Getting Kids To Eat Better
“ My kid used to love curd rice and potatoes and now he doesn’t like that any more. My kid has stopped eating all his favourite food. I am at wits end. I really don’t know what to do “ – Nisha Aggarwal
“ My daughter doesn’t eat anything , I am so worried about my kid’s eating habits” – Lakshmi Karthik
“ I am at wit’s end with my four year old son. He wont eat any food he used to like before. He is refusing to eat most of the things am offering him. What to do?” – Susan Cherian
These are quotes from real moms we have interacted with. If these worries seem familiar to you, don’t worry you are not unique in having this trouble. According to statistics 89% of toddlers and 75% of all kids below 6 years go through this phase at least twice in a year.
So, what is the solution to this problem? We have compiled 6 ideas for you here
- Associate Meals with Fun: You can think of creating a fun atmosphere while eating, such as may be read or tell a story to the child during meal time . You can take the kid outside the house to a park or just outside on the street , show different activities while feeding. If this is done continuously, then kids start associating meals with fun and look forward to the meal.
- Think outside the box: It is ok to give dosa during lunch and roti during breakfast. Switch meals. This brings a bit of unpredictability into the mix and makes kids eat better
- Family Time: Make meals into family times. Let the kid eat like the adults. Keep a plate and serve all things in the table to the kid. Don’t offer separate food. Kids love to imitate adults. When they see adults enjoying their food, they will start enjoying their meal too.
- Too much familiarity: Sometimes, when kids eat something very well we feel happy and offer them that meal much more than other meals. This leads to too much familiarity with the food items and kids can suddenly stop liking them
- Introduce New Items: Try to introduce something simple yet new in the meals. For example, if the kid has stopped eating potatoes may be, add some carrots and Capsicum as an add- on in the recipe. Changed flavors can make a difference.You can also try a new recipe with the same vegetable. Isntead of plain potato sortay, you can consider making a curry with potatoes .You can also try new combinations, Instead of rice with sambhar you can consider rice with dal or any other curry.
- Keep exposing your child to new foods: Keep exposing your child to new foods, this way kids get to eat the same food in lesser frequency and this helps them enjoy the food more.
These are some ideas to help mothers and fathers make meal- time a little less stressful. This article has been compiled by our editorial team .
Who are we and what do we do?
We are ekdali. A small team of educators and parents that have together to create a lot of parenting resources . Free resources like short stories for kids and parenting articles. We also teamed up with a team of kids content exprerts to create beautiful posters, maps, flash cars and books. Do take a look at them here.
