Less pressure and understanding: learn how it positively influences the little one’s taste. Food for the whole family stands to gain.

It’s hard to find a child out there who hasn’t gone through at least one period of refusing food – especially fruits and vegetables. It is a normal stage of development, but the way in which parents deal with the situation can influence their children’s eating behavior for the rest of their lives.

If you’re going through this situation right now, see how nutritionists’ tips to expand the taste buds of little ones.

1. Don’t apply pressure, blackmail or bargain

Saying that a child will only gain such a thing if he eats, fights and pressures him to eat is contraindicated. “This can create negative memories associated with the food and make it harder for a child to accept that food or new ones in the future.”

2. Change the food environment and ritual

She must be the center of attention. It is common to hear from school staff that a child comes from everything there, but nothing at home. This happens because at school there is a well-established ritual, where all the children sit together, at the same time, eat the same thing and talk in the meantime.

 How about replicating this habit at home, eating all together, putting vegetables on every plate and without distractions like TV and cell phone?

3. Be the example

Much of the “children don’t come vegetable” story is driven by adult adults, who have the same negative attitudes towards fruits and vegetables – treating them as merely obligatory. Parental example is one of the things that most influences the child’s acceptance.

4. Offer options to the little ones

Instead of arriving with the plate ready, try giving the little one the autonomy to assemble, but with rules. For example, he has to add at least one green or five colors: white, green, brown, orange and red. “Even if he doesn’t eat it all, the new color is already on the plate, which is closer to his mouth.

If time runs out, offer at least more than one choice of vegetables.

5. It’s okay not to like everything

People have very peculiar preferences and it’s okay if your child doesn’t like a certain food. The problem is neophobia, when he doesn’t want to know anything different.

6. Way in the substitutes

Another classic scene: the child hasn’t eaten for lunch, the parents rush to make something he’s sure to eat or give him a better substitute, out of fear that the child will get hungry.

According to the nutritionist, it’s okay to leave the child waiting a little, until the afternoon snack, for example, to eat. Even because with hunger, acceptance tends to be greater.

7. Manage your expectations

Refusal is a natural step in development, and some studies show that you have to expose the new ingredient multiple times—between 8 and 15—before it is actually accepted. Put the news on the plate without pressure.

8. Turn the dish into a playful experience

Placing food with a fun presentation is a strategy that tends to please the little ones. Rice can be a face, salad becomes a hair and so on. Just type “fun food” into search engines to pick up lots of cool inspirations.

9. Involve the child in food preparation

Cooking with the kids is one of the most famous ways to get around eating difficulties. “Since weaning, they should already be in the kitchen, whether to see them crushing a banana.”

As the child grows, allocate age-appropriate tasks. As there is not always time to cook, enjoy small moments such as preparing the lunch box and setting up the dish for lunch or dinner.

The trips to the market and the fair help to explain about the food. Use them to your advantage, allowing your child to choose the vegetable they want to try that week or a recipe to prepare.

Funny little child girl, sitting in the trolley during family shopping in hypermarket

10. Have a vegetable garden at home

Or easy access to one. It’s the same logic as in the previous item: when the child is in contact with the backstage of the table, he is much more likely to be interested in trying something. It had been the opportunity to teach about respect for the environment.

11. Offer the vegetable in different situations

We are not talking about camouflage, a method that is only recommended when all others have failed to avoid nutritional deficiencies.

The idea here is to chop and prepare in different formats, without hiding what the child is eating. “If she doesn’t like grated raw carrots, try the minced in another recipe she already likes, or on sticks.”

12. Offer less sweets and ultra-processed products

Candy, ice cream, crackers and snacks contain many additives that make food more palatable, especially salt, fat and sugar. Their excess and frequency in the first years of life, when children are developing their food preferences, can make them lose interest in softer and fresher-tasting items.

13. Seek help if needed

The selective phase tends to last until the age of six. If it persists, or if the child starts crying, spitting or even nauseated by new foods, it is better to seek help, as the condition may evolve into eating disorders in the future.

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