How to feed a fussy eater baby
Fussy eaters - NHS
It's natural to worry whether your child is getting enough food if they refuse to eat sometimes.
But it's perfectly normal for toddlers to refuse to eat or even taste new foods.
Do not worry about what your child eats in a day or if they do not eat everything at mealtimes. It's more helpful to think about what they eat over a week.
If your child is active and gaining weight, and they seem well, then they're getting enough to eat.
As long as your child eats some food from the 4 main food groups (fruit and vegetables; potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates; dairy or dairy alternatives; and beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins) you do not need to worry. Find out more about what to feed young children.
Gradually introduce other foods and keep going back to the foods your child did not like before. Children's tastes change. One day they'll hate something, but a month later they may love it.
Keep offering a variety of foods – it may take lots of attempts before your child accepts some foods.
Tips for parents of fussy eaters- Give your child the same food as the rest of the family, but remember not to add salt to your child's food. Check the label of any food product you use to make family meals.
- The best way for your child to learn to eat and enjoy new foods is to copy you. Try to eat with them as often as you can.
- Give small portions and praise your child for eating, even if they only eat a little.
- If your child rejects the food, do not force them to eat it. Just take the food away without saying anything. Try to stay calm, even if it's very frustrating. Try the food again another time.
- Do not leave meals until your child is too hungry or tired to eat.
- Your child may be a slow eater, so be patient.
- Do not give your child too many snacks between meals – 2 healthy snacks a day is plenty.
- Do not to use food as a reward. Your child may start to think of sweets as nice and vegetables as nasty. Instead, reward them with a trip to the park or promise to play a game with them.
- Make mealtimes enjoyable and not just about eating. Sit down and chat about other things.
- If you know any other children of the same age who are good eaters, ask them round for tea. But do not talk too much about how good the other children are.
- Ask an adult that your child likes and looks up to to eat with you. Sometimes a child will eat for someone else, such as a grandparent, without any fuss.
- Changing how you serve a food may make it more appealing. For example, your child might refuse cooked carrots but enjoy raw grated carrot.
- Baby and toddler meal ideas
- Dealing with child behaviour problems
Video: How do I manage a fussy eater? (18 to 30 months)
This video explains how to manage a fussy eater.
Media last reviewed: 2 December 2020
Media review due: 2 December 2023
Page last reviewed: 2 February 2021
Next review due: 2 February 2024
7 Clever Ways to Get Your Fussy Baby to Eat
Whether they’re distracted, food seems unappetizing, or they’re just not hungry, fussy babies can make for frustrated parents. Since babies can’t verbalize what they want (or cook for themselves), all you can do is present healthy options creatively and at regular intervals.
It’s up to baby to eat. Try these seven clever strategies—
Babies are naturally “neophobic,” meaning they’re fearful of anything new. When your baby rejects a new food, keep in mind it might not be the flavor. Your little one could just need more time and some inspiration. When introducing a new taste or texture, consider baby’s tray your palette. Use boiled macaroni and some olives to make a smiley face, or organize soft berries and boiled vegetables into a rainbow. Despite what our moms always told us, sometimes playing with your food is OK—especially when it helps them feel comfortable with new colors and food combinations.
2. It’s Not You, It’s EwwYou might gasp a little when yogurt ends up on the floor, but encouraging baby to play will strengthen his relationship with food, making him less hesitant to try new tastes and textures. Give him a few colors and textures to play with—a dollop of vegetable purée (like Beech-Nut sweet corn & green beans), a few blueberries, and maybe something with a kick like tiny bits of nectarine or orange.
Then, let him have some fun. Don’t worry… it’s nothing you can’t wipe up quickly.
Babies are often more open to trying new genres of music than flavors of food. To help make mealtime a bit more memorable, consider jamming out with your babe to his favorite song. No radio necessary. This is where the spoon becomes the mic, you become the lead singer and baby acts as backup vocalist — taste testing the mic every once in a while, of course.
