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10 Steps to Prevent Picky Eating

a toddler eating wild rice from a highchair tray

When I was a new mom, I fabricated every mistake in the book when it came to nutrient. I catered to my child'southward every want. I got emotional when he refused dinner, and I used every prop in the book to go him to just.take.ane.bite. But these well-intentioned acts to go my kid to eat backfired, big fourth dimension. Within a year he stopped eating altogether and his weight vicious below the first percentile.

Five years later, having worked with pediatric nutritionists, child psychologists, feeding therapists, and dietitians, we are still climbing out of that picky eating pigsty. But in that location'southward light at the end of the tunnel. My biggest accept away? It is much easier to preclude picky eating than it is to address it once information technology's taken root.

Hither are 10 things you tin exercise right now to foreclose picky eating. Stay strong. Here'due south to assertive in the possibility that meals can, in fact, be happy. –Jenny, founder

  1. Foster independent eating. Babies instinctively know how to eat. If you are spoon-feeding, aim to transition your baby to self-feeding 100% by 9 months old with a wide diversity of finger foods. (For ideas, meet our costless Outset Foods® database.)
  2. Get messy. Resist the urge to wipe your child'due south face and hands during meals and permit your baby get messy while self-feeding. Children who are excessively cleaned or not allowed to touch food may grow up thinking food is "dirty" and even take visceral reactions to food touching their peel or clothes.
  3. Ready an eating schedule and stick to information technology. Brand sure main meals are not presently afterwards snacks or breast/bottle feeds. (Information technology turns out your mom was right: that cookie will ruin dinner!)
  4. Empower with choice: Offer pocket-sized portions of 3-5 unlike foods (eastward.1000., poly peptide, veg, grain, fruit) at each chief meal at the same fourth dimension. If baby just wants to eat one of those (which is oft fruit), but don't serve that nutrient at each repast to give the other foods a fighting chance.
  5. Check your emotions at the table. If your child refuses to eat, don't react or exert pressure in whatever mode. (And in the aforementioned vein, don't praise your child for eating.) (Doing so will probable outcome in your child eventually using nutrient equally a style to control things.) If a meal is refused, offer one more minute or and so and and so cheerfully take it away from the table and say "okay, all done." Remember to offer food choices all at once, nonetheless.
  6. Introduce new foods each week. Aslope foods that are familiar, make sure you don't fall into a rotation oestrus of bananas, sweet potatoes and cereal. Keep introducing new foods—with varying textures—at the aforementioned fourth dimension as familiar foods. If your babe doesn't effort the new food the first time, go on introducing it. Some babies need to see new foods many times before trying it.
  7. Consume with your child. Sit with your child and as much as possible, swallow what they are eating (even if it's just a petty flake).
  8. Make meals fun, simply keep it about the food. Babies do not need distraction to want to eat. (Those who practise have usually simply go accustomed to having it.) Sit with your child, talk about what y'all are eating (oh, these strawberries are so sweet!) and refrain from using books, music, devices or television to get your child to swallow. If you are employing any of these crutches, finish cold turkey.
  9. Quit crutches cold turkey. If you are using any crutches (eastward.one thousand., Idiot box, phones, books music, bribes, etc.) at the tabular array to go your child to swallow, cease now. Focus on the long game, non the curt game.
  10. Higher up all, feign indifference. Even if you lot feel like upset because your kid is refusing a meal, don't let information technology show. Food is the only thing your child can command. Don't let it turn into the thing that your kid uses to command you.

Need more back up? Bank check out our Do's and Don'ts guide and our new video library.

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Source: https://solidstarts.com/10-steps-to-prevent-or-reverse-picky-eating/

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