What to do when your child refuses to eat every time

Eating healthy food helps children to grow and to learn better and stay happy and healthy. But children don't like to eat at some stages of their life and they start to become weak and unhealthy. 

Here Are some tips that make you as a parent how to deal with children who refuse to eat. Some children don't like to eat green food or vegetables. They like to eat snacks and other fast food but the fruits and vegetables remain as it is. 

Children need encouragement to eat healthy food. It is a challenge for parents to deal with their children eating healthy food. Children refuse to eat due to many reasons. 

When a child starts refusing every food it's a big challenge for parents to convince them to eat.  

There are different ways by which a parent can motivate the child to eat healthy food. 

Reinforcement method

The reinforcement method is used to motivate and children are always motivated by rewards. So as a mother, give your child a gift every time they finish the food. A target is placed on them and when they reach that target by eating food, give them a gold star and any other award. So by reinforcing their positive behavior parents will develop the behavior that they want to see in their child. And your child also likes to eat more to win more awards.  

Encouragement 

Encouraging your child during meal time by saying good words such as “food is so yummy”. 

Encourage them to say that if they eat happily they will remain happy throughout the day.

You will play games and sports if you eat healthy food. So by encouraging them you can see that your child is likely to eat more. He likes to hear good words about things that he wants to do. So encourage him in a good way which he likes the most, as a parent you know what your child likes more. 

 

Play with food 

When something becomes routine children feel bored with it. So eat them food by playing with them. As said to them that something is coming and entering their mouth so in this way they open the mouth. So playing while eating is also a way to enjoy and children become excited about eating food. But it does not mean that we should just focus on playing and not on eating. Playing in that case when you think your child is not excited about eating. So create his interest in food to eat.  

Glamorizing food 

We eat our food with our eyes first so glamorizing food makes us want to eat food. And children always like glamorizing and they are attracted to food that is glamorized. So as a parent, you should give the food in a good style and by garnishing the food. 

There are different ways to glamorize the food:

• A rainbow is created on food 

• Cutting the food into different shapes 

• Making faces at food that they don't like and making smiley faces at vegetables.    

Gave them chance to choose 

Giving the children a chance to decide what they want to eat. What is his favorite food and what he always wants to eat? So in this way, children are able to decide what he is like and what's his favorite food. So they tell their parents that they like that food most and make a plan to eat their favorite food during the week. Never force your child to eat a specific food. 

Fun eating tools 

Use tools that are in different shapes as plates with faces and cups with heart shapes. In this way, they like to enjoy and become excited about their food. Different types of tools of food are available in markets that are in different shapes. As if your child is like a monkey then give them a plate of a monkey shape and a spoon with a banana shape. So in this way, he will also be excited to eat and to take interest in food and tools of food.

Don’t comment every time 

Don’t comment on your child's eating style, always appreciate him for eating. If you start to comment on your child then your child will not be able to eat properly. Provide healthy food to them and then it depends on them how they intake food. When a parent is commenting on his child every time, the child becomes irritated by his parents. So comment on your child’s eating style if you need to, otherwise don’t comment on him. And let him do what he wants to eat.   

Introduce new food slowly 

Children are phobic of new food by their nature. So introduce them slowly in a proper way. First of all, describe the benefits of that food and tell them the yummy flavor of that food, then ask them if he wants to eat it or not that food. It is possible that he must want to eat that new food, he must want to taste it for the first time. So make a proper tempo of your child about new food. In this way, he likes to eat every new food which is given to him.    

Involve your child in cooking 

If your child likes to cook then involve them in cooking the food so in this way you want to eat that food which they have cooked. So every time when he refuses to eat any food, involve him to cook the food for himself. He likes cooking because children like to do new things. And in this way, he makes food for himself and also wants to eat what he has made. This is the best way to involve your child in eating by involving him in cooking.

   

Educate your child about healthy food 

Talk with your child about which food is best to grow early. Talked to them about the benefits of each food and which food provides which vitamins and nutrients. Tell your child which food is good for growth which makes him taller and which food is best for running and winning the games. Tell them about all the benefits of all the food that he is eating. So involve your child to learn about the benefits of food.   

Set a good example 

Children always learn from examples so give them a good and positive example of eating healthy food benefits of that specific food. Tell him about the benefits of vegetables and fruits and these both are important for us to grow. So by giving them examples we can see that the child is taking interest in that specific food. 

Offer different healthy food options 

Don’t keep your child on a specific food, offer them all a variety of food and give them the option to choose their favorite one. And never force the child to eat specific food daily, change the food and give them different foods. So when your child has many options for food he will like to eat more and also become excited about food. 

Provide food in different forms

Give the food to your child in different forms, which fruits they don’t like, and give them in the form of juices and other forms. Provide the vegetable in the form of different shapes. Search different recipes for a specific food. And make new recipes for them. For example, if your child doesn't like vegetables then add the vegetables to the macaroni and other food which they like most. So in this way, it is possible that they like to eat vegetables also.  

Be a role model for your child 

Be a role model for your child so eat healthy food and take a proper food plan of diet. So when your child sees you are eating good food he will also want healthy food by following you. So avoid eating junk food in front of them and always eat healthy food and convenience them to eat healthy food. If a parent is always eating junk food and fast food, it is possible that his child will also eat that type of food also. 

Conclusion 

In the last, it is said that our child depends on us how we deal with them and how we learn good habits. Children follow their parents in every task of their life and when parents have good food habits then your child also. There are different ways to motivate your child to eat healthy food.  

And most of the time it becomes very hard for parents to control their children and make them healthy. Children most of the time refuse their parents and give them a negative response for which parents become very depressed and remain anxious about their child. So as a mother, you can make your child able to adopt good habits and avoid wrong habits. And make them experts on food which is healthy or which is unhealthy.