Are you struggling with parenting a picky eater? This guest blog post from Lindsey Overstreet, LCSW, Behavioral Health Manager at Mosaic provides some great tips for encouraging healthy eating habits in kids. Happy National Nutrition Month!
Picky eating is one of the most challenging parts of parenting. We know how important it is for our kids to eat nutritious meals, but when your kid refuses to eat anything that isn’t beige or doesn’t come out of a wrapper, we often feel like we have no choice but to “give in” so our child doesn’t go hungry.
Having strong likes and dislikes does not mean your child is a picky eater, this is just part of being human. However, picky eating becomes serious when your child will only eat foods from one category (e.g., carbohydrates) or restricts themselves to 20-30 foods.
There are many contributing factors to why a child may be a picky eater, most of which have nothing to do with food!
• Recent sickness – stuffy noses, sore throats, and canker sores can all make foods taste different and turn kids off from those foods for a long time after they get better.
• Seat – not having proper foot and back support while eating can make the tasks of chewing difficult and tiresome so many children start to prefer softer foods.
• Social – humans are social creatures and eating meals together creates a sense of connection and safety.
• Choice – picky eating tends to emerge in late toddler and early elementary years when children have a strong sense of what they want but very little control in what they do during their day.
The best ways to prevent or correct picky eating:
• Serve (much!) smaller portion sizes. When kids see a heaping pile of food on their plate, especially if it is something new or not preferred, they get overwhelmed and reject it. If they devour those two baby carrots, they can always have more!
• Avoid the same foods over and over. It is tempting to keep serving our kids the foods we know they will eat to avoid mealtime battles. Unfortunately, this can lead to kids burning out and the list of preferred foods shrinking. Try not to serve the exact same thing more than two days in a row.
• Keep exposing them to new foods as it often takes 7-10 times of trying a new food for a child to determine if they like it. Sticking with the small portion size recommendation above, just put a few small pieces of broccoli on their plate each time you make it and let them experiment.
• Adjust their seat. Tie a strap around the legs of the chair to offer foot support or put a pillow behind their back if they need a boost to reach the table.
• Eat together with your child as often as possible and avoid screens during mealtimes.
Pediatric behavioral health providers and Nutritionists at Mosaic Community Health are here to help if your child is showing signs of picky eating. Call 541-383-3005 to get scheduled today!
0 Comments