Getting your little ones to love and appreciate the food that you put out in front of them is like an unfathomable miracle. Children understand taste and their taste buds direct them to discovering only non nutritious unhealthy foods. The nutritious ones are just left behind on their plates and represent the biggest defeat for a parent. Whereas many parents fight back to coax their children into eating something instead of remaining hungry, others give in to the demands of sweet somethings and end up putting the remaining slice of birthday cake for kids that had been ordered a couple of days before. But in either case, the challenge remains – kids often refuse to eat the major chunk of their meals.
This situation often leads to a question popping in your mind, “is there a way to encourage my little one to finish their meal?” and the answer to this question is, yes!
Tricks to feed your lil one
Kids simply love the idea of adventure. Sea voyages especially tend to enchant them. Even when you prepare bait for catching fish, your kids will be glad to assist. In case they are too young to hold fishing rods or operate fishing reels, they will still enjoy watching you. But when it comes to eating, kids are far too difficult to catch. It is not just seafood for which kids throw tantrums. They just run away from food simply because they have not developed a taste for it.
For adults the idea of eating comes naturally. However, it is not the same for kids. Making your children eat sensibly is quite challenging indeed. Apart from a proper and healthy meal, you need to maintain their eating routine. Here are some essentials that can help you on the way.
- Establishing regular and timed meals is essential. Schedule proper timings on weekdays and weekends and try your best to stick to it. Moving on from weekdays to weekends kids tend to lose consistency in their diet and most of the times deviate from meal schedules. Another big advantage of structured mealtime is that you will exactly know what your kids are eating. They will know when the right time for some appropriate snack is, or when they will have to wait for dinner.
- Ideally, there should be two snack timings and one dessert time in a day. Obviously, what you give them for snacks is highly important. Also, make sure you realise the difference between snack and dessert time. Give them sweets in only one of the three snack times. As for the snacks, prepare something that is light in calories but satisfying enough for their tummies. Carbohydrates or sweets are not good enough for satisfying your child’s appetite. With too many sweets, they will end up with a spoiled meal. A better and more sustaining alternative is a protein-carbohydrate combination. This certainly proves to be a healthier combination and can easily satiate your child’s untimely hunger.
- Get them used to drinking club soda or carbonated water. Initially, your kids may not like the idea, but try mixing it with cranberry, apple or any other sweet juice. It can take some time for them to get warm up to the new idea. But one thing is for sure, they will eventually get used to it. It is important to note that loading your kids with soda before mealtimes is not good. In any case, you will see it for yourself that club soda is a much better choice instead of a drink made with high fructose corn syrup. The problem with high fructose is that it will charge your kids up for the moment but then crash their blood sugar. In the end, they will be asking for more. Also do not send cake to Chennai and let your child have it without supervision.
- Be aware of the timing when your child feels hungry and try to stick to it. Just feed them some light starters while they are waiting for the main meal.
By remaining aware of these small moderations and following mealtime schedules, you can go a long way in promoting health and wellness of your child.
