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How to Encourage Your Toddler to Eat a Variety of Foods

The most important key to encouraging healthy eating in your child is to remain cool. Do not become distressed or angry or provide your child with increased attention. This will only encourage them to continue not eating.

Other important and helpful tips for introducing new and healthy foods include:

  • Make sure you model healthy eating and enjoyment of healthy foods. Eat foods that are healthy and don’t make negative comments about foods that you don’t like whilst around your child.
  • Do not fill your child up on fluids before you are going to have a meal. Children have small stomachs so if your child drinks a large cup of milk, cordial, juice or water just before a meal they are only going to have room for a small amount of food at their mealtimes.
  • Another important note based on children having small stomachs is the amount you provide your child and how often to feed them. The best option is to provide them with small meals with snacks in-between. This is better than giving them three big meals a day.
  • Children like to have a routine to follow so try and keep mealtimes as regular as possible.
  • Avoid using bribes. Children may eat the food you are pushing them to eat in order to get the treat that they really want however this will not make them like or enjoy that food. In fact it has been shown that they will end up disliking that food intensely because of the way they were forced to eat it in order to get what they want.
  • There are always alternative ways to getting your child to eat foods that contain the nutrients they need. If your child does not like a food intensely then there is always a substitute to that food that will contain the same kinds of nutrients. For example if your child dislikes the roughness of meat or has difficulty chewing meat then offer them mince or if your child does not like yoghurt then give them milk or cheese.
  • Keep on trying new foods over and over again even if the child has rejected them on the first go. Children need to see new foods several times before they start to recognize them as familiar.

Always be aware that there maybe a background health problem that is interfering with your child’s eating. These may include sore tummy, illness, teething, sore throat or a blocked nose.