Did you feel that every mealtime is a battle ? Have you ever encounter these problems?
- eat too slow (more than 1 hour)
- eat a few mouth & don’t want to eat
- only eat white rice
- will spit whatever that don’t like (example vegetable)
- eat soft and not hard food
- no concentrate on eating
Actually, most of the eating problem with kids nowadays is due to modern parenting.
Reasons a Child Don’t Like to Eat
1. Texture
Did you realised that children like to eat cookies. It\’s because they like how the food feels in the mouth – the taste and texture. The chewing will satisfy the oral sensory. Due to over-protective parenting, some parents will cut and chop everything into small pieces because they are afraid that the child choke. However, this cause the child to lose interest in eating.
Many parents know that a child should start solid food at 6months. However, do you know that :-
- At 9months, the child can eat half porridge and half rice texture.
- After 12months, the child can eat rice with soup.
- At 18months, no more puree and just cut the food into small pieces.
- At 24months, the child should eat what the adults eat but cut into small pieces. The child will follow what the parents do (parent modelling).
- At 30months, the child should eat together with the adults and eating herself. For big food, the child should split into few mouth, or request for help. This will train them to be independent.
2. Taste
If you do not add any seasoning, it is also overprotective parenting. Can you eat porridge for more than 6months without adding any seasoning? Nutrients is very important but so is the taste. Baby started to eat different types of food with different taste when they are in the mother\’s womb. However, the food taste they eat is worse than before they were born. Actually, you can add chicken floss to rice, little bit of soy sauce, sesame sauce also very fragrance, cheese baked rice. Let the child feels that the food is delicious. If the food taste is bad, the child will be picky eater.
3. Let Child Eat Herself
The less you control, the better. Did you realised that the child is more willing to do more of an activity if she can do it herself? The less control the child have, the less interest the child have. The child who was spooned until older does not have the sense of accomplishment. You are afraid that the child will mess up the place if she eat herself? When attend kindergarten, this kind of child will really mess up the place, eat very slow, and some might need teachers help. So, let go and let the child eat herself.
4. Picky Eater
For not so serious picky eater, the kids will eat white rice and certain food. You have to reward and praise them for eating additional food. And analyse the reason why she eat this food. Then, find and introduce them to similar food.
For extreme picky eater, the kids might only eat certain types of food such as only eat white rice, pao skin or noodle. Then, you might try:-
- rice with soup
- hide food in rice (include little bit of salmon inside rice)
- add food with rice
5. Not Hungry
Most children is not hungry because they eat until very full at every meal. If they are not hungry, they will not love to eat. Most children do not like to eat because they are not hungry, they are not active, drink too much milk and time between meals is too short.
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