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Getting Your Child to Eat

Getting a young child to eat his food, let alone practice proper table manners, is a daily struggle for many parents. Toddlers and young children often don’t want to stop what they’re doing to sit down for a meal, but they don’t know how to express their feelings. They might be starving, but a child who is busy watching his favorite television show or role-playing with a sibling will refuse to interrupt playtime for a bite to eat. That’s why many kids, when they sit down at the dinner table, become picky eaters and insist that they hate the food you’ve prepared. The best way to deal with your child’s fussiness at mealtimes is to create a schedule and stick to it. Try eating dinner at the same time every day, and if your child argues, you can remind him that dinnertime is a rule in your house. If your child is still fussy, give him the option of taking a nap in his room before  he eats, but don’t allow him to continue playing. Kids will appreciate having a choice, and most will choose to stay with their family at the table.

Another reason kids won’t eat at mealtimes is because they’re eating too much at snack times. It’s important for you to provide your child with snacks throughout the day since young children don’t understand their bodies’ signals for “hunger” and “thirst,” but if you suspect that snacking is making your child eat less at dinner, small changes can solve the problem. Give  him water instead of milk or juice, and an apple or carrot sticks in place of higher-calorie choices. You shouldn’t force your child to eat more than he wants to; you should encourage your child to recognize the signals from his body telling him that he is full, and you don’t want to teach him to overeat. If he eats very little of his dinner, remind him that he’s not allowed to eat dessert or snack food later.

All young kids will move around in their seats or look for distractions during mealtimes. This is perfectly normal, but in order to encourage proper manners at the dinner table, you can make meals more interesting by giving your child choices of sauce to dip his food in, or giving him many small, colorful portions of different fruits and vegetables. It’s okay for kids to play with food a bit, as long as they eat it. A big meal may simply be overwhelming for your child, and he might be better off eating smaller, more frequent ones during the day.

Tags: dinner, eating, mealtime, picky, snacking