4. Mix (and Spice) It UpYou don’t eat just one thing for lunch, so don’t make baby do it either. Small, baby-safe ice cube trays make for the perfect “separator plate” solution. Provide a variety of foods—some new and some tried-and-true—then, let her pick around and taste the new foods among the ones she trusts.
Not quite ready for brand new foods? Introduce new spices to already-trusted foods. Add a pinch of cinnamon to applesauce, or nutmeg to the butternut squash purée from Beech-Nut.
A fun way to introduce new textures is to grate baby’s favorite flavors of firm fruits and veggies onto her tray. After spoon-fed purées, long, thin strips of carrots, apples and sweet potatoes may not seem like food. Show your baby how to pile the pieces into an edible mountain and eat each sliver one by one. It’s like Jenga for baby.
6. A Casual Lunch DateEven babies can be social eaters, so whenever you can, invite a friend over for a dining-focused playdate. Prepare a variety of finger foods and purées, including frozen purée pops, which are great for teething tots. You can make your own blend of fruitsicle or just pour a jar of Beech-Nut Naturals into a freezer-proof mold a few hours before. Not only is it fun to have company, but babies whose lips were sealed a minute ago may open up when they see a friend chowing down on lunch.
7. Special DeliveryWe all know the airplane trick — our grandparents used it on our parents, our parents used it on us.
But baby can see through this and keeps his mouth sealed tight. Try the same method, but refocused.
This cute construction cutlery set will have any dump-truck loving baby combing through his mashed potatoes. Who wouldn’t want to eat dinner off a literal mini ‘fork’lift?
Another presentation method: reusable food bags, like these lunchskins. The same way your baby is entertained by endless games of peek-a-boo, he’ll be excited to see what’s inside the bag. Reserve these bags for new flavors and textures so it’s like opening up something new every time you use them.
However, you use your creativity, make sure it comes in tandem with patience. The most crucial part of getting your baby to eat is to try and try again.
If all else fails, you can also consider adding a multivitamin, which could be great for those picky eaters who may not be getting enough nutrients from their diet. We like the Mommy’s Bliss Organic Multivitamin Drops, which are made without any artificial colors or ingredients (for babies 2 months+).
Have any creative ideas that we didn’t mention? Share them in the comments below!
How to feed a picky child
The baby has a full plate of delicious food in front of him, and he wrinkles his nose: most mothers are familiar with this problem.
When a child does not eat, parents usually act in two ways: either they try to entertain him by telling him fairy tales and including cartoons, or they try to persuade (“Spoon for dad, spoon for mom”, “Until you eat soup, don’t you will receive"). But this doesn't always work either. What to do if the child refuses to eat?
Possible causes of poor appetite
Before taking action, you need to understand the reasons for the cool attitude to food.
1. Lack of appetite in children may be associated with poor health or with the onset of a disease - for example, a common cold. The body accumulates strength to fight infection and therefore tries not to waste its resources on digesting food.
In this case, forcing the child to eat is not only useless, but also harmful - it is better to let him drink more liquid.
2. Sometimes the child does not want to eat due to digestive disorders: constipation, nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain and other symptoms do not contribute to a good appetite. nine0013 3. Some children refuse to eat when they are forced to do so, regardless of their taste preferences and whether they are actually hungry.
Remain calm
Mothers often find their child's refusal to eat too painful and become too active, creating a stressful situation around food. This can lead to both psychological and physiological problems in the child in the future, up to gastrointestinal disorders or even anorexia. Many parents panic, believing that the child is not getting enough nutrients. How much a baby should eat depends not only on his age, but also on individual characteristics. Therefore, first of all, do not worry and be guided by common sense: a healthy child will still eat when he is really hungry.
If the baby's well-being is in doubt, consult a pediatrician. nine0003
Five Ways to Feed an Unwanted Child
1. First of all, do not force your child to eat. Neither persuasion, nor threats, and even more so punishment will not bring any benefit - on the contrary. Set the plate aside and send the baby to do his own thing. The main thing is not to let your child snack between meals, and soon the appetite will make itself felt.
