Feeding tips for troublesome tots
Keep trying!
Young children often need to be presented with new foods on upwards of 15 seperate occasions before they will even try them. Be persistent, but do not try to force the issue!
Dont force it
If mealtime becomes a battle - you’ve already lost. If your child doesn’t want to eat something, or spits it out, trying to force it into their mouth is going to turn mealtime into a negative experience. Offer foods a couple of times, but be patient. If they dont want to try a new food today, maybe they will tommorrow.
Share the food
If your toddler is wary of new foods, then show them that its good by eating some yourself! Often this will encouarge them to copy you and discover a great new flavour.
Hide the veg!
Sauces, stews and food with multiple ingredients are a great way to sneak a few extra veg onto the plate (and more importantly, into the stomach) without too much fight from your child. When babies are weening, pureed veg tend to go down very well, but as they get a bit older it can be tricky to get them to eat their greens. Toddlers love our ’sneaky’ potato cakes, with all sorts of veg in - see the recipe section for more ideas.
No squash before meals
Toddlers tend to fill up on drinks and not eat if its given to close to meal times - let them have a little water to drink before meals are served, but try not to let you child fill up.