Handling Picky Eaters - Tips for Children who don't Eat - How to Give Balanced Diet to Kids who are Picky Eaters

Handling Picky Eaters

Most of the parents complain that their kid simply do not eat enough or are very choosy in selecting their meal. Though most of them are concerned but few of them have real problem in dealing with their kids who actually do not eat enough and do not eat healthy. For those who are over concerned, they need to understand that the amount of food a child can ingest varies from child to child. If the average growth rate of their kid is satisfactory at the mental and physical level, there is not much to worry. However, parents dealing with kids suffering malnutrition due to over choosy nature need to get on their toes to check their kid's habit right here. Here is something that would be helpful.

Handling Picky Eaters: Where is the problem?

Check out if your kid has some bowel or digestive problem. Few kids avoid eating because of their fear of motions and nausea.

If your kid has picked up this 'picky eaters' syndrome recently, immediately check if he has acquired jaundice.

Explore if he is taking junk meals outside and avoiding the home made meal.

Discuss him if he is in exam tension or some other pressure, many kids avoid eating as they get tensed.

Do not also rule out the possibility of some hormonal changes that may lead to this, if you can't find any thing else responsible for their food habits; take him to the doctor straight away for check ups.

Handling Picky Eaters: What actually do they want?

In case your kid has some real medical problem, he is himself not responsible for this choosy habit. As he eats less, he prefers to eat what he likes.

There are some kids who really have very choosy taste buds. If your kid is one of them, you will have to comply by their demands but in a very tricky way. You can't impose or insist.

At times the child also does it for seeking attention. If this is the problem, you need to listen and comply by your kid's demand.

Handling Picky Eaters: What can you do?

If your kid has a medical problem, get it checked right away.

Try feeding your kid all the healthy things with a very beautiful dressing. Kids love food that looks good.

Give them certain conditions like two chapattis and a glass of milk can only fetch him two extra bars of chocolate.

Check out if they are consuming junk outside home. Try to give them some home made relishing food similar to junk but yet healthy. Like whole grain pasta or flour noodles.

In the three meals he consumes in a day, make sure one meal is completely his choice. Fulfill his nutritional needs in the rest two. Make this point very clear to him from the beginning.

Take him to doctor who will make him understand the need of healthy diet and their proportional body growth. He may ignore you but will pay heed to the third person especially when he knows the third one is an expert.

Give them healthy drinks and make sure they gulp them up. Let them choose their health drinks themselves.

Take him to the food market when you go for grocery shopping, let him choose the fruits and vegetables.

Keep on adding new dishes to his menu. He will love experimenting.

Eating Problems in Children
Parents often face many challenges while trying to make their child have a balanced diet. Child may not want to eat or insist for a particular snack until he is full and then refuse to eat lunch or dinner with the family. The child may not want to wait until mealtime to eat and you may find it difficult to manage to have a family dinner with the parents and children enjoying a happy meal together.

First Foods for the Baby
Introducing babies to solid foods is not so difficult as it seems. Usually, babies tend to start giving some clues when they are ready to try their first foods. The timing when to give the food and following the sequence or the order in which the baby should be introduced to foods is important for baby’s health, proper nutrition and good eating habits in the baby. Here are some tips that can help you feed ‘real’ foods to the baby in a way that he will enjoy:

Handling Babies Spitting Up Milk
Most babies tend to spit up milk after every feeding. This is because most of the infants suffer from gastro esophageal reflux until they are six months old. However, there may not be any cause to worry if the baby is gaining weight properly and does not seem to suffer from it. Babies spit up for lots of other reasons, such as, gagging when the milk lets down quickly and forcefully, oversupply of milk, immature muscle control, allergy, and disease.