We are talking about basic strategies for encouraging your toddler to eat healthy. You can read the first strategies and source information here before continuing.
Photo taken by my husband
Bridge building can help us with introducing new foods to our little ones too. If your child rejects a new food, and the rule of fifteen doesn’t seem to be helping, try to build a bridge to the new food using foods your toddler already accepts, or even likes. For instance, I was very disappointed several weeks ago that my little one refused oranges. After a number of tries (I’ll admit, I didn’t count… so it’s possible I didn’t make it to 15), I gave it a rest. A week or two ago, when Clementines were on sale, I thought I would try those. Being very similar, Clementines are a little sweeter, so I thought perhaps DS would like them better. Turns out he LOVES them (I would generally share mine with him, giving him the smaller half of each section). So today (yes… an example that worked for us from this very day) I decided to be brave and try oranges again (since those were on sale this week we have oranges instead of Clementines). Turns out he accepted them without problem! :)
What foods do your children reject? Does your little one reject your favorite chicken dish? Try serving chicken a different way… as chicken fingers or with BBQ sauce. If you can find a way to serve chicken that everyone loves, perhaps next you can re-introduce the original chicken dish. Your toddler may surprise you with how fast it disappears off his plate!
Instead of introducing new foods in random order, take some time to build bridges. If green beans are a hit, try snow peas next. Find a similarity between the foods… appearance, taste and texture all work! Are both foods orange as with carrots and sweet potatoes? Are both similar constancy as with sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes? Hmmm… with this one you can move to baked potatoes next… then maybe scalloped. Use your imagination and build away!
Have you tried this??? What have you built bridges from?
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When your Toddler Won't Eat Anything ~ Part 6
My son was such a picky eater, so that is what I started to do. Build a bridge between similiar foods.
ReplyDeleteI noticed my son would eat hambugers, so then I linked that up to meatloaf. He cleans his plate everytime. Vegatables are a bit trickier, but I always splash the plate with lots of colors, and let him pick out the vegs he wanted to eat. Or actually build something from it.
Like mornings when it was becoming Christmas, we would make Santa pancakes, with a whipped cream hat.
You really have to be creative when you have kids, it's makes parenting more fun too.
Jillian