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Top tips for preventing fussy eating

 

The best way to prevent fussy eating is to have a plan of action from the very beginning, and I do mean the very beginning!

 

While you are pregnant

Your baby tastes your food when they swallow amniotic fluid, as it is flavoured by the foods you eat. To help them appreciate a wide variety of tastes eat from a wide variety of healthy foods – lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Limit sweets and junk food as research has shown that eating a diet high these foods strongly influences your child’s preference for these tastes once they are born.

When breast feeding

Your food choices also flavour your milk, so continue to eat from a wide variety of healthy foods and limit sweets and junk foods.

When your child is ready for solid foods

Babies naturally prefer sweeter foods but to increase their food acceptance offer a wide variety of naturally sweet and savoury foods. Try the following pureed foods:

Raw banana, pear, apple, berry, and avocado and cooked kumara, pea, carrot, potato, broccoli, spinach, beef, chicken and fish.

Include small amounts of herbs and spices.

Note - current recommendations for allergy prevention are to avoid offering children cow’s milk and egg white until they are 12 months old.

 

From 12 months

From around this age children are naturally wary of new foods, a phenomenon called food neophobia. This is a protective instinct which also includes aversion to bitter tastes which is found in foods such as spinach and broccoli. To overcome this wariness you must show your acceptance and enjoyment of all new foods. Children are also very influenced by your facial expressions and tone of voice. They are far more likely to accept a new food if you are smiling, tasting it yourself and speaking positivity - “yum, this is really nice”.

At this age children should be mostly eating finger foods and have exposure to a wide variety of textures such as:

Juicy, crisp, chewy, crunchy, brittle and mealy (porridge, mince)

Offer foods they can hold and dip with, such as vege sticks, wholegrain bread soldiers, wholegrain crackers.

Submitted At: 31 October 2013 11:24am | Last Modified At: 31 October 2013 11:24am
Article Views: 930

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