No, I am not hungry!
How to handle a toddler that refuses to eat.
Kathy looks over at the clock, notices that it is 5:00 pm, and closes her eyes and wonders if she can go through another chaotic dinner episode. As she opens her eyes, she immediately picks up her daughter and whisks her away. “Wee….. Let’s go fly into the kitchen for a yummy dinner”. No, No, No……..As Amy, a 13 month old toddler kicks and screams her way to the kitchen table, Kathy is flooded with feelings of being a bad mother and a bad cook.
It is no twist of fate that right around the time your child learns to walk that they become less interested in food. Toddlers are too busy discovering the world around them that they do not want to take the time to sit down quietly and eat.
What can a mom do? Give your child structured meal times, nutritious meals, and lots of encouragement. It may sound impossible, but it will work!
My child is a sporadic eater!
Do not be surprised if your toddler eats great one day and barely eats anything the next day. You may want to keep a small dry erase board on the fridge and keep an eating record for 1-week. You may be surprised to find out that your child will balance out their meals over a week’s time. You might even find out that they have too much juice right before dinner or other small snacks throughout the day that balance out to a meal.
Get your toddler involved! A fun way to get your toddler involved in eating is to make it into an educational craft.
Eating Craft: Gather 7 heavy-duty paper plates (1 for every day of the week), pictures of food from magazines, canned food labels, and other various food labels and Velcro. Make sure that you choose large pictures or cut out the small pictures and glue them to a larger piece of construction paper to make it easier for them to handle. You can even glue the pictures onto card stock for heavy-duty use before laminating the pictures.
You will need to laminate the pictures of the food because your toddler may put the pictures into their mouth. Once you have laminated the pictures, you will need to put Velcro on the back of the pictures. Each day before a meal, you can allow your toddler to make his or her plate using the Velcro. Your toddler will feel like they are helping you make the meal and its QUALITY time spent with you.
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- Georgia's Dream Nannies, Inc.
- Our founder of Georgia's Dream Nannies, Inc. uses her business expertise, nanny experience, Early Childhood background and many years of experience in the domestic field to help train candidates in her agency. Georgia's Dream Nannies provides orientations and training workshops to help domestic personnel understand job duties. “I firmly believe that domestic personnel and families need guidance in making the right decision. I sincerely believe that my daily devotions and prayer over the agency has greatly helped our company become one of the most talked about and successful nanny agencies in Georgia".