It can be tough when, as a parent, you’re trying so hard to bring your child up to be as healthy as they can possibly be, only for them to turn their nose up at all of the delicious healthy foods you’ve prepared, or even worse, for them to refuse to eat very much at all!
If you’re struggling with a picky eater right now, don’t panic. Check out these tips that should help you to deal with the problem without losing your sanity:
Don’t Force It
One of the worst things you can do with a picky eater is try and force them to eat their food, If you do this, it could end up making the foods they refuse seem even more ‘bad’ to them and could even traumatize them for life. So, although it might be frustrating, offer food, but don’t demand that your kid eats it. Stick to small portions and try to focus on the positive.
Keep a Routine
It’s a good idea to stick to a routine whereby you serve your child their food at the same time every day so that they know what’s coming and there are no nasty surprises for them to deal with.
Keep Exposing Them
If your child refuses broccoli or spits out that melon immediately, even if they insist they hate it, don’t give up. Keep exposing them to these foods, let them touch, smell and taste the food, even play with it, until they’re used to it, and you might be surprised to find that in a few weeks, it’s one of their favorites.
Give Them Multivitamins
If your child is really picky or has a very small appetite, then using multivitamins, which you can find at https://guardiangummies.com/, is a good way to ensure that they’re at least getting the most important vitamins and minerals. It’ll help to keep them as healthy as possible and give you more peace of mind.
Make One Meal
It’s not a good idea to cook one meal for the rest of the family and one for your picky eater – that will just reward them and gives them the impression that they don’t need to eat anything more than the handful of foods they may like. So, cook one meal for you all and make your child stay at the table until dinner is over even if he or she doesn’t try what’s on offer.
Make Food Fun
Buy your child a pretty, fun plate like the ones at amazon.com/French-Bull, arrange their food so that it looks like a funny face or a favorite cartoon character and encourage them to enjoy it. The more fun you can make mealtimes, the more likely it is your child will actually eat what’s on offer.
In the meantime, it might be a good idea for you to try disguising goodness, say by pureeing veggies and adding them to meals in a virtually undetectable form so that your child is taking in plenty of healthy stuff, even if he or she doesn’t realize that’s the case!
