TEACHING TODDLERS TO EAT

By Marie Dufour, RD - As adults and caregivers, it is our responsibility to teach our children about everything… including eating properly.  Unfortunately, modern lifestyles and the abundance of erroneous messages have us lost and confused.  Toddlers have very different eating patterns, stomach sizes, and taste buds than their older siblings and parents.  Yet, we often expect that toddlers eat the same way adults do.  By doing so, we tweak a child's ability to self-regulate, and promote poor eating behaviors that, in the long term, may result in overweight and obesity.

Problems

- Adults have chaotic eating hours, but toddlers have small stomachs and must be fed more often. 

- Toddlers have a short attention span and it is unrealistic to have them sit through an entire dinner.

- Parents often serve excessive portion sizes, yet force the child to "Clean up the plate," thereby destroying the child's natural ability to self-regulate.

- In our eagerness to have the child eat, we offer the child with safe but restricted choices, limiting their taste palette.

- To appease the child, we often serve sweetened drinks with meals, adding unnecessary and empty calories.

- Since there is little time for family interaction, we let conflict enter at the dinner table, a threat for the child, a stress that may lead to a stress-food association and have repercussions in the future.

 

Solutions

- Eating at regular hours, with frequent feedings: it is normal for a toddler to want a small snack only 2 hours after a meal.

- Limit feeding time to 15 or 20 minutes.

- Serve adequate portion sizes (1 tablespoon of each food per year of age), and whatever happens, never force a child to finish its plate. 

- Encourage variety: present the child with several choices and have them taste just one teaspoon of each new thing.  Do this routinely.  Even if the child refuses it the 1^st time, it will get used to trying new things.

- Serve water or skim milk only.

- Keep conflict out of the dinner table.