How to deal with picky eaters? How to deal with picky eaters?

When children grow up, parents are very worried about their babies' unbalanced nutrition, so they will prepare various nutritious foods for their babies. However, babies may not appreciate it. If babies develop the habit of being picky eaters, it will become a big problem for parents in the future. Today, let's talk about how to deal with babies being picky eaters.

Tips for dealing with picky eaters

Tip 1: Relax

The food intake of babies aged 1 to 3 years old is not very stable. Parents can find out the baby’s average daily food intake through observation for several days. If the baby does not eat well in the past two days, don’t worry, he will make up for it by eating more in a few days.

Tip 2: Be firm but not forceful

If the child refuses to eat because the food is not to his liking, parents can take the food away and let him wait for the next meal. Do not give him snacks between meals, so that he understands that only eating well can fill his stomach. When the child behaves well, encourage him, and slowly, the child will gradually develop good habits.

Tip 3: Sit together as a family

The atmosphere of eating together is very contagious. If you enjoy your food, he will also be greedy. At the beginning, there should be one or two foods he likes on the table. Gradually, the child will accept a variety of foods.

Tip 4: Develop new tastes

If a child only eats one food that he likes every day, it will cause malnutrition. We need to cultivate his interest in new food. You can choose one of the three meals to make his favorite food, and choose other foods for the other two meals. On the one hand, the child's habit has been satisfied, and choosing one of the two foods that he doesn't like will not cause him to be disgusted. No matter which one he chooses, it is a new attempt and a gratifying progress.

Trick 5: Make a game

Let's see who can eat faster. Bite the biscuit into a crescent and see who has fewer beans on their plate first. Although these are overused tricks, they are very effective, especially for babies under three years old, they love this.

Tip 6: Use Cover

Mix foods your baby likes and dislikes together. For example, if your baby doesn't like vegetables but likes dumplings, wrap the vegetables in dumplings. If your baby likes soup, cook it in soup. If your baby doesn't like fruit but likes yogurt, mix fruit and yogurt together to make a salad. Remember, you can put less of the food you don't like at the beginning, and then gradually increase it.

Tip 7: Don’t give him too much

Children have small stomach capacity, and a full plate of food just looks like it will make them full, so just make sure they have enough to eat.

Tip 8: Ask your baby for help

Letting your child help you prepare meals (without putting them in a dangerous position) is another way to develop an interest in food.

Tip 9: What to do if you love sweets?

Although sweets may affect children's health, children just like to eat them.

What you have to do is:

First, cut back on sweets.

Secondly, try to buy nutritious and high-quality sweets.

Third, you need to set limits on the amount of sweets your child can eat, tell them how many snacks they can eat a day, and let them choose when to eat.

Trick 10: Three Don’ts

The food pieces should not be too big, it is best if the baby can eat them in one bite.

Don't rush them; some children are just slow eaters.

Don't give your child too much milk and juice before meals, otherwise he will feel full without eating.

Picky eating requires the right medicine

Although many picky eating problems are not considered diseases, it is not wrong to treat them according to the symptoms. Professor Benny Kozner, a famous American pediatric gastroenterologist, said that there is no unified standard for the classification of eating behavior problems. However, based on his many years of experience, it can be considered to be divided into six categories, which parents can refer to one by one.

The first type is state adjustment disorder, which usually occurs in newborns. Children who keep crying and cannot stay awake and quiet for a period of time are likely to have problems during feeding due to tension. At this time, parents must first consider regulating their emotions, and then the problem of picky eating and anorexia will be solved.

The second type is interaction disorder. This is not often seen in clinical practice. If it occurs, it is mostly around 8 months old. These children have visual and emotional expression disorders due to parental neglect and lack of interaction. If your child has feeding problems at this stage, it is recommended that you first check whether you have done your best.

The third type is anorexia. This type of child often shows insufficient food intake, which lasts for more than 1 month. It often occurs during the food transition period, that is, when changing to solid food. At this time, the child is interested in everything except food, will run around, and show very strong autonomy. It seems that growth and development are basically normal, but there may be irregular sleep. In this case, parents cannot chase the child around the house to feed him, otherwise it will only aggravate his bad eating behavior. First of all, you should reduce the conflict of meals and don't force him to eat. Secondly, you should try to arouse his interest in food, and set rules for the child to make him clear that running around and playing around are not allowed during meals.

The fourth category is sensory aversion to food. These children usually refuse certain textures or tastes of food. This behavior is clinically called tactile defense, which is a strong rejection of some things and a strong preference for what he likes. At this time, the best way is to introduce a variety of foods as early as possible so that he can overcome his fear of new foods, but never bribe him with food, saying "If you eat something, I will do this."

Three recipes for picky eaters

Fish Flavor Omelette

Ingredients: 200 grams of eggs, 50 grams of pork, a little vegetable oil, appropriate amounts of onion, ginger, chopped garlic and tomato sauce, salt, sugar, rice vinegar, MSG and water starch.

Preparation: Beat the eggs in a bowl and add a little salt and MSG. After the eggs are beaten, set aside; cut the pork into mung bean-sized pieces and set aside; place a clean wok on the fire, heat it up and add a little oil, pour in the egg liquid and spread it into a pancake of even thickness, slightly golden on both sides, and fully cooked, then serve in a bowl; put a little oil in the wok, then add chopped green onion and minced garlic, stir-fry until fragrant, then add appropriate amount of tomato sauce and a little soup to stir-fry until the red oil comes out, then add the meat and stir-fry, add salt, sugar and MSG and stir-fry until the meat is cooked, then drizzle with a little rice vinegar, thicken with water starch, and serve in the omelet bowl.

Nutrition secrets:

Making eggs into omelets is both tender and bright red in color. The sweet and sour meat particles in particular can greatly increase the appetite of babies who don’t like eggs. It is very suitable for babies over 1 and a half years old.

Vegetable stir fry

Ingredients: 15 grams each of potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, black fungus and yam, a little vegetable oil, refined salt, MSG and sesame oil, and an appropriate amount of water starch.

Preparation: First cut all the ingredients into slices and set aside; put the clean wok on the fire, add a little oil, and when it is hot, add carrot slices, potato slices and yam slices, stir-fry for a while, then add appropriate amount of soup; after boiling, add mushroom slices, black fungus and a little salt, cook until the ingredients are crispy, add a little MSG, then thicken with water starch, and then drizzle with a little sesame oil.

Nutrition secrets:

If babies around 18 months old don't like to eat vegetables, you can take advantage of their strong curiosity at this age and combine various vegetables that they don't like to eat on weekdays to make colorful meals to attract them. These vegetables contain a variety of nutrients that are very necessary for growth and development, and the taste is also suitable for babies.

Fragrant Fried Rice

Ingredients: 50 grams of rice, 10 grams of potatoes, 10 grams of cucumber, 5 grams of black fungus and 10 grams of chicken, a little vegetable oil, chopped green onions, rice wine, salt and MSG.

Preparation: Dice potatoes and cucumbers, soak black fungus in water and chop it a few times with a knife, set aside; put a clean wok on the fire, add a little oil, put in the diced chicken and stir-fry for a while after it is heated, then add a little soup; after boiling, simmer for a while, add diced potatoes and black fungus after the diced chicken is cooked, cook for a while and take out for set aside; put a little oil in a clean wok and heat it, add rice and chopped green onion and stir-fry for a few times, add diced cucumber and other ingredients, add a little rice wine, salt and MSG and stir-fry until the flavors are absorbed.