2. Involve your child in cooking: let him be not only a spectator, but also a participant in the process. Surely the baby will want to try the salad or porridge that he prepared himself. nine0013 3. Serve food interestingly. Connect your imagination and turn the most ordinary, everyday dish into a festive one. Even borscht (appetizing tomato-beetroot color and rich taste will be enjoyed by any mother with MAGGI ® Dressing for borscht seasoning) can be served in an unusual way - in a “plate” of a loaf of Borodino bread or a round rye bun.
Add a game element. Let potato mountains lie in a plate, rivers of sour cream sauce flow, and "spiky" meatballs grow along the banks. Draw eyes, nose and mouth on the cottage cheese casserole with jam - you get a funny face. Make curly cheese sandwiches. Volumetric figures can be cut out of vegetables and fruits. nine0003
4. Ask for the child's opinion. Ask him what he would like to eat today and offer several options to choose from. The kid will be pleased to once again show independence.
5. If the child does not like a certain product, try disguising it. For example, almost all children do not like broccoli. One way to save the day is to make muffins with broccoli or “hide” shredded cabbage in spaghetti.
How and what to feed a child?
Good evening everyone! I beg your pardon for the long breaks, but summer is summer. For some reason, I have a lot more classes just in the summer. Today I will write about a topic familiar to all parents: how and what to feed a child.
I will especially focus on the “how?” point. nine0003
We have our own house, so there is enough work both at home and on the street. Plus, the school holidays have begun, and I try to spend all my free time with the children. In this regard, writing a blog is not yet given to me every evening. How do you not want to just unsubscribe! I want to sit down and write sincerely, with meaning and interestingly.
After all,
everyone understands that it is necessary to feed the child with the most useful.So that he grows strong, healthy, cheerful and cheerful. And everyone, of course, knows that the best food is vegetables and fruits, dairy products (?). I also remember that as a child I was always told: “Eat with bread” and “Bread is the head of everything.” nine0003
Is that true? The question is moot.
Now, with my knowledge, it seems to me that "eat with bread" comes clearly from our parents, who never had enough money for everything else that they eat with this bread.
Especially in my hungry post-Soviet times with a complete lack of normal products in stores. (Maybe someone remembers the shelves of the butcher's shop filled with canned seaweed?). Therefore, we were taught to eat everything with bread. With him, and satisfying, and cheaper. True, I also remember the contradictory one: "sandwiches are not food." Although I do not quite understand - what's the difference! Soup with bread, or bread with cheese...? nine0003
Personally I now have another completely opposite problem in Danish society: EVERYTHING is eaten with bread, or even bread alone. Bread for breakfast with something (cheese and milk as a bite!). Snack at school at 10-00 (sandwich). Lunch: black bread with something on top and vegetables. For dinner again something and again with bread. I still can't get used to this bread literally everywhere! I constantly forget that in addition to a side dish such as potatoes, rice and pasta, my Danish guests must also be given bread and butter for dinner .
.. There is so much bread everywhere that poor children have no room for anything else in their stomachs! nine0003
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against bread. But I am against his dominance. I am against this monotony.
Today, most likely, such a large topic will not fit in one post.
Therefore, I will share my observations. Probably, in addition to the monotony with bread, one of the main problems of modern parents is the monotonous nutrition of the child. Like my son (daughter) does not eat this, this and much more. But he eats ONLY this and that…
| nine0065 |
| Picky kids |
A familiar boy of 12 (!) years old, visiting his friends overnight, brings food with him! And, as you probably guessed, these are not vegetables and fruits. This is pasta in a creamy sauce with bacon. Just a masterpiece of "healthy eating" called "the death of a nutritionist.
"
Moreover, in the families where his friends live, they already know this very well, and they try as best they can: they offer to order pizza, or french fries and hamburgers, or make pasta themselves. nine0039 It's inconvenient! The boy came to visit, but they couldn’t even feed him… At the same time, the boy has younger and older sisters in the family. And this boy's poor mother cooks 2 dinners every night. Pasta, described above, for the boy, and also dinner for all the other 4 members of the family ... At the same time, mom works at a normal job full time. Class! Sorry mom?
