If you have a child who is a ‘picky eater’, then you have come to the right place. Here, as a Holistic Nutrition Consultant, I will share my top tips for how to overcome picky eating in toddlers.
Okay, I totally relate to parents who have hard times getting their toddlers to eat the meal on their plate. I have three children myself and each one is uniquely different in their food preferences.
I will say that my approach to meal times and getting my children to eat their food has changed over the years, particularly since studying holistic nutrition.
I know that we as parents have the best intentions in wanting our children to eat a balanced diet, but sometimes we can do more harm than good by forcefully encouraging them to eat their food.
I don’t believe there is anything wrong with encouraging your child to eat the food on the plate or suggest that they have a few more bites. Let’s face it, sometimes children want to be done with eating so they can play or they are simply not bothered to finish their food, so giving them a gentle nudge can be a good thing.
However, I have come to realise that the face off between toddler and parent at mealtimes is sometimes just not worth it and we as parents forget that toddlers have their own tastebuds and preferences too.
What I will cover in this post
- The science behind a child’s innate food interests
- How we can foster a healthy relationship with food for our toddler
- How to overcome picky eating in toddlers
The science behind a child’s innate food interests
From the moment a baby is born, she is lovingly offered nourishment to which she knows how much of it her body needs at each feeding.
Is it not remarkable that babies pull off the breast or bottle when their body has indicated that it is full? It is merely the way God designed them.
And yet, these babies grow up being introduced to solids and at first, most babies will enjoy most foods offered to them with the occasional distaste of some foods. As they grow older and become toddlers, they are often much more interested in playing and moving around than sitting at a high chair and eating food that is now familiar to them.
Why would they finish off a whole bowl of pasta when playing with blocks is so much more interesting?
Even though nourishment is crucial at this age, so is playing.
If you want your toddler to not be fussy at meal times, make sure he is hungry and has had a decent amount of play time beforehand (I’m writing from experience!).
As toddlers, you will find that they are more interested in snacking throughout the day than eating a full meal. This is just developmental for the most part. However, if you are offering your toddler deliciously balanced meals throughout the day, the snacking will be a minimum.
I think rather than fussing over ensuring your child is eating all of her food, get to know what food she enjoys and try to adapt meals around them. Her food preferences are important, but what you are offering her is the standard she expects.
For example, if your toddler was introduced to sweet foods from an early age, he will more likely prefer sweet foods over savoury foods. Whereas, if your toddler had not been offered anything with sugar in it until the age of two, she will most likely find sugary foods too sweet and prefer foods with natural sugars, like fruit or savoury foods.
It is the foods you offer your child from an early age that most likely form their food preferences later on.
How we can foster a healthy relationship with food for our toddlers
The key to overcoming picky eating is by fostering a healthy relationship with food for them. This is not something that just happens overnight. I believe it begins when they are babies. However, if you are reading this and are thinking, ‘oh no, I’m just starting to make changes today’, then better late than never, my friend!
I believe that us parents can place too much pressure when it comes to feeding our toddler. Here are just some common scenarios:
“Henry, you must finish all of your dinner, otherwise you can’t leave the table to play.”
“Tilly, three more bites of your steak if you want yoghurt after your meal.”
“You’re not hungry because you snacked on chips before dinner, but you still have to finish your dinner so you can have strong muscles.”
While there is nothing necessarily wrong with these scenarios. As a parent, I believe it is important to show your children that eating balanced nourishing food is good for you and it is important to share why from an early age. However, in all of these scenarios there is a sense of coercion that often plays out negatively than positively.
I have found that discussing with my children from an early age how certain food makes them feel afterwards often helps them to make decisions.
For example, my eldest daughter has severe eczema. If she has a lot of sugary foods that day, she will break out in eczema patches come bedtime.
We have spoken about how the sugary foods often trigger the eczema and while the treats were delicious at the time, they made her body feel yucky later on.
I have noticed more recently that she is starting to make more conscious decisions about the kind of food she eats because we have had these conversations.
If your child does not suffer from allergies, gut issues or eczema (which are all intertwined), then I believe it is still important to discuss with them how certain foods make them feel.
I would encourage my children to think about how they feel after having a balanced meal, like roast chicken with vegetables. I would tell them how I feel full, satisfied and nourished and ask them to explain how they feel.
Then, I would ask them how they feel after having a lolly or ice cream. I would tell them that after I have something sweet, I often feel bloated, irritated and craving something healthy to eat!
This is just an idea of the conversations you can begin to have with your children from about 3 or so, if you have not already.
The point is to educate them about the importance of nourishment and not place too much pressure on them when they choose to make the lesser choice every now and then. I’ve found that having that healthy balance will encourage a healthy relationship with food over the years.
How to overcome picky eating in toddlers
Now that we have established the science behind a child’s innate food preferences and developing a healthy relationship with food for your toddler, let’s talk about some practical ways we can overcome picky eating in our toddlers.
Like I said, all of my children have different food preferences and they go through different seasons of picky eating and eating everything! It’s just a matter of riding the wave and enjoying witnessing what your child likes and dislikes (yes, I intentionally placed the word ‘ enjoying’ because when there’s no pressure there, you CAN enjoy meal times with your toddler).
I will preface this by saying that there is more of an expectation for my older two girls to eat a majority of their food than there is for my toddler boy. However, they are both good eaters and generally eat most, if not, all of their food anyway.
If you have a picky eating toddler and are racking your brain about how to encourage them to eat more healthy food, here are some things you can implement to make things a little more seamless and less stressful for you:
- Keep offering a variety of food. If your toddler does not like it, let it be their choice. They will probably come around to it the more you offer it and in due time.
- Minimise processed, sugary foods and offer more whole foods with more natural sugars. Children who are accustomed to processed foods from an early age are less likely to turn to whole foods when given the choice.
- Encourage your toddler to join you in preparing the food, if you have the time and ability. I find that children are more likely to eat food that they helped prepare (my favourite Montessori kitchen tools for kids).
- If you don’t have a lot of time preparing balanced meals, then take an hour or so a week to do some batch cooking. It really can be that simple and it means you are offering your children more balanced food than not.
- Take the pressure off! Remember that your child has their own tastebuds and food preferences. It is okay if they only want plain pasta at times. I would encourage if they only want plain foods, then try and add some more nutrient value to it, like scrambled eggs and grass-fed butter. If they don’t even want that, then just add plain sea salt and call it a day! They will most likely grow out of their picky eating if you are doing the above steps continuously.
Is your toddler currently at the picky eating stage? If so, what have been some ways you have encouraged them to eat? I’d love to know!
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