A common worry about mothers especially in this generation of rising obesity occurrences and health awareness is how to get their kids to eat healthy food. As the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure, so if you are a new mother, you can spare yourself the countless mealtime battles by starting your baby off on the right foot when it comes to food choices.
Babies typically have their own food preferences, but as a mother of a beginning eater, you have the greatest influence over his common food choices. The following tips should get you started on the road to having a healthy and non-picky eater:
1. Make sure mealtimes are enjoyable times, not battlegrounds. Even from the outset of toddler-hood, babies can already get parents into a battle of the wills at the dinner table. This usually consists of difficulty in getting the child to eat instead of play with his food. The way to make mealtimes enjoyable is to make it a fun bonding time with mom, or with mom and dad at dinnertime. Experts recommend training to be done during lunch with only mom and the baby, and to skip any reprimands at dinnertime in order to help the child incorporate into healthy mealtimes with both parents.
2. For babies, offer blander-tasting food ahead of sweeter and saltier ones. For example, when offering fruit to a toddler, try to do so after he has had the chance to eat some vegetables. That way, you may not have to force him anymore, as his taste buds have not yet been tainted with a longing for something tasting better.
Technically, in terms of the order of introducing solid food, wheat and vegetable products are also recommended ahead of fruit and other textures, so it should get you off on a good start. Then, by the time you can mix them in one meal, offer the vegetable or wheat product first, ending with fruit. Although mixing them into one bowl will tend to make feeding your baby go much faster, thanks to the sweet fruit, you might pay the consequences in later years when your child grows up accustomed to everything sweet.
3. If your child seems to dislike all healthy food after drinking cola at mealtimes, try to avoid offering it at meal times. Make a habit of drinking water throughout the meal yourself, too, so that your child will not be confused why you have a can of Coke and he cannot have any. Indeed, as in nearly all ways that children learn, imitation is still the best key.
4. Vary food choices. This way, vegetables do not always have to look like the green icky stuff that your child already dislikes. Instead, you can try to learn how to make tasty veggie-based casseroles or cream soups. This way you will be offering new treats and they will not even have to know that they are already eating blended broccoli and carrots. You can also discover ways to make smoothies out of vegetables, although these drinks typically rely on lots of sugar to make them taste good, so use them sparingly.
5. As much as possible, keep your child on a diet of fresh unprocessed foods. This means, if at all possible, limit intake of greasy chips, sugary juices and too much sweets from his toddler years. The habit formed early on will be carried through to his preschool years, and you will not have to worry about what types of food he will be eating in school. The more used he is to snacking on fruits, the greater the chances that he would make those same choices in school.
All in all, these tips would not be worth a dime if they are not followed through with your own example. Remember, your child is always watching you and what you eat, too, so your words will only fall on deaf ears if your child sees you wolfing down a gallon of ice cream in one sitting! In any case, if you have had that kind of unhealthy eating habit before, perhaps now you will have enough inspiration to eat healthy yourself!
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