How to make a child eat: useful tips

Very often, parents are faced with a situation where the child refuses food partially or completely. This problem especially worries grandmothers. Adults worry that babies do not eat anything except sweets (gingerbread, cookies, juice, etc.). In fact, the root of the problem is most often not in the child’s health, but in the wrong mode and upbringing. If you want the baby to eat soup with pleasure, ask for supplements and beat out several cutlets with mashed potatoes, you need to properly build the food education, which we will talk about today.

How to arouse a child's appetite

Here are some rules to help feed your baby properly, tasty and varied.

1. Do not force! Firstly, no coercion. Do not force a child to eat, in any case. From birth, the body experiences hunger as soon as the nutrients taken with a previous meal in the blood run out. That is, the body itself talks about when and how much it needs. In no case do not force the child to eat, do not dance in front of him with a spoon of porridge and, moreover, do not force-feed him. This can result in serious psychological problems that will pass with the baby into adulthood. Food is a pleasure and a way of satiety, but not a punishment.
2. Mode. Set the day and diet. After the baby goes from breastfeeding to the common table, he should eat at about the same time.
3. No snacking! Eliminate sweets, cookies, and other sweets, especially between meals. Do not be surprised that the baby refuses soup if he ate a chocolate bar an hour ago.
4. Exercise stress. In order for a child to have an appetite, he must spend the energy that entered the body with a previous meal. To do this, he must move. Ideally, in the fresh air. Walk with your child for at least two hours, especially before lunch. After such a walk, the baby will gladly eat the whole plate of mom's soup. At the same time, let the child run, jump, climb. Do not take cookies and sweets for a walk, prepare soup in advance, so that after arrival you can quickly feed a hungry child.
5. Refusal of sweet drinks. Compotes and juices can also be considered food, because they have a lot of sugar. In the intervals between meals, it is better to refuse sweet drinks - only pure water. Offer stewed fruit as a dessert after the soup and main course.
6. Kindergarten. Oddly enough, kindergarten contributes to normal nutrition. A lot of parents admit that their capricious and fastidious children start to eat normally only in the kindergarten. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, there is strict discipline - all meals strictly at a certain time. Secondly, in the intervals between no cookies and sweets - they simply have nowhere to come from. Thirdly, the collective plays a role - if everyone around is eating with appetite, the child will also begin to repeat after their peers. Therefore, if your child eats poorly, you need to try to give him to the garden, if, of course, age allows.

The question “How to make a child eat” is fundamentally wrong. You can’t force him, you need to arouse your child’s interest in food, it is important that he feels hunger. Then the prepared dishes will seem much tastier. But what if the child prefers to eat selectively?

How to feed a baby in a variety of ways

Indeed, the problem of a balanced diet is very acute. Many children do not like to eat meat, someone refuses vegetables, while others do not recognize fruits.However, doctors say that a child’s diet should be varied. Every day he must eat something meat, something milk, some fruit and vegetables, and cereals are also required. This will provide the baby with the right amount of vitamins. What to do if a child refuses meat or does not like vegetables at all?

