Tips for Peaceful Family Mealtimes

Tip One:

Never force your child to eat or clean their plate, bargain, punish, threaten, reward, coax, negotiate, or strongly encourage your child to eat. By doing this, you are setting yourself up for a show down with your child and making extra work for yourself.

Tip Two:

Ignore refusals, tantrums, and their attempts to bargain. By giving your child attention, they will continue this behavior. Stop talking about what or how much your child eats both at and away from the table. The less focus and pressure you put on your child the better. Instead, eat together as often as possible, talk about the qualities of foods, and model adventurous eating.

Tip Three:

Routines with clear beginning and end of meals help your child know when to eat and how long they have to eat. Predictability and consistency are key.

Tip Four:

Involve your child with picking out foods at the grocery store, preparing, cooking, bringing foods to the table, serving themselves, and feeding themselves. By exposing your child to the texture, temperature, and smells of new foods, they will be more comfortable trying them.

Tip Five:

Roles of a parent and child around food need to be consistent and clear:

• The parent chooses when, what, where, and how long food is served.
• The child chooses if and how much they eat.

Tip Six: 

Limit snacks and juice between meals. If your child comes to the table hungry, they will be more likely to eat.

Tip Seven:

Dessert is NOT a reward for eating. Limit treats to once a day, preferably with a meal, and be sure to offer no more than one serving. Fruit can be a great dessert!

 

Written by: Amanda Michel, MLD, OTR/L

Senior Occupational Therapist and Feeding Specialist at Sensational Achievements

Want to learn more ways to help your picky eater?

Join Amanda Wednesday 4/18/18 at 10am as she shares tips to help your child add veggie variety to their diet. Learn how to get your child comfortable around vegetables, explore them using all of their senses, and integrate them into your child’s diet! We will review the do’s and don’t when introducing new foods and have the opportunity to explore a number of traditional and non-traditional resources to help your child become a food explorer. For more info and registration use this link: goo.gl/dCX13Y