Many parents have trouble getting their children to eat at some point in their childhood.  Children's likes and dislike change often. Some children are very light and picky eaters.  Now if your child has an aversion to certain textures or is extremely picky, they could have Sensory Integration Disorder (SID).  This can be from mild to avoiding certain textures to very serious where they won't eat.  If you suspect your child might have this, please discuss it with your pediatrician.  If you are uncertain, google search Sensory Integration Disorder and read up on it.  Most children however just are picky. 

 

Here's a good rule of thumb my pediatrician gave me: hungry children eat.  Haley would not eat meat or chicken from age 1-3.  I worried about her getting enough protein.  Our doctor told us to keep putting meat/chicken (whatever we were eating) on her plate everyday.  When her body needed the protein, she would eat it.  He was right.  Occasionally she would, out of the clear blue, eat an entire hamburger or half the roast, and then it was back to ignoring it on the plate.  We never make our children clear their plate but they have to at least take 1 bite of everything. Keep giving them the foods they don't like, many times they will eventually decide they like them.

 

The biggest mistake I see parents make is letting their children snack too much. A child who grazes on goldfish all day is not going to eat well at meals.  From age 1 to age 5, a morning snack and an afternoon snack is good.  For age 3 and under maybe a bedtime snack too.  Snacks should be at a certain time, something healthy preferably with water to drink, and should be limited.  It is never good for your children to have free access to the pantry.  My 12 and 9 year old still have to have permission to snack.  Now when they get older like 12 and 9, you don't really have to worry about them ruining their appetite so much as you have to worry about limiting the sugar and junk food.  Of course having cheerios and other small snacks to keep toddlers occupied at a restaurant etc. is OK unless they are not eating good meals.  We just do afternoon snack at our house at 3pm.  For all my children under the age of 5, I also diluted their juice, half juice and half water.  This is much healthier for them. I also buy juice that is from pressed fruit and not concentrate, it has less sugar.  Most stores, even Wal-Mart have this.  Giving your children water to drink as much as possible will do them a big favor the rest of their life.  We made the mistake of letting the older kids have pop after age 3 and now they never want water. I always order Micah water (age 4) now and only allow 1 cup of milk per day and 1 cup of diluted juice. The rest of the time it is water.  This helps limit the sugar intake and well as calories which will benefit them later in life. 

 

Now every child is different and some have medical conditions that call for different diets.  Extremely small children or those who have failure to thrive, obviously have different needs and should be fed according to what the pediatrician suggests. For the most part limiting your child's snack will get them to eat good healthy meals at meal time.

 

If you have questions or comments about this post or if you have another parenting question, just click on the link below to email it to me.

Thanks,

Michelle