Children's menu: how to teach a child to eat adult food. How to teach your child to eat healthy How to teach your child to eat
Ecology of consumption. Children: Sometimes it seems that children instinctively choose high-calorie, salty foods or sweets, but with the right approach, they can easily be "switched" to the right balanced diet.
Sometimes it seems that children instinctively choose high-calorie, salty foods or sweets, but with the right approach, they can easily be "switched" to the right balanced diet. Nutritionists believe that children should and, most importantly, love to eat healthy food. It is good when the right diet is laid from childhood. Babies who are weaned to fruits and vegetables rather than baby food will be more likely to eat healthy foods as adults.
Baby food should not be complex, a banana mashed to a state of puree is enough. It's never too late to teach your child to eat healthy.
Children need plenty of fruits and vegetables (at least 5 servings a day), starchy foods (bread and pasta made from durum wheat, rice and potatoes), moderate amounts of dairy and protein. But do not be obsessed with the idea of healthy eating, if 75% of your diet consists of the right foods, then this is already a guarantee of health. So, what needs to be done to teach children to eat right?
Eat right yourself.
Studies show that if parents eat fruits and vegetables, then the likelihood that their children will prefer the same menu increases. A cancer study found that eating regularly at certain times led to a more balanced diet in children and more frequent consumption of vegetables.
Cultivate children's interest in eating new foods.
It is natural for children to arrive in a comfort zone, but we as parents need to expand their horizons. Introduce no more than one new food at a meal, and don't get angry if your child hasn't eaten everything. Studies show that a child needs 6 to 10 times to try New Product before he decides on the taste.
Turn the process of eating into a fun pastime with positive associations.
Get creative with colorful food art, like a train or smiling faces. Little kids are willing to taste just about anything, as long as they like the way it looks.
Involve your child in the buying process.
Ask your child to choose vegetables and fruits of their choice and be sure to praise his choice. Get your child's attention to talk about color, shape, and texture.
Cunning.
If your child would rather endure a fight with snakes than eat vegetables, add pureed zucchini or carrots to burgers or meatloaf. Make a cocktail with the addition of carrot or other vegetable juice.
Add sweet taste.
Research shows that some children have a genetic predisposition to dislike the slight bitterness found in certain vegetables. Scientists believe that this is due to the return of memory to evolution, when children born in wild nature, refused bitter tastes, since there was a high probability that this food was poisoned. Try roasting vegetables for a natural sweetness (e.g. potatoes, sweet corn, carrots). Vegetables such as carrots or parsnips can be sweetened with honey or maple syrup, while broccoli and cauliflower Can be served with sweet or sour sauce.
Create a umami effect quality found in glutamate-rich foods such as soy sauce, tomatoes, parmesan cheese and mushrooms. Adding tomatoes to couscous or parmesan to pasta makes the food more appealing.
Take care of a healthy snack.
Make sure your home has healthy alternatives to unhealthy foods such as, cereals, fat-free yogurt, carrot sticks, dried fruits or crackers.
Cook together.
Children usually love to help in the kitchen, which in turn is a good incentive to try something new. Prepare pizza with vegetable filling and tomato sauce, bake a fruit pie.
"Watch your words" advise psychologists who observed families during a discussion of their diet. Give children practical and positive advice, such as "bananas will give you more strength," instead of saying abstract phrases like "it's good." And don't convey your fears about food, don't discuss diets - there shouldn't be any "bad" foods for kids. published
Finally, the season has come when there are vitamins, fruits, and you can not only eat delicious food, but also get tangible benefits from it. For kids healthy diet seems unacceptable, boring tasteless, but we will make this process interesting even for the most fastidious children. Let the process of eating become a game. In this matter, we will focus on the school of experts headed by Ksenia Andriyanova. So 6 useful tips that will help introduce your child to healthy food.
A nutritionist says that parents often make a cult out of healthy eating, and they don’t know at all how to properly present these principles to their children and make sure that the children themselves want to eat right and it’s not a burden for them.
Rule number 1. The right example for a child
Parents are sometimes discouraged by the fact that children do not want to eat right at all and strive to steal something harmful. However, the main rule is a clear example. Parents must adhere to the rules of nutrition themselves, otherwise the child will not be motivated to do the same. It is absolutely not worth hoping that a child will enjoy a salad, while adults bought themselves fragrant food from McDonald's and enjoy junk food in front of the TV, washing it down with beer.
Rule number 2. Make food a game
Of course, since childhood, we were all taught that it is strictly forbidden to play with food. However, if the game is reasonable, then Small child can afford it. For example, separate fruits and vegetables by color: yellow apple, pear and bell pepper. Or spinach, green apple, cucumber. Next, use the products to create a picture, for example, a tree can turn out from a branched broccoli. And from cutlets and carrots, laid out with shavings around, you can create a sun. Consider various ideas of what you can play with your child using products.