1. Many children do not eat onions in any form. However, if it is finely chopped and cooked for at least two hours in the broth, it will dissolve almost completely, the baby will not even notice it.
2. In kindergartens, potatoes are cut small enough so that one piece can fit in a children's mouth. But even in this case, educators admit that not everyone eats soup. But if you crush potatoes right in the soup, the kids eat the dish with much greater pleasure.
3. Quite rarely you can meet a child who loves meat. Firstly, the meat in its structure is quite tough. In order for the baby to eat it with pleasure, you need to cook meatballs and meatballs from meat. Moreover, it needs to be scrolled through a meat grinder 2-3 times so that the dish turns out to be very soft. Add a little fat and onion to the mince for juiciness, cook steamed cutlets, serve them hot, immediately after cooking. The kid will definitely not refuse such a treat.
4. In order for the child to eat fruits and vegetables with pleasure, you can cut out the shape of stars, men, animals and other figures from them. In general, creative serving of dishes is very important for a child; interest usually fuels the appetite.
5. Some mothers admit that children do not want to eat fruits and vegetables in general, but they are happy to eat them in pieces. That is, you need to cut pears, peaches, apples, bananas and other fruits into small pieces, put in a bowl and give it to the child. Sometimes crazy delight causes the independent use of the plug. Try to give your child a fork with sharp ends so that the baby does not get hurt.
6. If the child refuses food, try to give it in a different form. That is, sometimes one-year-old babies refuse food simply because they don’t want to eat the usual blender puree. Much more they like dishes with small hard slices. This is called pedagogical feeding, when new products are introduced into the baby’s diet from the mother’s plate.
7. Cook deliciously for your child! Sometimes parents bother with proper nutrition for the child, although they themselves do not adhere to the established rules. If a baby eats broccoli in half a year with pleasure, then do not be surprised that he will abandon the green mass in three years. When making mashed potatoes, add butter, a little milk and salt - that is, to make the baby really tasty.
8. By the way, it’s easier to feed a child with meat if it’s a chicken leg. Many children, for some reason, love them very much.
9. Until three to five years old, do not introduce industrial sausages, chips, ketchups and the like dubious food products into the child’s diet. Understand that mom’s soup will rarely win a fight against sausages, so it’s better to protect yourself from such food in advance. The later the child finds out what it is, the better.
10. If the child completely refuses vegetables, you can cheat and prepare them their juice. That is, mix the juice of carrots and apples, serve the baby with a straw or pour into the packaging from the purchased juice. Often children, not seeing the cooking process, enjoy drinking freshly squeezed juices. But remember, for a child under three years old, the juice must be diluted with water.
11. You can use this technique. Buy your baby a beautiful plate, on the bottom of which are painted fairy-tale characters or cartoon characters. Tell your child that he should eat soup sooner to say hello to his beloved friend.
12. Do not cook porridge overly cloying - many children do not like this. Add sugar sparingly, be sure to garnish the taste with a pinch of salt. Vanilla or cinnamon can be added to semolina. Do not allow the formation of lumps - you can form an aversion to semolina for life. But the children will eat the cooked porridge with great pleasure.

And further.If the child does not want to eat, do not force or persuade him. Do not want to eat - do not, eat soup later. But be unwavering - do not offer any alternative, otherwise the child will constantly manipulate you in terms of food. Talk to your older homeworkers in advance. In the morning you have to say in a voice - porridge is ready, who will be? If all adult households, including older children, are happy to run into the kitchen, the baby just can not stay away! Put the child a little so that he can master the portion and enjoy the taste of the dish.

If the child refuses any food and this is accompanied by symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, heartburn, then you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. This may be a sign of poisoning or a gastroenterological disease.

Is food always important?

I would also like to say about young children who are breast-fed. Often mothers complain that babies are not very interested in complementary foods, that they constantly suckle their breasts, although there is nothing in it. In fact, many women only think that there is no milk in their breasts or very little milk. A late period of feeding (after a year) is characterized by a situation where the breast is not poured heavily, but milk is still produced in it. This suggests that the baby is full. If you want to transfer the baby to the general table, you need to think about full or partial weaning from breast milk, when you will offer the baby a breast only after waking up and before bedtime.

The relationship of a person to food and eating behavior are laid in childhood. If you do not want to see the child obese in the future, with a large number of complexes and sores against the background of obesity, you need to instill in your child a healthy attitude to food. Tell the teenager that his body is not a garbage can, where you can throw everything from soda to nuts and chips. Do not force the child to eat up everything on the plate - this is wrong. You need to eat as much as you want, no more. The body reacts much worse to overeating than to hunger. We are what we eat. And if the child wants to eat, he will certainly tell you about it, do not force the children to eat. From famine and exhaustion in wealthy families, no one has yet died!

Video: what to do if the child does not want to eat