No. I don't feel sorry for my mom at all. As cruel as it sounds, it's my mother's fault.
| nine0065 |
| What to feed the child? |
Another girl: my daughter's friend. 7 years. For breakfast, lunch and snacks at school, he only eats rolls with chocolate. (Danish masterpiece: a bun is taken, buttered, and a specially designed slice of chocolate is placed on top, which can be bought everywhere! Not even at a gas station at night.
Apparently, for especially hungry people, this is the most demanded food.
I remember the first time I saw this a miracle of the year after 2 stays in Denmark at breakfast with the family.I look, and next to the cheese and sausage are thin slices of chocolate.Strange, I think, chocolate for breakfast.Nearby was a girl who, in front of my astonished eyes, built herself such a Danish chocolate sandwich. I, stupid, asked her directly: “What are you doing?” She didn’t even understand the question ...
I then shared my impressions with my Russian girlfriends for a long time :-).
Let's go back to a 7-year-old girl. This is how the girl eats. Buns with chocolate. For dinner, however, she recognizes other food. From a series of pasta, pizza and McDonald's. True, her constitution is such that no matter how much she eats, she is very thin. Therefore, I do not think that parents are worried about this. But it's not just about thinness. Even if we forget that she often gets sick, one cannot but remember the main thing: after all, right now a person is FORMING! nine0040
My daughter's other friend.
There is only pasta, lasagna, pizza and sandwiches. | What parents can't think of! |
And everything should be WITHOUT tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, any vegetables at all, except for carrots….
You can list for a long time what exactly she DOES NOT eat. It's easier to make a list of 10 foods she recognizes. When she dine with us, when she sees other ingredients not on her pasta list, she just doesn't eat at all. Immediately, without trying, he says "I won't." nine0003
When my daughter eats at her place, there is no need to even ask what they had for dinner. Everything is as always: options from the list with 10 ingredients. At the same time, mom is trying. But at home there is also a father and an older sister. So they eat pasta mixed with pizza every other day. She also has sandwiches with only 1 type of sausage, only carrots and cucumbers are recognized from vegetables.
And so for 3 (!!!) years out of her 7.
She wasn't friends with my daughter then. nine0003
Before all these stories, I was terribly worried that my Masha didn't eat spinach and onions…
But after my last birthday, I realized that my struggle was not in vain. I can still quite accept when the child does not eat some vegetables. But at my birthday I was simply shocked: “I don’t like such cakes, I don’t like this cream, but your milk is not like that, and I don’t like red compote, I don’t eat such rolls, and your butter is wrong, chocolate cake — fu…….”
You can continue the topic of how to feed a child endlessly!!!
At the same time, these phrases were not heard from 1-2 girls out of 15. Those who ate more or less WITHOUT nit-picking were at most 5-6 people. After that birthday, I realized that I just need to be happy. Let my daughter not eat, as I did in childhood, radishes and cauliflower, as well as all other vegetables, but she is well done.
And without undue modesty I will say - this is still my merit. Just like picky children - the merit of their parents, who allow them all this. nine0040
(Now Masha already eats radishes and even broccoli. And she is very proud of herself at the same time :-) Of course, there are vegetables that she does not like. I don't force her now. )
| Picky Kids Epidemic |
Looking at all these many little picks, I come to the conclusion that
in our world is just some kind of epidemic of child indulgence.
At least in food. A bunch of parents who eat pasta and pizza every day. Already, almost no restaurant has a normal children's menu: only french fries, pasta, and further along the familiar list. Many children do not recognize any drinks other than soda and juice. Moms who cook 2 or even 3 dinners every night. You can go on for a long time.
Unfortunately. nine0003
But maybe we should stop regretting and start acting? Stop being afraid to say "no" to your children? Stop making them little “kings and princesses”?
How?
If you are interested, I share my experience.
Something of my own, intuitive. Something read from smart books. One of them is just on this topic, I recently read: "French children do not spit food," by Pamela Drukreman.
So what exactly did I do to ensure that my children eat normal food? nine0003
Here are my rules for feeding a child:
Children should eat the same food as adults.