For example, you can color a coloring book that depicts vegetables and tell your child how useful they are. You can also invite your child to find all the red vegetables or green fruits.
Try cooking together. Take the simplest and most accessible recipes for children and create a common cause out of cooking. Every kid wants to taste the fruits of his labor. You can start by making simple salads, where it is enough to cut the food into cubes and mix, later you can cook yogurt or smoothies with your child.
Rule number 3. We eat with our hands
From childhood, we are taught that it is ugly to eat with our hands, but sometimes this rule can be broken. Especially if the child is small and the rules of etiquette can be postponed until later. It is very difficult for children to cope with cutlery, they better understand tactile contact. For example, if a child refuses to eat fruit, invite him to pick raspberries from a bush. Trying freshly picked berries is a pleasure. You can also squeeze juice from soft fruits and vegetables with your hands if you then put the pulp on the salad. You can also come up with tactile contact with a meat dish, which seems completely impossible to eat without a device. So you can make kebabs on homemade skewers from wooden sticks, or create a lollipop from minced chicken.
Rule number 4. Unusual serving of dishes
Children hardly perceive new dishes, it is psychologically easier for them to eat already familiar dishes. Therefore, apples, for example, can be served whole, if the child likes it that way, or, on the contrary, cut it into slices. Do the same with vegetables. For example, peas can be offered in cheese sauce, and dishes can also be given interesting names. For example, a cocktail of green fruits (kiwi, grapes, apple) can be called “Fiona Cocktail” (the heroine of the cartoon Shrek). And a red drink can be decorated with a blue tube and called “Spiderman Energy”.
Rule number 5. Leave the table immediately
Eating at the table is not always fun and interesting. In summer, you can have a picnic, and you can even have an unusual meal on the balcony. Children really like the unusual environment, because they are little rebels and breaking the rule is a pleasure. However, do not teach your child to eat in front of a TV or computer, wean from this bad habit very hard. And then you can’t explain why it was possible before, but now it’s impossible.
Rule number 6. The best drink is water
It is believed that for one kilogram of weight there should be 30 milliliters of water. Eliminate sugary sodas, give preference to water. Lemonades and juices are also a bad option, as they contain a lot of hidden sugar. Often the child does not want to drink water, diversify it, pour water not into a cup, but into a glass, put a straw, umbrella or other decoration of the glass. You can also make a real natural cocktail with mint ice water and lime. drinking such a drink, the child will immediately feel grown-up and important. You can also buy plastic colored glasses with cartoon characters. This option is best for small children who can break a glass goblet.
Transferring a child from nutrition ready mixes and breast milk for adult food is a problem for many parents, since the baby cannot learn to chew food, is naughty, refuses new foods, spits out what he cannot swallow without chewing. Naturally, parents worry that he is malnourished, doubt whether he will be able to develop normally. How long will this last, and are there any secrets to help teach the baby to chew?
- Late start of feeding. Some moms take doctors' advice about what's healthier too literally. breast milk there is nothing that should not wean the baby from the breast for as long as possible. After 1 year, he begins to actively resist chewing pieces of food, as he knows more easy way get enough.
- Parents' fears that the baby may choke if you give him unground food. Excessive caution of parents leads to the fact that a child of 2 years old, if he does not refuse food at all, then accumulates it in his mouth and then spits it out.
- Lack of skill in using teethers. These rubber devices, which are convenient for the baby to grab with a pen, not only massage the gums, facilitating the process of teething, but also teach him to chew with his gums.
- Employment or weak character of parents. They have no time to engage in the process of feeding for a long time, it is easier to give the baby what he loves. He quickly gets used to the pliability of dad or mom and requires the usual food.
- Increased activity of the child. He cannot concentrate on the process of chewing and swallowing food, he cannot sit in one place for a long time, he grabs food on the go, choosing what he does not need to chew.
Video: What to do if the child cannot chew
What should parents do to teach their baby to chew?
To teach a child to chew both soft foods and hard pieces, it is necessary to gradually add dishes with larger food particles to the meal. For example, soft bread can be gradually added to the soup so that the child can feel the pieces of food on the tongue. Of course, you need to carefully monitor so that the baby does not choke. Give him food in small portions. The child should sit quietly at the table. You can not distract the baby while eating, make him laugh.
Invention ready meals for kids, of course, makes life much easier for parents. The jars contain the "correct" food, which contains all the necessary vitamins, the amount of various useful substances is strictly calculated. However, when buying such food, you must definitely pay attention to what age the porridge or mashed potatoes are designed for. For older children, thicker food is prepared with the addition of larger pieces.
Note: Self-preparation of food for a child, and even with his feasible participation, increases interest in food, improves appetite.
