives proper nutrition to support growth and development. Adequate nutrients are essential for a child’s early growth. Yet, I hear many parents complain that their children do not eat well, resulting in a lack of essential nutrients needed for healthy development.
If you are a parent who has this constant complaint – ‘My kid is not eating proper food, he is a picky eater, etc.’-then this blog is exactly what you need. I want you to read it properly till the end and try these tips that I will share with you, as you are truly going to thank me for this. But, before talking about anything else, I want you all to read about my personal story.
My Story
Let’s first read out my personal experience with my little one, as it is important for you all to understand how I gradually used `the method’.
Of course, we started solids when my son was 6 months old, and if you wish to know how we did it, then you can click here to read about it. In the beginning months, his food intake was going smoothly and well. We thought that we were the luckiest parents to have such a good boy who ate everything we served him, but once he turned one year old, he just stopped eating. Maybe our luck was limited (lol). It was so heartbreaking because you put your heart and soul into preparing customized meals especially for your baby, and they don’t even taste them. This is exactly what my husband and I went through. My husband, being a foodie, wanted our son to taste so many different food items and also wanted to cook for him, but he lost interest as our boy didn’t want to put anything in his mouth. Along with us, our family members, who also tried so hard to feed our son, felt defeated. We were so worried cause he started refusing all the things that he once loved to eat. I know that so many parents or guardians reading this post can relate with me, as this type of behaviour is common, and there is a stage, or I can say there are many such stages, which we come through with kids.
You won’t believe it, but at one point, everyone started force-feeding him. Before, I was against this force-feeding method, but seeing my son not eating at all and losing weight, I also supported the idea of force-feeding. It looked as if we were not his real family, as he used to cry so much for not putting food in his mouth. Making him eat one or two bites per meal was a big task. It seemed that the whole day, we only worried about what to feed him and how to convince him to eat food. I tried many different recipes, but none worked. You won’t believe it, but at one point, I stopped cooking for my baby as all the things that I cooked for him with love and care were either eaten by me or sometimes thrown away.
The method’
After so many defeated attempts, I did something that I had to do since the beginning, and which I am good at, is research …!!! I spoke with experienced moms, went through my Child development books, looked up on the internet, and then I started using this method. Slowly and gradually, I could see the difference. Now there are happy meal times without customised cooking and stress.
What helped was not some trick or recipe; it was changing the way we approached or introduced the meals to our baby. I am going to conclude this whole idea in 5 steps:
1. Stop telling him/her to eat-
What we did was that we made him sit with us on our meal times and served the same food that we ate in small portions without giving him much attention. Slowly and gradually, he started to taste the food on his own. Although in the start, there were days when he just played with the food more rather than eating, we just let him do his thing. This is exactly what made meal time fun for him, and he also started tasting different flavours.
2. No back-up meals:
Instead of serving junk food or giving milk when he cried out of hunger, I served him the same food that was served before at the mealtime. This way, he got a sense of understanding that he isn’t going to get something special after rejecting the meal that was served earlier. You have to simply show them or just say that `this is what’s there in the menu today’. This way, a child becomes a less picky eater and opens up to trying new foods.
3. Let the child decide-
My job is to serve him food, not to decide whether he should eat right now or how much he should eat. This mindset totally changed the idea of forcing food that was built up in our minds. When we stopped forcing, he started listening to his body and his hunger cues.
4. No bribe or threats –
I realized that forcing a meal was actually a way of discouraging him from eating food. Instead, when we stop pressurizing, the results are truly amazing because food shouldn’t feel like pressure; it should feel safe. When he feels safe, he’s more open to trying.
5. No distractions while eating-
This specific point is very crucial. I’ve often seen this in my son. Even a minor distraction while eating food causes him to stop eating and move towards the thing or person that distracted him.
Conclusion:
As parents, we must accept the fact that these are the stages our children go through. My mom and my mother-in-law told me that they had faced similar issues as well when we were small. We need to stay calm and find different ways to overcome difficulties faced while raising a child. Now that you have come to the end of my article, I am sure that after trying these 5 things, your meal times are going to be much better than they were before. The main point to be noted is that this is not a one-day show; you have to be consistent and have lots of patience, and then, after almost one month, you will definitely see results.
Thanks for reading up to here. If you have any further queries, kindly leave them in the comments. I would be happy to answer them. Till then – HAPPY PARENTING…!!
