Toddler tips
Handy hints for feeding your little ones
Bearing in mind all children are different, most are fussy about some things and what works
one day won’t always work the next. So persistence is the key, sometimes they have to try a
food a dozen times to accept its taste. Children are very impressionable; they look up to you
and will copy you. So they can easily be put of things by your reactions. They can be terrible
eaters one day and perfect the next or visa versa – so be patient.
- Have regular eating times
- Don’t let them fill them selves up on snacks
- All sit down together and try and eat as a family
- Eat at a table without distractions like the TV
- Make eating times fun and happy (a social time)
- All eat the same or mixes of the same food (if they don’t eat it fine as long as they try and leave it on their plate)
- Persistence with the same foods
- Be positive about what you are eating. No errs! Or yuks!
- Say words of encouragement when they’re eating like, yum yum –that looks lovely etc. Don’t be afraid of going over the top
- Regularly introduce different types of food, different tastes, colours and textures. This will encourage them to like a large variety of foods
- Involve the children in the preparation of food, setting the table and clearing away
- Don’t let your children pick what they want to eat, you be the boss and may be let them chose on a special occasion or on a certain day of the week
- Don’t let your child get down from the table until everyone has finished, this will teach them patience and they will be better behaved when you take them out to eat
- Get your children interested in food by helping you shop, watching cookery programs i.e. big cook little cook and flicking through cookbooks
- Have baking afternoons as a treat making cakes and biscuits
- Occasionally treat them to lunch or a drink in a café. Eating out is a great experience for them.
But remember food is fun, it should be enjoyable and a time when you can sit down together and talk