The ‘eeewe’ affair!
‘You will not believe what my house-help and I found. Mounds and mounds of stale food in almost every nook of the house. Behind the seats, under the bed, behind the flower pots—I mean in every hidden corner,’ Sarah told me, with a sigh.
‘That’s weird! What was somebody trying?’
‘Somebody was trying not to eat, Elsa.’ Another sigh.
I could not help but laugh at the scenario. Since when did toddlers sneak around for easy-fast-quick solutions? Well, Sarah and I got talking, and I told her a few things I have heard about this scenario.
As the rate of growth slows down in older toddlers, food usually becomes the last thing they want to hear of. This could be because their nutritional requirements may have slightly decreased.
Well, most children eventually grow out of this stage and continue to develop completely normal, even gaining more balanced eating habits and big appetites.
Food preferences are developed early in life and once they are established, they are hard to break. Therefore, the earlier you encourage healthy eating habits for your child, the better.
Making it Yummy!
The following are easy ways to ensure your child is getting all the necessary nutrients, regardless of whether their appetite is big or small:
o Have your child participate in making the grocery shopping list. Ask ‘Should we buy pineapples of oranges?’ While young children may not fully understand the concept, it may make them excited enough to try a new product or retry something they previously rejected.
o Make meal and snack times fun. Make mandazi in interesting shapes, put holes on the chapatti to make it look like a face, arrange carrots and tomatoes to look like a house, and serve in lovely crockery, interesting cutlery, table mats.
o Take your child on a fun outing to the source of foods. Visit dairy farms and orchards. While young children may not fully understand the concept, it may make them excited enough to try a new product or retry something they previously rejected.
o Give lots of fruit juice. Make sure it is 100 per cent pure fruit juice, which is far better than flavoured or artificial drinks. However, be aware that commercially prepared ‘natural’ fruit juices contain fruit sugars, and may be just as harmful on the teeth as sugar. The high sugar content of commercial fruit juices also reduces your child’s appetite for food. You are therefore left with no option than making the juices from fresh fruit at home. Give the juice after meals rather than before.
o And if you must use the commercial fruit juice, dilute it with at least 50 per cent of water. Note that your child’s dentition can be affected by the bottle or sip-cup that is likely to be clung to all day long.
o Give them frozen and canned fruit if they do not have cold allergies. Children who dislike drinking smoothies may enjoy frozen cubes made from the blend.
o Adding boiled egg-white to smoothies will increase the protein content, as its taste is likely to go unnoticed.
o Make muffins from whole-meal flour, which is a good source of fibre and mineral salts. Add fruits and vegetables therein, such as, bananas, carrots, pineapples, and the like. They will be munching the ‘cake’ as the necessary ingredients make their way down their little tummies.
o Fortify favorite foods with extra vegetables or fruit but try and be up front about it if asked. You do not want your child to find out later and then have a full scale rebellion on your hands!
o Allow the toddlers to feed themselves as much as they can. This makes the eating event less coercive.
o Toddlers are usually super-imitators. Set a good example and they will ultimately follow. Eat a good balanced diet together as a family. The toddler would rather eat with the rest of the people than by themselves.
o Eating regularly in front of the television is distracting, often resulting in eating less.
o Too much pressure on eating can have the opposite effect—negative feelings towards food. Try to make the eating event a game. Tell interesting tales about the food, to help your child develop a positive attitude about food.
o Avoid junk foods as they are high in calories and with low nutritional value. A small nibble of junk food can completely destroy the appetite of a poor eater.
However, if you are concerned that your child is not growing appropriately or is losing weight, make a point of consulting your health care practitioner as soon as you can.
END: BL24/8-9