How To Deal With Food Fussiness

There is so much fuss about fussy eaters but a strange fact is that fussy eating is a normal part of a child’s development. Babies tend to explore their environment and assert their independence when it comes to food. Sometimes they don’t like the color/texture of the food offered to them or sometimes they are too busy concentrating on another milestone (maybe walk or speech) and food is the very last thing to cross their minds. The good news is as babies tend to grow, their fussiness with respect to a variety of textured and colored foods diminishes.

I have gone through similar situations for past two months my little one was rejecting almost everything being offered to her except chapati. Nothing really worked including a variety of new food items like cutlets, pancakes, smoothies, and soups. Here are three tips which helped me majorly in making my little one comfortable with a variety of textured and colored foods, and control food fussiness to an extent:

Involvement in Food Preparation: Yes, you read it right. By involving them in the food prep, you can actually help them to achieve a safe feeling with the rejected food (it was mainly vegetable with my toddler). Next time if your toddler is showing resistance to any of the vegetables like spinach, let him/her get involves in the preparation by letting them know how to pluck the leaves out of the stem and separating the leaves. Ask them to hand over to the leaves to you, so that you can prepare the meal. I did the same a couple of times unintentionally and it worked. My toddler was eager to eat spinach curry only because she remembered her involvement in the food prep. Bonus point: This is a new activity to keep your toddler hooked for a good couple of minutes.

Make Eating Fun: I found this extremely useful with my toddler as like us babies tend to look for a change too! Try switching from regular routine to an exciting way of both presenting and eating Meals. Don’t you think consuming a meal (gravy) is more fun when directly gulped from a bowl rather using spoon or hands?. Well, my toddler thinks so.

Let The Food Pangs Kick In: Yes, that’s right! Let the kids feel hungry and ask for food rather than running after them. Believe me, this helps a lot since sometimes we don’t know how much hunger has actually stricken those tiny tummy’s and we keep offering food and running after toddlers expecting them to finish the meals and that’s where the fussiness begins. Toddlers throw tantrums to eat when not completely hungry. Of course, that does not mean letting them sleep hungry but be sure to wait for a toddler ask for food maybe thirty minutes before nagging him/her to eat. This worked for me and helped in reducing fussiness to an extent as my toddler ate most of the food offered when  hungry. I would love to know your experiences and stories too.

#parentinggyaan