No baby food. My husband recently said to me: “We have Masha so thin! It's because you barely cook her favorite meals." When I asked what kind of dishes they were, he replied: “French fries, pasta and more ...” (see the list above or look at the children's menu of a nearby restaurant.) So, I told him that I was not going to the next 10 - 15 years of eating "children's meals" just because I have children in my house.
Moreover, the weight and height of our children are simply in an excellent ratio :-). nine0003
| Eat better together |
No double dinners or lunches.
Once a week, my eldest 6-year-old daughter voices her wishes for the menu. I try to take them into account as far as possible. And so, our menu is from a series of fish dishes 2 times a week, 1 day WITHOUT animal proteins, and on other days - a mix of the remaining food options. While everyone is alive:-)
If someone doesn't like something, or someone doesn't like some ingredient, then it's not necessary to eat it. You can choose and set aside on the edge of the plate. But! nine0039 It is MANDATORY to try. A small piece, but a must. If it is very tasteless, then I allow you to spit it back. And so every time. At the same time, I put ALL the ingredients from the dish on the plate. If you don't like it, try it and put it aside.
I make sure that children eat first and then drink. Otherwise, they fill their stomach with liquid, and then leave the table hungry. And they will start begging for pieces...
If possible, I do not allow children to bite before dinner.
If there are 2 hours before dinner, then you can eat something healthy like fruit or vegetables, sometimes cheese. If dinner is in 30-60 minutes, then let them endure. They won't die of hunger :-)
If a child says that he doesn't like food and won't eat, I don't force him.
If you don't like it, don't eat it. But I won't run to the fridge to offer everything I can. It’s my husband who loves to feel sorry for them (and they are well aware of this - from whom to ask for pieces :-). Oh, how poor they will go to bed hungry! Yes, they lie down. Today they will lie down, and tomorrow they will understand that it is better not to do this a second time. In the end! nine0039 A person can survive for 30 days without food! And because of one missed dinner, obviously nothing will happen.
If only parents were so concerned that their children drink water! Without which, by the way, a person cannot live more than 3 days. So calmly, dear parents. No need to panic. In the end, when the child is REALLY hungry, then the stale crust of bread will come off.
Encourage your child to try everything many times.
Only after at least 10 times (!) the child will get used to the taste. And, as a rule, after that he will eat it all with pleasure. nine0003
Don't overdo it.
Everyone has periods when they want only tomatoes or only cucumbers. Then it usually changes. Let him eat handfuls of these tomatoes. Children's body (not spoiled) knows what it needs. But! Don't forget to make sure that all the other foods on the plate have been tried. If a child has GENERALLY only tomatoes with bread or rolls with chocolate on the menu, then this is already pampering and parental oversight. We draw conclusions quickly and change the situation.
nine0003
As simple or complex as it may sound, I want to add an important thing .
Of course, it's never too late to start.
But it is logical not to bring the situation to the point of absurdity , when a 12-year-old child controls you and eats only carbonara pasta... It will already be difficult here. It's best to start as early as possible. Better yet, right away. And you don’t have to decide for the child in advance: children definitely won’t eat olives and artichokes ... How soon they will! My youngest eats both. He does not like pepper, but he will eat olives at least with a spoon. nine0003
| Introduce new products gradually to children |
Another secret: don't rush to cook complex dishes with 20 ingredients right away, if you usually have macaroni and cheese. Innovate gradually. Put in the tomatoes first, then the meat and basil, then boil the rice.
And then on the rise. From extreme to extreme is always a path to failure.
And at the very end I want to add: even though everything here sounds smart and correct, everything happens in our family. And dad, who after dinner feeds the children with pieces of cheese, and compote instead of dinner, and catching favorite ingredients from the dish.
There are no ideal children and parents.
But the main thing is to know where you are going, to be firm in your intentions, and not to forget about them. Believe me, in the end it will be easier for you and your children. And they will also hurt less. And how much you will save time and nerves, do not even convey! nine0003
Really good goals?
Good health to you!
My dears! Thanks for reading. I share valuable information with you free of charge, and I will be very grateful if you share this article on your social networks or leave a comment.
P.
