Parents who have grown kids now or at least in their early teens would say its been there, done that. They’ve been through these transitions and know that eventually it will get better.
I have a 3 and 5 year old which is the time I feel like I want to pull the little of hair I do have, out of my head when it comes to their nutrition.
So you have the infancy phase where your child will depend on your breastmilk or formula- Once teeth start appearing, the next phase comes to introducing solids a.k.a “baby foods”- Then comes the toddler phase, where they can now start eating the foods the parents eat, in smaller portions/chopped up. I call that phase, at least for me, the exploration phase. They get to explore more of the textures and taste.
The next phase I think is the toughest because now the child(ren) have come accustomed to the different textures and tastes, but also what a food looks like that may or may not look appeasing to them. This is my Picky and/or I am not hungry phase right now. But I am here to say that even in these early phases, there is HOPE so dont be discouraged.
Despite all of “NO’s” to the foods you would like them to eat, especially when its nutritious and delicious for them, it doesn’t go in vain! Although they say no, I believe they are secretly watching parents to see how our manners to the foods we are trying to get them to eat, are to our own selves. Basically, are we modeling nutritious and delicious habits for ourselves.
When they see that we enjoy those same foods, they slowly but surely will start opening up more.
In just the past few weeks, surprisingly, my daughter asked for a bowl of veggies!! Whhhhaat? I know she likes veggies, but she will pick at it or eat a veg or two off my plate, but she asked for her own bowl, and ate it all!
My son…oh my son. He is the one who is the most stubborn, BUT he is opening up more and more- Although he does not eat veggies like his sister, right now, he is so much more open to his fruits and loves the veggie pouches. One day he begged and begged for strawberries. At first his only taste was for bananas, but now, its bananas, strawberries and apples. I found the only way to get him to get veggies in his system is the veg/fruit pouches. He asks for the fruit/veggie pouches a lot, which he did not do in the past. So I am taking it in strides and knowing, that as long as they are still growing and happy, all is good.
There is hope, don’t get discouraged. We just have to be patient because we have to remember they are new to this thing called LIFE!