Do you want your toddler to develop a healthy eating habit? Then offer your child only healthy food. After all is you that choose what your child eats, your child only decide how much he/ she eats and how. If you want your child to be able to regulate their eating lifestyle for life, it's good to get it clear from the start that your child is in charge of how much food she takes into their body. Your job as parent is to offer healthy choices.
Your goal is to ensure that;
1. You give your child the opportunity to taste variety of foods, this develops the taste bud.
2. Your child is expose to healthy food, this will at least delay the development of junk cravings.
3.Give your child control over what she chooses to eat, but see to it that you provide healthy options. This will reduce power struggles and the risk of eating disorder later on in life.
Family dinner with conversation and connection is a wonderful goal, but your toddler is not yet well developed for that. At this stage the best thing to do is to lay the foundation by keeping meal time stress free and enjoyable.
How To Achieve Your Goals
* offer variety of healthy food
* Don't introduce sweet yet hold on a bit, and don't keep sweet at home.
* Do not push your toddler to eat more than he/she wants, or reward her for eating a lot.
Snacking;
Toddlers little stomach needs numerous small meals all through the day. Which is snacks, snacks does not mean unhealthy as many assume. The best snacks for toddlers are smaller portion of food healthy crackers with peanut butter, fruit, boiled egg, yoghurt etc.
Is Your Toddler Picky With Food?
It's nothing to worry about. Most toddlers go through a picky stage, there is an evolutionary reason... toddlers are "wired"! genetically to only eat familiar foods because unfamiliar foods could be poisonous. Don't make special food for your toddler at dinner because you're bound to be disappointed. Just serve variety of healthy foods and let them decide what to try.
Don't worry that your child will grow up to be a picky eater, because it rare so far there's an array of healthy foods to choose from and not addicted to junk food.
Talk about healthy food choices with your toddler, but above all talk about the taste. When you say "delicious"! and clearly mean it as you take a taste of food, your child is much more likely to want to try it than when you say " this is healthy for you". At the end, kids tends to enjoy the food they've seen their parents enjoy. You're your child's role model.
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Remember.
A great family births a great nation.