10 Ways To Get Your Child To Eat

Feeding a child can be a tricky job, as sometimes they will just gorge on their food and sometimes they will create so much fuss that moms are left hassled. Every parent wants their child to be active and healthy. Each mother tries to feed nutritious food to her baby, even if they have to trick the child into eating it. Since every child is wired differently, there is no particular thumb rule that can be applied to all the children. Read on to find out a few things you can do to help your child to eat well.

Tips To Get Your Child To Eat Well

Here are few things that worked for me that I would like to share:

1. Try and understand your child likes and dislikes for a particular taste or texture. With this understanding, the battle is half won
2. When she was 6 months plus, apart from cerelac and mashed fruits, I used to give her a homemade food powder (a mixture of powder of roasted beaten rice, roasted oats, cornflakes, roasted chana, roasted cashew nuts and powdered mishri). This powder makes up for the lack of nutrients in a fussy eater. The powder also comes handy when you are travelling with your child
3. At the age of 1 plus, my daughter had a preference for sweet things such as suji ka halwa, oats porridge, rice kheer, mashed fruits, egg pudding, roti soaked in milk among other things. But to avoid her to stick to a particular taste, I used to give her savory dishes also and discovered that she had a preference for noodles. She also likes home-made noodles and so I gave her sewai cooked in noodle style, and sometimes roti-noodles (roti cut into strips and tossed with sautéed vegetables)
4. A child may take some time to accept a particular taste. May be a food they do not like today; they may start enjoying after a month or so. So keep on introducing new taste and textures to them
5. Children can get bored easily with the same kinds of food. So, keep experimenting and try to present the food in a non-traditional way. Make kebabs of daal and put into a roti roll to make a kathi; dry excess water from khichdi, add besan, chopped onions, cheese and make patties or tikkis of it
6. If the child doesn’t like eggs you can serve it to him in the form of an egg pudding, which they may love to have
7. Make stuff paratha, chilla, or pancake. Cut it into different bite-sized shapes
8. It is better to avoid giving chocolate, chips and other junk foods to children and the best way is to not to introduce these things to them till they can understand the harmful effects of these foods
9. Don’t force the child to have the food that they don’t like. During summer, some children may want only liquid diet. Don’t panic, this is ok, after some time they will back to their usual routine. In the meantime, to ensure there is no lack of nutrition, give the child soups (vegetable, chicken etc. served hot or cold), thin daals and curries, and cooling foods like rice
10. Make cutlets of fish or chicken. Spice them with natural herbs and flavoring such as mint, coriander

The important thing is to have tremendous patience with your child. They will adapt to new tastes but gradually. My daughter eats savory dishes and vegetables, too in different forms now with ease. Also, remember each child is different—what works for one may not for other. So, use your own gut feel while dealing with your child and focus on a wholesome, nutritious diet.

Did you find this blog useful? Share your own tips with us in the comments section!