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Introduction.
Hello! This is Sara! This is a Toddler Topic Video and the Topic is Picky Eaters.
I have a two years old daughter and she is very very picky!
She does not eat vegetables since she was …maybe 13 months old
I have not find the solution yet, but what I wanted to do in this video is:
First of all reflect a little bit on what I think I might have done better in the past, when she was weaning.
Tell you a little bit what the doctor told us to do and tell you what I have seen it works best for us.
By listening to this video, if you feel that you have any suggestions for me, I would love to hear them.
In the past, when we started the weaning process, I was a lot in to the home made purees.
Here in Switzerland, they give you the amount you have to give to your child.
They say, for lunch you give vegetables and, in the afternoon, you give fruit.
After a certain age, I think is 7 months, you try to feed the baby 200 grams.
I also felt pressured by family and friends to have her eat because she lost weight at a certain point.
So, all my focus went into the home made purees. I read about baby led weaning but I couldn't understand the importance of it.
Now, looking back, I would have really liked to do a mixture of both in order to have a variety of things for her to try..
..so that she could get used to different foods.
By feeling this pressure that she could loose weight, sometimes I would offer to her, other type of foods (in addition to what was in her plate).
Later I understood that it is not how you should do it because they learn..specially after 1 years old...
..they reach that kind of understanding where they learn that they can refuse things, to get things that they like.
Also, it helps if you are secure, not undecided about the matter.
So what I learned is, if you have prepared something for your child and you offer to them but they refuse to eat it, then let it go
As I later learned by reading: It is not important what they eat in one day.
It is more important, what they eat in the course of one week.
In one week, they will have days where they eat a lot, and in some days you may feel that they are not eating anything. But that is fine.
I talked to the doctor about the issue and the doctor suggested that..
..well, he said that she will need to try things about 20 times before she accepts to eat that food.
So I am working with her, in order to have her try things, not to eat them but alt least try them.
The way we do it is by trying to negotiate with her. You want A? Ok we gonna give you A but first you need to try everything in your plate...
..and then we can give you A. Sometimes it works, sometimes she refuses completely and…we let it go because…
..the other thing that the doctor said is "Never force her".
We have never forced her with exception to once. My mother in law wanted to try to force her and she refused to eat that night and the next day.
So, I would not say to anyone to force your child to eat, also because it is thought to create problems later.
Another thing that the doctor suggested is to give her vitamins. I am very keen into doing that. It puts my mind into peace.
She might not eat a variety of things, she might not eat a full healthy diet, but, at least, she is getting some vitamins
The body absorbs what it is needed and the rest gets out.
Other things that we did to improve the situation is:
She has never been interested in what we are eating.
Sometimes, you see these kids that they see their mum eating something and they want to grab it…she has never had that.
So what we did is, instead of putting her in the high chair and letting her eat in the tray…
..we have removed the tray and we use the high chair but she eats on the table.
In this way she is closer to us and more involved with our eating process.
We try to eat always together and we try to have always the same plate.
Another thing it helps us is: You know how you fall into a diet and you fall into certain foods and you keep rotating those?
Sometimes it helps to go into something completely different that you have never eaten with her and propose it.
I have noticed that she becomes more curious with fruits and vegetables that were not in season for 6 months and she has forgotten about them.
When I re-propose those, she is like "What is this?"..and she might try it.
She may not like it, but at least she is more curious and she is more willing to put it into her mouth.
The last thing would be: Sneaking in but with caution.
I am conscious that..
Ideally I would like her to take a fresh carrot and eat it, but this is not what my child is doing.
so, I try to do some sneaking in of vegetables into food because otherwise she won't eat them, and, propose the explicit version of it.
So, say I do broccoli bread, but I also propose the steamed broccoli into her plate.
This summarizes what I wanted to say and I hope it wasn't too long. I hope our experience will help someone.
Thanks for watching and bye-bye!