Useful Info

Correcting your child's eating habits
( Excerpts from “Meals for Toddlers” by Deirdre Randall )

As  mothers, we are concerned that our children have a balanced diet which will ensure good health and growth.  However toddlers very frequently have their own ideas about what they eat, and all too easily mealtimes become a battleground in which the toddler asserts his new found independence.

 It is important that healthy attitudes and habits are formed in the early years as they will become lifelong habits and can be very difficult to change in adulthood.

How do you get your toddler to eat nutritious well-balanced meals?

 It has been found that if children are left to choose from a variety of healthy foods, they will, over a period of a few days, choose a healthy diet, if not balanced.  Children will not starve themselves if good food is available. 

This means that if you present your child with a large variety of nutritious foods several times a day, he will feed himself a balanced diet.  Using this method means that non-nutritious foods should not be available, in fact do not even have them in the house.

 Offer your child healthy snacks, such as small wedges of cheese, fruit, or peanut butter sandwiches in between meals as toddlers are not able to go for long periods of time without food, otherwise they become cranky and irritable 

When giving your child meals, offer small varied amounts of food.  Large quantities are off-putting.  Your child will let you know if he wants more.  Don’t coax or force him to eat more than he wants with bribes or punishment.  This will cause overeating and also eating for comfort or reward in later life.  Good children who clean their plate to please mum stand a fair chance of becoming obese adults, who feel guilty if they leave something on their plates.  Food is equated with love and they treat themselves to food when they are feeling low regardless of whether they are hungry or not.

Teaching a child moderation and to listen to his body are far better habits.  Mealtime should be relaxed and happy.  Accept that your toddler will have fads - when he only eats certain foods and not others.  Leave the disliked food for a month or two and then re-introduce it, or disguise it in some other way.  You can usually substitute another food from the same food group that he will find acceptable.

Like adults, children have fluctuating appetites.  They sometimes don’t feel like eating for a variety of reasons, i.e. excitement, or absorption in a task.  If your child does not enjoy a good cooked meal, there is no need for alarm.  Uncooked food is not only simpler to prepare, but is more nutritious and you can be sure that foods such as cheese, eggs, salad or yoghurt provide a good diet.  Also remember that your toddler’s body is not growing at the same rate as it did a year ago, and thus his appetite is smaller.  

Have a regular mealtime - routine is important.  Don’t wait until your child is very hungry, otherwise he will be irritable and fussy.  Two snacks a day are important between meals.

There are many imaginative and entertaining ways to make mealtimes fun for toddlers.  Apart from changing the place where he eats, for example by having a picnic outside, the most obvious way is in the presentation of the food itself.

Let your toddler make his own sandwich.  Give him lightly buttered slices of bread and a few little bowls of different ingredients.  He can either use his fingers or a spoon to put the ingredients on the bread.

If you follow these simple rules your child will grow up happy and healthy with uncomplicated eating habits.