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When a baby becomes a toddler, many things will change, including eating habits. Today they are excited with mealtimes, and tomorrow they may avoid eating. Many parents feel extremely tired when they come to meals because their children refuse to eat, even cry. If this situation happens for a long time, not only parents are stressed, but also children’s health is affected. Therefore, the question is how to make mealtimes fun for toddlers to have a healthy eater and reduce stress for adults. In our article today on TrueRemedies, we will present to you some tips to answer this question. Continue reading and choose at least one suitable tip for your toddlers.
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Top 8 Simple Tips To Create Fun Mealtimes For Toddlers
1. Let Them Do With You
Do not do everything alone. You have kids who are always willing to help you. You should ask your children to go to the kitchen with you and teach them how to cook something. According to studies, participating in cooking meals can make them excited about trying healthy foods such as vegetables and have more tension to eat with family[1]. Besides, you can ask them to grow vegetables if you have a garden or go shopping with you. You can also let them choose which foods they want to eat among the options you give them. For example, tell them “Will we have beef or pork for dinner” or “In the refrigerator, we have pumpkin and cabbage, which one you prefer”. Additionally, it is possible to let them choose the cooking method. For instance, ask them “With the corn and potatoes, you want to make salad or soup”. They will feel they are an important part of the family, especially in preparing the meals, resulting in eating well. Moreover, you can profit this time cooking with your kids to improve family members’ relationship by sharing feelings and talking about school activities.
2. Decorate The Meals
As we know, when watching cooking shows, we tend to crave for food because the food is beautifully presented. Instead of putting food on the plates, why do not you make some nice pictures from the foods? Food with decoration may stimulate the taste of children and encourage them to eat more. If the toddlers have nice meal presentation, they will feel the food more delicious. Therefore, you should spend time arrange foods on your kids’ plates to make meals more colourful. If possible, you can use food to create an animal or a cartoon character, according to your children’s favourite things. You can also ask your kids for help. Surely they will enjoy creating things they like from simple foods.
3. Set Meal Time
Each family needs to have a schedule for eating. Setting time for eating routine helps the body have a specific living clock, especially for toddlers. Repetition creates a habit. The body will have a mechanism to adjust to signal that it is time to eat. They will know when they have to stop everything they are doing to eat. Moreover, having meal routine brings many benefits for the health of not only children but also adults. Studies concluded that irregular eating time caused a higher risk of obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes[2].
4. Avoid Social Media And Toys
We know that many adults give children telephones to watch some funny videos to make them eat quickly. However, if one day we do not allow them to watch while eating, they will not eat. Therefore, in this situation, parents have to be the models. Although parents are very busy, they should turn off all the devices and focus on eating. It is the time for all members in the family to spend time talking with each other about a passing day and sharing the feelings and opinions about something because one of the most effective ways to maintain healthy relationships is to avoid watching TV or using other devices while eating[3]. Furthermore, eating while watching TV while eating causes higher the risk of overeating because we tend to eat more than usual[4]. Similarly, do not allow children to play with toys while eating. Instead, tell them to do that after finishing the meals.
5. Create Happy Atmosphere
Let children eat in a comfortable atmosphere. Most of us have stress from work or study but do not show a negative attitude while eating. Please try to eliminate stress and fatigue from mealtimes. According to a study, children tend to try healthy food when they eat in a happy environment. On the other hand, a negative family mealtime brings negative emotion which prevents children's excitement towards meals. As a result, instead of shouting at toddlers when they need a lot of time to eat, you can encourage them to eat more quickly. When they make a little mess, you can ask them to help you clean after the meals.
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6. Eat Enough
When your children say that they are full, allow them to stop. Do not force your toddler to eat more than they want. Overeating may make them afraid of foods, leading to some eating disorders. You should avoid the overwhelmed feelings. As a result, they will be happy when eating next time.
We hope that our article today gives you useful and interesting information which help you make mealtimes fun for toddlers. However, all content provided is for educational and informational purposes. We recommend you consult a doctor to ask for advice when your kids have eating problems and whether your children have to take medicine or not.
If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to leave them in the comment box. We are happy to hear your thoughts or opinions, and we will answer as soon as we can.
You will face many problems after having a child. You need to make sure that your child has good physical and mental health. Therefore, please visit our Parenting page to see more topics to make parenting easier.