Video: How to teach a child to solid food
Why babies need to learn to chew by age 2
Switching to more solid food, which must be chewed to be eaten, is a natural physiological process associated with the development various systems organism. The digestive system gradually gets used to the digestion of solid food. Need in useful substances is growing. A variety of "adult" foods can satisfy her.
If a child does not learn to eat normally, then the nutrition of all tissues of his body will be disrupted. This affects his physical and intellectual development. If there is still a problem with chewing, then do not panic. To teach your baby to chew pieces of food will help some special techniques.
Advice: You can give the baby boiled carrots or chicken leg. They are comfortable to hold and interesting to pull in your mouth.
Experienced parents share their methods of overcoming the problem in the forums dedicated to raising and feeding children. Some advise to let everything take its course: grow up, learn. Others, on the contrary, offer shock therapy: do not give food, but leave adult food within his reach. If he wants to eat, he will get it and eat.
Doctor Komarovsky gives simple tips parents who are faced with the unwillingness of the baby to chew food, how to teach the child to chew.
In particular, he suggests that mom and dad do not have to immediately agree with the stubborn demand of the crumbs to give him the usual pureed food. Parents should show artistry, portray regret that the blender broke down or the store ran out of jars of mashed meat. In extreme cases, you can give the baby a fork so that he mashes the pieces of potatoes. He will surely enjoy this, although the lack of skill may result in half the mash being on the floor. But that's the parent's problem. But the next time the child will demand just such “interesting” food, stuffing it into his mouth (the fork must be special - plastic, with blunt teeth).
In order for the baby to learn to chew food, you need to give him a tasty and beautiful cookie or a piece of sweet fruit that he likes. A bagel will do. Some parents give children as early as the age of 5-6 months drying or baby biscuits. At this age, as a rule, there are no teeth yet, but the child works on drying, because he feels a pleasant taste. He soaks it in his mouth, bites off small pieces with his gums, learns to chew and swallow them. Drying should be given not so much for saturation, but for the development of the chewing reflex. Then, when the first teeth appear, it will be more difficult for the baby to get used to such a useful and tasty toy. It is uncomfortable for him to bite with gums, and there are not enough teeth.
Komarovsky recommends trying to feed the child in a children's cafe. He will watch other children eat with what appetite, and he himself will want to try such food. In addition, the usual mashed porridge or vegetable puree is not served there.
“My child does not want to eat” - how often we hear this phrase from parents. Of course, there are children who do not have problems with appetite, but not all parents are so lucky. So, how to teach a child to eat according to the diet?
1. First of all, you should stick to a diet and daily routine. This does not mean at all that you need to feed your child exclusively with dietary products: just eating should take place at the same time. Such an action stabilizes the work of the digestive system: at a certain time, the secretion of gastric juice will begin in the child, which means that appetite will also appear.
2. Offer your child food only on schedule. Do not get angry if the baby refuses the food. Just remove the plate from the table and wait for the next feeding. Do not get annoyed if only part of the food is eaten. Your child will eat more later. Do not worry if the child skips several meals: the body has the necessary supply of nutrients (they accumulate in the liver and other internal organs, muscles of the body).
3. Avoid "snacking" between meals.
4. Spend more time outside. If a child spends a long time indoors, the lack of oxygen slows down the metabolic processes, and as a result, the appetite also disappears.
5. Try to diversify the child's diet, but introduce new products gradually and only if you are sure of their quality. Let the baby choose his own dish, offering several options. Monotony can lead to the development of diseases: anemia, dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, beriberi, and others.
6. If you dine at the table with the whole family, try to eat with great appetite in the presence of your child: even if it is cereals, broccoli and other unloved foods that you hate.
7. Try to diversify the process of eating. For example, a child can drink broth through a straw, and a chop can be beautifully wrapped in a wrapper, then the baby will be more interested. If the child shows a desire to participate in the cooking process, give him such an opportunity. He will definitely want to try "the creation of his own hands", perhaps he will even eat the entire portion.
8. Involve your child in the process of setting the table. The child will dine with great appetite at the table, on which they, together with their mother, have laid a new tablecloth, or if the child himself is already wielding a fork or spoon.
9. Do not pay too much attention to the feeding process. Capricious behavior of children at the table is a common phenomenon in families where the child is fed almost by force. The child understands that it is very important for his mother that he eats and eventually turns the feeding process into a show where parents are assigned the role of observers. Try not to show the child that you are watching what is happening, it is better to pay more attention to the baby during the game.
10. Go to a cafe. Sometimes children love to dine out, then they have an appetite.
11. Have your child sit at the table next to children who are eating well. Their example can be infectious.
Many parents turn a child's refusal to eat into a real tragedy. If no one in the family has a good appetite, why should a child eat a lot? If your son or daughter always eats little - yesterday, a week ago, a month ago, but at the same time the child is joyful, active and developed, you should calm down - everything is in order with his appetite!
