Brothers-All-NaturalPicky eaters are people who refuse foods or eat the same foods over and over. Picky eating usually peaks at toddler and preschool years. Many parents worry that their picky eater is not getting enough nutrition to grow. But in most cases, they are.
It is unrealistic to expect a toddler to eat a large amount of food at each meal everyday; after all, a toddler’s stomach is approximately the same size as their fist.
Parents are responsible for providing healthy foods at meal and snack times. Children are responsible for what and how much they eat.
What can you do to help your child enjoy a variety of foods?
- Eat a healthy variety of foods yourself. Make sure that your own choices are in line with the foods you want your child to eat and enjoy.
- Prepare your meals together. Getting a helping hand from your little one while making meals increases the chances that your child will taste their creation. Your kids can assist with measuring, pouring and stirring.
- Do not show disgust when you try new foods, (your child will probably be unwilling to try a new food if you haven’t tasted it.) If you are a picky eater yourself, your child is likely to imitate you.
What should you do about your Picky Eater?
- Offer a variety of healthy food choices at each meal and offer new foods. Children need to be offered a new food as many as 10-15 times before they will eat it.
- Keep track of your child’s food sensitivities, if any, and keep them in mind when preparing and planning meals. Does your child have trouble with soft or mushy foods? Offer something like apple fruit crisps instead of applesauce, or a baked potato instead of mashed. If you’d like your child to try a soft or mushy food, combine it with a crunchy food that they like. Offer a carrot stick or cracker to dip into mashed potatoes, you never know.
- If you have nutritional concerns, be sure to talk to your child’s health care provider.
- Put new foods next to foods your child already likes. Encourage your picky eater to touch, smell, lick and taste the new foods.
- Always have something your child knows and likes on their plate. Give them what the rest of the family is eating in smaller-sized portions.
- Use healthy dips such as low-fat dressings, yogurt, hummus or ketchup to encourage children to eat and try fruits, vegetables and meats.
- Offer finger foods that your child can feed to themselves.
- Let your child be in control of eating, give them a spoon to hold, even if they can’t feed themselves. Let your child serve themselves.
- Put healthy foods out, such as a bag of strawberry-banana crisps, where your child can reach them so when they get hungry they can easily get to good, healthy foods.
Here at Brothers All Natural, we understand how important it is to provide healthy choices for your family. Kids love our freeze dried Fruit Crisps! Our fruit snacks are packaged for easy, convenient on the go snacking. Fruit Crisps are a great, healthy snack for lunches, parties, daycare, sporting events, road trips, camping trips, hiking trips, you name it. Your kids will be happy they have something good to eat and you will be happy knowing they are eating a low calorie, all natural 100% fruit snack made from real fruit.
If your picky eater hasn’t tried our freeze dried Fruit Crisps, give us a try. We have an assortment of fruit flavors available with regular or Disney packaging your little ones are sure to love! Check us out.
