If you have toddlers, you know how hard it is sometimes to get
them to eat! Meal time is rarely a quiet, relaxing experience
with toddlers in the house. With these tips, however, you may be
able to coax your toddler into cooperating with you long enough
to eat.
1 - Schedule regular meal times for your toddler. Toddlers
function much better when they eat at regular times. They learn
to expect when they are going to eat and will better transition
into meal time.
2 - Sit down with your toddler to eat. If your toddler is having
a meal at a different time from the rest of your family, still
sit down with him or her to eat. My toddlers put much more
energy into concentrating on what they are supposed to be doing
if I'm sitting there with them. They enjoy my company and it
makes meal time more pleasant for them to have me to talk to
(they also fight with each other less).
3 - Don't regularly feed your toddler foods you know he doesn't
like. It's good to try to introduce new foods to your child, but
do so slowly. If your child doesn't like something, wait awhile
to try to feed it to him again. Meal times are hard enough as it
is without trying to force your toddler to eat something he
doesn't like.
4 - Don't be afraid to let your toddler regularly eat the same
foods. If you find something your toddler especially likes to
eat, don't be afraid to serve it often. My toddlers have several
lunches that they enjoy, so I alternate those lunches so that
they are eating the same foods, but not every day. Often
toddlers get into a rut where they want to eat the same things
all the time. This is fine, you can still slowly introduce other
foods until they acquire a taste for them.
5 - To make sure your toddler is hungry at meal time, don't let
him have too much to drink or have a snack too close to meal
time. It's easy to lose track of time and not notice it's almost
time for dinner when they're begging for a snack. If they're
hungry they're much more likely to eat their dinner.
6 - If your toddler starts messing around at the table and
playing with food or trying to get down from the table, tell him
you will take his food away if he doesn't settle down--and mean
it! If he's hungry he'll settle down in a hurry.
7 - Having a hard time getting your toddler to drink milk? Limit
how much chocolate milk he drinks so that he doesn't have
anything to compare the milk to. At this age chocolate milk
isn't really necessary and they won't miss it if they don't have
it. I serve my toddlers milk for every meal, and they know they
are supposed to drink milk when they sit down at the table. They
get watered down juice for snacks and water in bed.
8 - No matter how messy it is, let your toddler feed himself. Of
course I don't feed my toddlers really messy foods, but it is a
good idea to let your toddler feed himself as much as possible.
It makes them be more interested in eating if they get to using
their own spoon or fork. I've tried using toddler spoons and
forks, and they worked for awhile, but my boys now want to use
mommy's spoon and fork. Give your toddler foods in a variety of
shapes and textures to experiment with. You'll be surprised at
how fast they learn to feed themselves!
