After a baby turns 2 or 3 years old, the issue of eating becomes the top priority in the family. Many parents complain: “My child is too picky” “My child does not eat enough”.
Parents are worried that these problems will not lead to malnutrition and affect the normal development of their babies?
What should be done to get a balanced nutrition for a picky baby? How can we get as much nutritious food as possible into those picky little mouths?
Why is it so difficult for babies to eat?
To solve the baby’s eating problem, you need to understand: why babies become more and more picky eaters and eat less and less?
1. Developmental slowdown
Babies eat a lot in the first year because they are developing fast.
On average, babies weigh three times as much as they did at birth when they were 1 year old. However, from age 1 to 2, a normal toddler will only gain 1/3 or less of his or her body weight.
At the same time, many toddlers go through a normal “lose the baby fat” phase, when they prefer to consume excess body fat for energy.
2. Children are small and have small appetites
Their stomachs are about the size of a fist. Next time you put a plate full of food in front of your child, compare how much food and the size of your child’s fist, then you will know why he always has leftovers.
3. Emotional and motor development
Changes in emotional development and motor development can also bring about changes in eating patterns.
Two- and three-year-old babies just will always look around and be quiet, too busy exploring the outside world to sit quietly and eat, far less attractive to them than going out to play.
For young children, less food and more meals are more appropriate.
4.Eating habits are not fixed
Young children’s eating habits are as unpredictable as their moods.
A child may eat well one day and then eat almost nothing the next;
A child may be obsessed with a certain food one day and then not eat anything at all the next.
The only thing that is certain about their eating habits is that they are unpredictable.
But if you add up the nutritional value of everything your child eats during the week, you’ll be surprised at how balanced his diet actually is.
Instead of worrying about getting your child to eat a balanced meal at every meal, try switching the cycle to a week.
Tips from smart moms
Let’s see what tips are out there to get your baby’s increasingly picky mouth to eat as much healthy food as possible!
1. Divide into smaller portions
Use ice trays, cookie molds or compartmentalized trays and fill each compartment with brightly colored and nutritious foods, this is called a “rainbow lunch”, remember to leave two compartments for nutritious dips.
As children run around the house, they will stop to eat a little when they pass the table and then continue to play. Parents should tell their children to sit at the table when they eat, not grab a hand full of food or run around with a tray.
Or place the tray between the two of you and eat with him to send the signal to your baby that “eating is fun”.
2. Name the food
Give the food on the tray a visual name, such as
Avocado “boat”: Cut the small avocado lengthwise into quarters;
Broccoli “tree”: steamed pieces of broccoli can be dipped in cheese sauce and called “cheese on a tree”;
Carrot “Cane”: cooked carrot sticks;
Apple “Moon”: Peeled apple slices can be served with a thin layer of peanut butter;
Eggs “canoe”: fully cooked eggs cut lengthwise into quarters.
3.Dip the food
Young children like to dip their food into ingredients. In fact, children will love dipping less popular foods (such as vegetables) into a delicious sauce. Try these dips.
Puree the avocado: with or without spices;
Yogurt: plain yogurt or flavored yogurt with juice concentrate;
A variety of finished fruit and vegetable purees;
Nutritious salad dressings;
Meat sauce;
Cheese sauce.
4. Smear
Kids love to smear, so give them some nutritious “paint” to put on whole wheat crackers, bread or carrot sticks to eat.
5. Top it off with a dip
Cover foods that your child doesn’t recognize or like with a delicious ingredient dip.
6.Healthy drinks
You can mix yogurt and fresh fruit together and make a drinkable shake.
7.Eat high-calorie foods
Eat one bite and encourage your child to eat smaller meals and choose nutritious foods. For children who eat less, high-calorie foods are more appropriate, and you can get a lot of nutrition by eating a little.
The following is a list of some of the high-calorie, nutrient-dense foods that young children are most likely to love.
Avocados ;
Various kinds of beans and soy products;
Cheese, yogurt;
Peanut butter or nut butter;
Eggs of all kinds;
Fish, especially deep-sea fish;
Chicken.
8. Add some oil
Healthy oils are rich in healthy fats essential for growth and development, but also have high calories to meet the needs of growing children, such as sesame oil and olive oil.
For children who seem to be underfed, it is recommended that parents add a small spoonful of olive oil to their children’s meals every day, such as in vegetable salads, or sprinkle some olive oil when making various kinds of pasta.
9.Sprinkle some mince
Some nuts are nutritious but easy to cause choking, such as cashews, pistachios, almonds, etc.. Use a grinder to grind nuts for 10 to 20 seconds, after processing preschoolers to eat safer.
In the child’s meal, you can add some homemade nut powder to the rice porridge, cereal or yogurt.
10, make up a makeup
Children prefer to eat what they have created themselves.
If your child is at the stage where he or she won’t eat vegetables, let him or her play with makeup on them. Put together brightly colored faces of vegetables, for example, use beans for eyes, tomatoes for ears, and carrots for noses.
Or make whole wheat bread even more interesting: give it beans for eyes, carrots for a nose, grated cheese for hair, and a mouth painted with ketchup.
11. Share food
Throw a party for your child, invite older children over for dinner, and entertain everyone with nutritious food.
Show your child how much his or her friends like to eat, and let the pressure from the little ones urge your child to pay attention to the matter of eating.
Or try using your child’s rebelliousness.
Prepare a meal, sit down and eat by yourself, pretend you don’t care whether your child eats or not, he will probably run over and eat with you, after all, grabbing food is more fun to bring the meal.
12. For the sake of nutrition, don’t compromise
In order to get a picky baby to eat, parents often throw up their hands to junk food.
How many times have you heard a mother say, “Don’t like tonight’s meal? You didn’t have enough for dinner? Do you want some chips?”
As much as you really want to make eating fun, there comes a point (around the age of two) when you need to use your parental authority: “We’re having this for dinner!
The earlier you resort to this tactic, the better your child’s eating habits will be.