Top 3 Pointers for getting toddlers to eat : Expert POV by The Learning Curve India

As a mom we go through different stages of feeding challenges with our children, in case you are going through one right now. Please Register NOW for Healthy Eating Habits Session by The Learning Curve Preschool & Daycare.

Deepti Arora, Founder of Deliver Delights, and a Nutrition Consultant for kids is committed to helping parents make real food happen in their homes, understanding their child’s feeding temperaments and helping their child with Extreme Picky Eating. She believes kids deserve to eat a variety of real foods without holding parents hostage to the kitchen.

Here she shares 3 extremely useful tips for toddlers to get them to eat.

Feed your child healthy fats

Some parents are confused about fats, thinking that they should limit fats even in very young children in order to keep their cholesterol level down. But a diet rich in healthy fats is essential for growing babies, and no wonder why fat-rich breast milk is perfectly programmed by nature to provide exactly the right kind of fat and the right proportion to fulfill this need.

Cow’s milk, ghee, flaxseeds oils, sunflower and sesame oils, pumpkin seeds, blanched almonds, walnuts, soybeans (in the form of tofu, flour, oil), spinach, broccoli, some fresh herbs, all contain essential oils for children.

Besides feeding your child’s growing brain, fat is essential for building the bones and muscles. Fats help in membrane development, cell formation and cell differentiation. Fats also have antioxidants.!

Introduce kids to variety of foods

Popular book ‘French kids eat everything’ says,”French parents aren’t solely focused on getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies .Rather, they are interested in training their kid’s appetite.” Appetite is a psychological state which primes you to eat and be satisfied by certain foods. So an appetite is not just a measure of an empty stomach; its also a state of mind.

Hence, its preferable to introduce only one fruit or veggies per day, in order to allow a child to learn to appreciate the specific taste of each fruit.

Try new foods and experience new tastes

How wonderful it would be if pediatricians gently warn mothers about ‘neophobia’ (literally meaning fear of novelty) telling them that children’s appetite diminishes and become more fickle somewhere between the ages of two and four. Neophobia is a developmental phase, although it can develop into a personality trait if badly handled by parents.

It would be huge support to mothers if the know that they have limited time frame to introduce new tastes, flavors, and textures, and to build the foundation for healthy food habits to their growing toddlers. So that they can focus on introducing a large variety of foods in the first four years of child’s life.

The goal is sensible enough –

  • To train children’s food tastes, experiences, and preferences.
  • To help children develop a love of variety.

Happy Eating!!

In addition also check the list of superfoods for children above 6 months which help in gaining weight.