1) Remember they will eat when they are hungry. Don't try to force them to eat all of their food or at times when you think they should. Children do not eat because of emotional reasons, or because they are bored like adults do. Once you have this IMPORTANT concept, things will go better for you as a parent.
2) FINGER FOOD! My daughter always says, "Baby do it!" She doesn't want mommy to feed her the messy spaghetti to her so there isn't a mess...she wants to do it herself. She even goes as far as to not eat if she cannot feed herself. So I fix her plain pasta, so if it spills there is minimal damage to the carpet.
3) Eat with them. My husband found this trick out all on his own. When he sits down with her and focuses on meal/snack time, he takes a bite and then tells her it is her turn. It is like a game. Daddy's turn, then baby's turn. She eats a lot more this way. It takes effort of course. It takes time dedicated to your child to assist them in learning about the eating process. They are only going to do this once..do it with them and teach them important values.
4) Limit Fluid Intake. At first when we were transitioning from the bottle at age 1, we were not sure how much milk she needed in a day, how much juice. Of course at first we let her tell us what she wanted. There were days she was drinking all of her meals. That is when we talked to the doctor. He told us to limit her milk to (3) 8 oz bottles a day and juice is (1) 4 oz. Give her water when she is thirsty and we never let her go to sleep with a bottle anyways. She still gives us trouble with only 3 bottles of milk a day. But, when she is done pouting she goes over to her table where I always have Cheerios out for her and she will snack on them.
5) Variety. Always keep trying new things. When your child sees what you are eating and if you are making a big deal about the Broccoli ...they might too. In our house we call the broccoli TREES. She only eats the tops of the broccoli ...but she is eating TREES and loving it. When we go to the store she begs for grapes, apples, and bananas! Not the candy in the check out. Try making a big deal over all of the fruits and veggies. Cut them up into fun shapes.
Feb 17, 2008 ~Cindy Maddy