In childhood, while the child is especially receptive, many preferences are laid, including taste. The ability to choose what you need, the desire to eat something healthy instead of sweets or pastries is a habit. The sooner the child begins the process of becoming reasonable food addictions, the better.
Formation of the "etiquette" of a healthy diet in a baby is a painstaking process. But it is in your power to make it interesting and exciting for the child and not burdensome for yourself.
Every mother knows
Of course, you are aware of what and how much a child needs to receive with food: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, drinking water, vitamins and microelements. Approximately you are guided by what should be the normal calorie content of his daily diet, as well as what method of cooking is most preferable for children.
"From the early age the child should get used to three meals a day. Of course, children also have additional food - a second breakfast, an afternoon snack, but there are three main meals, ”says the pediatrician, MD, professor at the GMS clinicNatalia Belova. It is best to feed the baby at a certain time.
Limit your child's diet. Sweets are an extra element for any menu, especially for children. “Sugar not only spoils a child’s milk teeth, but also provokes a violation of metabolic processes. In addition, quite often the problems with the so-called “uncontrollability” of a child are associated precisely with excess sugar in the diet - this is energy, but it needs to be spent somehow, that’s where it starts, ”explains Natalia Belova.
Fruits, berries, cottage cheese puddings or natural yogurts can become “goodies” for a child. And, of course, they should not be given before meals and not instead of the main meal, but after breakfast or lunch.
Avoid snacking
If the baby is hungry on a walk, you can offer him an apple, but not a cookie - fast carbohydrates from pastries make you feel full. But later, the child may refuse the lunch that you offer him. If the child ate little, for example, at breakfast, there is no reason to feed him with a roll or grandmother's pie some time after the “regime” meal.
Baby is not getting better at all!
If your child is gaining weight for his height and age, but for some reason it seems to you that he should have chubby cheeks, a rounder ass, or something else “outstanding” there (like the little ones that you see in polyclinic), this is by no means a reason to feed him intensively, and even more so - to feed him! It is possible that the problem of overeating pops up in a 12-year-old child who, instead of playing football with peers, skiing or skating, will shamefacedly hide at home, ashamed.
Set the Right Example
Be a role model for your child in terms of nutrition. If you eat sweets or abuse fast food with him, explaining that it is possible for adults, he will want to grow up as soon as possible in order to taste the “forbidden”.
If possible, or with the whole family - at least on weekends. Everyone should have approximately the same menu or part of the main dishes: soup and porridge - for dad, mom, and siblings. Yogurt and fruit for dessert - also for everyone. And it is worth asking what kind of hot dish the child likes more - he should have a choice.
Let's continue the game
Try to serve the meal beautifully, involve the growing child in the process - put plates, napkins, cutlery together. He should develop not only a respectful attitude to food, but also an interest in this small daily action.
Consult with him in the store when buying groceries. Explain what foods are healthy and why. Ask him to tell you what he already knows.
Invite your child to help you cook. Children really appreciate this attitude, they feel to some extent equal with adults. And the dish cooked with mom always seems more delicious to the baby.
Children's nutritionists in the United States came up with online Squires Quest game , which should motivate children to eat healthy. In particular, there are fresh vegetables. As it turned out during the experiment, half of the subjects (all of its participants hated vegetables before the start of the game) themselves asked for carrots or cucumbers for lunch after completing two rounds of the quest.
Down with food violence!
When teaching children to a healthy diet, in no case do not force him to eat. “By forcing a baby, you form wrong habits in him, disrupt his digestion, provoke the development of diseases in him - for example, reflux, in the future - even diabetes and other problems,” warns Natalia Belova.
By committing so-called "food abuse", you do not allow the child to form the correct idea of \u200b\u200bhealthy eating. And this is not to mention the psychological side of the issue.
Child psychologistMarina GavrilovaShe said that among people who have a persistent aversion to food (girls can later develop both bulimia and anorexia!) About half are children whom their parents force-fed. A child who receives food against his will is more prone to obesity in adulthood.
Don't go to extremes
Parents should avoid unhealthy “absolutism”, because as the old proverb says: “a lot of good is also not good!” It is important to understand that accustoming a child to a healthy diet does not tolerate “literalism”.
“The child is growing, from time to time the parents go somewhere or go with him. It may turn out that sometimes there will not be ideally suitable food at hand. This does not mean that you need to starve your child or fall into a tantrum! Some exceptions to the rules are possible, you should not attach too much importance to rare deviations from the rules, ”I’m sure Marina Gavrilova.
The main thing - remember that raising a child should be, first of all, a pleasure for you, and for the baby - a pleasant knowledge of life.
