Food seems to be a common topic among parents with young children.

You often hear parents say: “I’m so lucky, my child eats what ever I put in front of him” Then you hear the opposite from other parents, “Food is a constant battle”

There usually are 3 categories, when it comes to young children ad eating.

1) The “perfect” little eater.

2) The child that has a lot of variety in his or her diet, but is a little “fussy’ with certain things.

3) The very ‘fussy’ eater.

If your young child is a “perfect” eater like in category number one, then you are very lucky, so continue to incorporate a variety of foods in his or her diet, which should incorporate all four food groups.

Don’t be alarmed though, as your child grows up, their tastes do change with age, and so he or she may not be as open to as much of a variety of food as when they were young.

If your young child fits into category number two, don’t make a fuss about the food that he or she might not like. Rather continue to give the variety in their diet that they already have, and slowly but surely you can introduce other new things.

If your child fits into category number 3, I would first of all not make any issue of meal times. Find things that your child likes to eat, continue to give that as long as they are eating either fruit or vegetables. Slowly encourage new and different things from the four food groups. Try to make meal time and food fun, and even consider offering food in different ways e.g. try offering frozen peas instead of cook peas, you’ll be pleasantly surprised in how you can get your child to enjoy something new just by changing the way you prepare it. Also sometimes get them to choose want they want to eat and to help you prepare the meal. Children feel important to be involved in the process and you’ll be surprised once again at the variety that they might be willing to try. However if your child is adamant not to eat new things, don’t make an issue of it. Leave it alone. As children grow up, their tastes do change and they certainly become a lot more willing to try different food.

You’ll be surprised. Some of the children, who began as the fussiest eaters when they were small, eventually learn to appreciate all kinds of food. Usually the ones you least expect, will like the most variety of foods later on in life, and become ‘food adventurous’.

When you have young children, meal time and eating should not become a stressful issue. If it does, then later in life these are the children who will be prone to developing more serious eating disorder.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Food, Toddlers & Preschoolers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.