Making children eat their daily meals is a problem for most of the parents. Youngsters are often fussy and finicky at taste; refuse to eat food that doesn’t meet their taste. The most frustrating part of their food tantrums is, they don’t like tasting any near to vegetables or fruit cocktails. Have you ever thought why this is coming from somewhere you least expected it? You must have never expected that a toddler would throw out, you think could be yummiest for him. These reactions are in response to your everyday practices and remember, a child takes whatever he sees, not whatever he is told.
Parents often reject food they dislike and this is somewhat making an impact on their child’s psychology. A child learns to reject and demands new taste, yet encouraging your child to taste new foods will offer the nutrition they need to grow and set up healthy eating habits for life.
If you are mother of a picky eater, you may try a few tricks to help your child eat more greens. Here are a few tricks:
Involve your child while cooking:
Children love to do adult activities like ironing, cleaning, mopping, cooking, so why not get them involved. Ask your child to tear spinach or shell of fresh peas; this will create an affiliation with greens. Once your child has contributed in dinner preparation, he or she is more likely to try it to taste the results make sure it tastes good.
Involve your Child while Gardening:
Children love to play with shovel, rake and a water bucket. They love messing with soil and seeds however; older children try to do a little formal of it. Help your older kids to grow vegetables, you don’t need a big area for this, you may experiment gardening in a small area or in a pot. Vegetables like tomatoes, chilly and coriander are easily manageable in pots. It’s good to talk about it and to make them curious about the results so they may wait to try their self-grown vegetables and its dishes.
Make sure the Food is Good at Eyes:
Kids are no different, they are automated with same senses as adults and if a food is good to their eyes, they are likely to try it. Recent studies from the
University of Cornell suggest, children are attracted to colorful food platters especially if the food platter has six or more colors. Go for a rainbow!
Research also suggests, children look for figuratively appealing food, so if you want your fussy child to finish his dinner, serve him a good combination of colors and decorative mounds on the plate.
Ask your Child to Decorate their Plate:
Why not make mealtime, a fun-time! Ask your child to pick salads and macaroni to arrange any figure like Pixar, Humpty Dumpty etc. Spiral macaroni could be Pixar’s hair, black Olive’s slice could do the eyes, carrot be the nose etc. Once they are ready with their characters, they are more likely to eat it and in the meantime, you could offer them different food as well.
Above mentioned are a few tricks to make your child eat green and healthy food at home. If you are dining out and you are not ready to compromise on your child’s dinner, don’t despair! There are a lot of restaurants in Dubai that offer open choices for salads. You can still practice some interesting food exercises to make your child eat more greens and proteins.
When it comes to morning brunches or evening hi-tea, cafes in Dubai are good at offering separate salad and sauces bars, ask your kids to make his own platter or he could stand at the bar to construct any characters he or she wants. Learn initial eating training be fun for your kid!
Conclusion:
Developing healthy habits is one of the toughest jobs in parental training. There are alternatives, all you need is to explore and introduce fun ways to make your child do it happily.
