Parenting Tip: Training the Fussy Eater

How many times as a parent have you had food you are feeding to your toddler come flying back at you? Well, if you are tired of cleaning up the mess, take a look at ways you can stop this behavior and train your fussy eater to swallow.

On the one hand, there is no one that likes every kind of food available. But, on the other hand, it is a no debate that there are many foods that are nutritional and need to be eaten. This being true, there are many strategies you can employ to get your fussy eater to not be so fussy.

To begin, as the parent, you know what is good and what is not good for your child’s health; and, as such, there will be some foods you will have to repeatedly insist your child eat. One way of approaching this is to deny them a food they like by insisting they eat the nutritional food first before getting foods they like; this is called ‘leveraging’. It is a good way of negotiating with your child to ensure they get healthy food into their growing bodies. Don’t give up too easily on this one; it is proven to work.

Another method you can try is to make food fun. There are many colorful foods such as raisins, apples, carrot sticks, cheese sticks or grapes that are not only fun finger foods to eat but are also healthy foods. By letting them think they are having fun eating these choices, along with many others, will encourage them to eat better and not be so fussy. You can also let them know the benefits of eating nutritional foods by explaining how they will grow stronger and be able to run faster because they are giving their bodies what they need in order to do these things.

Another thing to keep in mind is the old saying ‘monkey see, monkey do’ when dealing with a fussy eater. If they see you munching down on the Doritos all the time, they will be less willing to ‘do as you say’ because of ‘what you do’ instead. This may be a bit difficult if you were raised on ‘junk food’ but, if you care about helping your fussy eater consume healthier foods, you will have to change your eating habits as well. Also remember that your child’s tastes in foods may not be the same as yours. Consider this possibility and make foods they like that are still nutritional available.

In addition, watch how much food they consume and keep in mind not only the nutritional value of each food but also the caloric and fat content each food contains. To start by helping your fussy eater become a better eater needs to be tempered with not allowing them to overeat, thus resulting in other health-related issues such as obesity. One way of monitoring this is to keep a growth and weight chart that will track your child’s progress to ensure they not gain too much weight in proportion to their age and height.

In conclusion, don’t become overly stressed by your fussy eater. Unless they are sick, they will still eat. Remain calm throughout the process of dealing with a fussy eater and remember that they will not starve themselves because of certain foods they would rather not eat. In fact, if they are insistent in not eating what is placed in front of them, it will not harm them in any way to have to wait for the next meal before being allowed to eat again. It may well be the final leverage you need to get them to eat better and not be such a fussy eater!