Introducing kids to new foods from a young age gets them used to various food flavours, shapes and textures. Here’s a guide to introduce kids to new foods.
Is your child a fussy eater? Generally, kids are known to be very picky and fussy in what they eat. This statement may be true because of various factors like personality or behaviour traits, social influences, eating patterns, parental feeding tactics, and personal taste among others.
As a parental figure, introducing your kid to new foods with varied tastes, flavours, smells, and textures is an essential part of your child’s growing years. Doing the same will ensure that your kid is accustomed to varied foods that will provide him/her with all the essential nutrition. However, this is surely not an overnight process, it takes a lot of time and patience for kids to accept and develop a taste for new foods.
Here are 7 ways by which you can introduce new foods to your fussy eater:-
1. Involve Your Child
When grocery shopping, make sure to take your child along. Let your child choose and select what he/she prefers eating and educate them with its nutritional value and benefits.
When at home, make sure that your child contributes to helping you with food-related tasks, such as rinsing fruits and vegetables.
2. Focus On Presentation
Children are visual creatures, they are attracted to brightly coloured foods. You can cut vegetables and fruits in cute shapes and arrange them in a fun way.
3. Be Patient
Serve your child new food along with their favourite food, this will make sure that your kid is slowly familiarised with it regularly. A child will need constant exposure to a particular food before he/she begins to develop a taste for it.
4. Always Respect Your Child’s Appetite
One common mistake that most parents make is forcing their kids to have a lot of food in one sitting. This will make them struggle with eating food and also make them dread mealtimes.
5. Do Not Have Any Distractions Around
When your kid is eating, make sure that he/she has no distractions around. Switch off all gadgets and make your child focus only on eating, this will encourage them to appreciate their food.
6. Do Not Offer Dessert As A Reward
Offering dessert as a reward just after trying out new foods will make your child think that dessert is the best food to have. It will make them crave sweets from a young age. Another important thing to note is that a dessert doesn’t always have to be chocolate or ice cream or pudding. You can give them sweet fruits like mangoes and plums along with fresh cream. This will be a much healthier alternative to other desserts.
7. Be A Role Model
What you do, your child is sure to mirror it. Always have positive things to say about the food you eat, doing so will broaden your child’s mindset about food.