Feeding little ones a variety of healthy meals can be a challenge…especially when they become oh so opinionated! All the sudden your glowing, well palated toddler has turned into this picky monster refusing anything presented to them simply I believe for the mere pleasure of watching mom burst into tears! But don’t lose faith you emotionally drained and overwhelmed saint! This too shall pass, and to help this phase move along here are some great tips for expanding your toddlers tongue and ensuring the little angel/demon gets adequate nutrition.
1. 1. Watch their liquids. A big deterrent for little bellies at meal times is their sippy cups. These cups are so handy, your little one can tote them around all day and for the most part they are spill-resistant. (I’ve yet to find a spill-proof no matter who makes the cup). However, this constant flow of liquids doesn’t allow their little bellies to get hungry so eating what’s on their plate becomes an issue. They can afford to be picky when they’re half-full! So a good way to eliminate this is to only offer their drink towards the end of the meal and to limit their fluid intake a good hour before they eat. Now all those parenting extremists out there, no I’m not saying deny your child fluid and dehydrate them, simply experiment! My trial and error has shown they will drink quite a bit towards the end of their meal and then usually a whole cup of water after the meal too.
2. 2. Don’t refill till their entire plate is empty. A big challenge is NOT to refill their “fav” foods when they gobble them down first and plead “MORE! MORE!” Instead let them have a few meals of “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!” No your little one will not starve! Like the saying goes, when they get hungry enough they’ll eat and believe me…it doesn’t take very long for little ones to figure this out. This method works great as well for those “picky” eaters. Simply offer more veggies and proteins while you’re in this “training” stage.
3. Hide your nutrition! That’s right; hide some nutrients in that food. Make your kiddos a smoothie and throw in protein powder, flax meal, oats or berries. Put some veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, peas) in their mac-n-cheese. Make their ordinary PB&J with almond butter and mashed berries instead of PB and high sugar jelly. Switch out all your tortillas and breads with whole grains versions…believe me, your kids will barely notice.
4. Let them dip! All kids love “dipping!” My girls love to dip any fruit or veggie in ketchup or yogurt, doesn’t matter what it is they’ll eat it simply to dip it. So liven it up a bit, ditch the ranch and give them hummus, avocado dip(which is a big help for those kiddos with bowel movement issues!), yogurt and honey to dip their veggies and fruits in.
Mostly in all this don’t lose sight of the goal…getting your little one great nutrition to be healthy. That also means a healthy relationship with food. Too many kids now a day have been fed horrible nutrition growing up and start dieting in the adolescence, thus creating an awful relationship with food. Start your little ones early to enjoy healthy foods and help teach their little bellies moderation without making it an issue. Anyone else have any great success with expanding your little ones tastes?
