Nightmarish mealtimes? Feeding children can easily be counted as
one of the top three parenting exercises that are the toughest to accomplish.
It’s a no brainer that feeding kids is a hard road, but there are ways to ease the journey.
It Works Every Time: Place a low table in a room where your children
spend most of their time. Keep a bowl of washed fruits on it. The table should
be low enough for the contents to be clearly visible at all times. Every time the
children are nibblish, they will reach out for what they see. Watch them get
hooked on to fruits rather than cookies. Vary the contents from time to time. Change
the texture – go from soft to crunchy and vice versa.
Visual Appeal: It’s not for nothing that chefs go overboard
trying to make their food look good. We eat with our eyes first, so take the “senses”
route when it comes to “creating” food for your child. Let it look good, smell
good, have different textures, and so on. Liven up the drab sandwich by giving
it a different shape such as a circle or star; “draw” a ketchup face or simply
make it the most colourful sandwich they’ve ever seen! Remember, more colour
means more nutrition.
Familiar vs. the Unfamiliar:
You know your child
best, so work out the extent to which new foods work. Sometimes, “familiar”
equals comfort food, and at other times it creates boredom. Rule of thumb – the
more variety you give your child at an early age, the more likely they are to
want to try out new foods at a later stage.
Involve them: There’s rarely a child who won’t eat what he’s
helped make! Get your child to help marinate the veggies to make that delicious
grilled platter. Children are never too young to help in the kitchen. Haven’t
we all seen cookery shows on television where children as young as 7 or 8 cook
like seasoned chefs? Ask them and they tell you that they started helping in the
kitchen at age 2!!
Be the Role Model: You’re showing them the way. Cook and eat
wholesome food, they do the same. Binge on junk, they follow you. It stands to
logic that it’s hard for a dedicated carnivore to cultivate a love for
vegetables in the child!
Bottom line: Even if children are fussy eaters, they’ll
eat enough to keep them going. Be creative in your choice of foods and how it
is presented to them. Make mealtimes fun – get the family to eat together. Get
your child’s friends to come over once a while and let them eat together –
children are more likely to eat when they see others their age happily tuck in.
