In this week’s hangout with Beckie Whitehouse, we are touching on the subject of toddler food fads. This is something most parents will face with their children and can often be one of frustration that can lead to battles at tea-time …. but only if we let it ;-)
A food fad is when your child is favours one food over everything else over a length of time and refuses to eat anything else. A friend of mine had a brother who would eat nothing but sausages when he was a lot smaller … he is not a big grown man ;-) Toddler food fads are not harmful (unless your child refuses to eat anything healthy!)
Topics we cover in our discussion are:
- Why toddler might your toddler fixate on a certain piece of food? It is important to remember that independence is an important part of your child’s learning and they are simply asserting this independence and controlling what they eat is a way of doing this … even if it does get you to the end of your tether,
- How to cope with mealtimes. The dinner table will only be a battle if you let it. Offer your child other food and try to encourage them to take 1 or 2 bites. If they don’t, then that is okay. Remember – food fads often pass quite quickly,
- Eating healthy food. It may be that your child is fadding over non-healthy food. If it’s crisps, offer up a few at a time not a whole bag so they are not eating several over the course of the day.
- Help your toddler get over their food fad. Offering up a choice such as fishfingers or sausages, pasta or potato will help your child to still feel in control and have their independence. It won’t work by offering too broad a range such as “what would you like for dinner?”
- If it gets to the point where you are really concerned, have a chat to your health visitor who will be able to offer some alternative suggestion.
These are just a few points but in our video below; we touch on it a bit more in depth so have a listen in and see what other tips you can pick up.
Has your child had a food fad? What was it for? How did you beat it?
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!