- 1. Start with foods that your child likes
- 2. Leave small pieces in the baby food
- 3. Create rewards to encourage
- 4. Let the child pick up the food
- 5. Start the food introduction process again
- Consequences for health and development
Sometimes children over 1 or 2 years old, despite being able to eat almost any type of food, seem to be too lazy to chew and refuse to eat rice, beans, meat, bread or potatoes. To solve this problem, it is necessary to use strategies such as leaving small solid pieces in the baby food or kneading only half of the baby food, in addition to having a lot of patience at mealtime.
Having this type of problem with children is not uncommon, and normally children who refuse to consume solid foods may have experienced difficult periods in early childhood, such as being frequently choked or having illnesses that made feeding difficult, causing parents resorted to milk or porridge very often, not allowing adequate stimulation of chewing.
Here are 5 good ways to encourage your child to eat solid foods by putting their own food in their mouths and chewing everything by themselves:
1. Start with foods that your child likes
Starting with foods that your child likes is an important strategy to facilitate acceptance of a solid meal. So, if your child loves banana mash, for example, try to offer half a whole banana and let him hold the food himself to feel its texture and smell. In some cases, repeating this strategy for a few days is enough for the child to start putting the food in his mouth spontaneously.
2. Leave small pieces in the baby food
Leaving small pieces in the baby food is a way to make the child feel the solid food little by little, without forcing him to eat all the solid food at once.
You can also use the strategy of kneading only half of the baby food, leaving the other half made up of whole foods, and try to alternate the type of food with each spoonful.
3. Create rewards to encourage
Creating small rewards encourages the child to progress in feeding, and it is possible to use incentives such as clapping and smiling with each spoonful consumed, or allowing the child to get out of the chair to sit at the table with the other family members, which will do she has a feeling of importance and maturity.
4. Let the child pick up the food
Letting the child pick up the food and give it a spoon to hold, even if it makes a mess in the kitchen, is a way to encourage him to feed himself and to feel a sense of power over the food. This is a good strategy especially when there is another adult eating next to her, as the child tends to imitate the actions of family members, including the gestures of bringing food to the mouth and chewing itself.
In addition, letting the child participate in the preparation of the meal also increases the child's intimacy with food and makes him more likely to try the food he helped produce.
5. Start the food introduction process again
Even if your child is over two years old, starting the whole food introduction process again may be the most effective way to get him to eat solid foods. To start over, one should try to start only with fruit porridge or shaved fruit in snacks, leaving milk, porridge and mashed soup still as the main meals of the little one.
As the child is accepting to consume fruit porridge, try to introduce the fruit into small pieces and savory porridge, using purees, mashed eggs and ground meat, for example, always remembering never to force or threaten the child during the meal.
Check out these and other tips in the following video:
Consequences for health and development
Children who do not chew feed them solids, and eat only purees, porridge, porridges and liquid or creamy soups, may develop problems such as delayed speech and difficulty in reproducing sounds correctly, due to the lack of chewing and stimulation of the muscles of the child. face. As a consequence of speaking little or badly, the child may feel inferior or excluded when he starts to live with other children at school, for example.
These children need the support of the pediatrician and nutritionist so that the lack of nutrients in solid foods is adequately compensated for in alternative preparations, such as soups with vegetables, greens and meats, in pieces, fruit vitamins with milk or yogurt and cereals, juices fortified with pieces of fruit and vegetables, for example, because in any case it is important that the child is always stimulated daily to chew.
Gradually she gets used to it and within a few months it may be possible to notice a good difference in her diet and also in her growth and development.
