Guest submit from meals author and proprietor of The Picky Eater, Anjali Shah
Has your baby reached the stage when they’re prepared to start out solids? Do you wish to start this journey with them in a nurturing and optimistic manner?
This information will enable you to and your little one by this transition and can set them up for success sooner or later to embrace wholesome meals and keep away from changing into a choosy eater.
We’ll offer you suggestions and methods utilizing the ideas of Positive Parenting Solutions so that you just don’t find yourself with any energy struggles at mealtime!
Introducing stable meals to your baby is an thrilling milestone! However, it will also be a step in your parenting journey that causes some trepidation.
There are many alternative manufacturers of meals marketed to parents to feed their infants at this stage. Then, there may be the choice of creating homemade baby food.
You may be questioning if utilizing the baby-led weaning method to feeding is finest, and the way to make sure you elevate a baby that embraces vegatables and fruits.
As you start to introduce solids, you can see the method that works finest for you and your baby, which is more likely to embody some mixture of home made purees, store-bought baby meals pouches, formulation, breast milk, and finger meals.
While there are lots of alternative ways to method beginning solids together with your baby, I’ve discovered that utilizing the foundations taught within the Positive Parenting Solutions (PPS) course helps make the transition straightforward and seamless.
In this submit, I’ll evaluate how you can know when your baby is prepared for solids, how you can introduce completely different meals, and how you can use the ideas of PPS to introduce your baby to solids when they’re prepared.
I’ll additionally check out how you can use PPS to keep away from mealtime battles with toddlers, and encourage your choosy eaters to offer new meals a attempt!
What is Positive Parenting Solutions?
Positive Parenting Solutions is a web based parenting course geared toward serving to parents finish energy struggles, cease yelling and nagging, and let go of guilt. It’s a step-by-step course of to change into the most effective father or mother you all the time needed to be!
How do I do know when my baby is able to begin solids?
Babies are sometimes prepared to start out attempting stable meals after they attain the age of 5 – 6 months. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends six months as an excellent age to start out introducing solids, however for some infants, it is going to be barely earlier or later than this. Four months actually is the minimal age, although.
You’ll know when your baby is prepared for solids when…
- He or she is ready to sit in a excessive chair and might maintain his or her head up.
- Your baby begins to place objects of their mouths, together with their palms and toys.
- Your baby has placed on sufficient weight to be roughly double his or her beginning weight.
Once you’ve observed your baby has reached these milestones, schedule an appointment together with your pediatrician to make sure your baby is able to begin consuming solids.
Using the Principles of PPS to Start Solids with Your Baby
How do you utilize the ideas of PPS to start out solids together with your baby and keep away from mealtime drama?
Create a Conducive Environment for Mealtime
Prepare for mealtime by creating a contented and comfy surroundings.
Provide your baby with a safe excessive chair that they’ll simply sit in and manipulate their meals, and provides them a spoon to carry onto whilst you’re feeding them. This helps them to develop the wonderful motor abilities to make use of a spoon later and offers them a way of independence.
By utilizing the instruments in Step 3 from the 7-Step Parenting Success System, parents can create a conducive surroundings for mealtime that helps your baby know what to anticipate. It additionally creates some boundaries round mealtime.
When your baby is aware of that sitting of their excessive chair means it’s time to eat, and also you present them with the anticipated instruments to eat, they may method the scenario with extra ease and confidence.
Start Introducing New Foods
Your baby is of course used to the style of candy and starchy meals as a result of that’s what breastmilk and formulation style like.
In order to encourage them to attempt different flavors, begin with meals which can be bitter, pungent, and savory. This means attempting vegetable purees, resembling a vegetable puree with spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower, or a zucchini puree.
I like to recommend beginning with vegetable purees earlier than giving your baby cereal, as a result of cereal is starchy and candy. Avoid candy fruit purees in the beginning, and don’t introduce these till later when your baby has change into accustomed to different flavors.
Foods to start out with…
- Avocado, carrots, inexperienced beans, candy potato, butternut squash, pears, apples, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower.
- Then, add different vegatables and fruits that you just like, and begin introducing meats and fish.
When you begin giving purees to your baby, make sure that to keep away from something that has added sugar or salt. It’s a good suggestion to introduce one meals at a time after which wait just a few days earlier than attempting one thing new, with a purpose to make sure that your baby doesn’t develop a destructive response resembling diarrhea, vomiting, or rash.
Once you’ve made positive your baby will tolerate completely different meals, you possibly can mix them in your purees.
Step 4 of the PPS 7-Step Parenting Success System provides energy to the kid whereas permitting you because the father or mother to set boundaries. When mealtime rolls round, you determine what is obtainable, when it’s served, and the place consuming occurs.
However, your little one has some energy as nicely. They determine how a lot of what’s supplied they eat. Allow your little one to cease consuming when they’re achieved, and in the event that they don’t like one thing you’ve gotten supplied, don’t attempt to force-feed them. This will create a optimistic surroundings for mealtime, and keep away from mealtime battles.
FAQs About Feeding Methods
What if my baby doesn’t like purees?
If your baby doesn’t just like the puree you introduce, don’t fear! It’s to be anticipated that your baby is not going to like every little thing you give her or him. Just give it a while and take a look at once more in just a few days or every week. However, don’t attempt to drive your baby to eat one thing they reject.
What is baby-led weaning (BLW)?
The aim of baby-led weaning (BLW) is for infants to change into extra impartial, higher at regulating portion dimension, and extra interested by attempting new meals.
Rather than spoon-feeding infants with purees, parents wait till their baby is sufficiently old to deal with small finger meals, normally across the age of six months.
During baby-led weaning, infants can nonetheless eat purees, however they aren’t spoon-fed, so that they be taught to feed themselves with their fingers or by holding a baby spoon.
Which is healthier, feeding your baby purees or following BLW?
There is not any proper or incorrect manner in the case of feeding your baby purees or following the BLW system. Not each baby and each household are the identical.
You want to decide on what works finest for you and your little one, however you don’t want to decide on between one or the opposite. You can do a mix of each!
How to Manage Picky Eaters
As your baby will get older and grows right into a toddler, completely different issues could current themselves round mealtime. If your toddler is a choosy eater, this doesn’t imply that you just did something incorrect! Some kids are merely pickier than others.
When you’ve gotten a choosy eater, as a father or mother, one of many largest worries you’ve gotten is whether or not your little one is consuming sufficient to develop sufficiently, and whether or not they’re getting a balanced food plan to make sure they’ve all of the nutritional vitamins and vitamins they want for progress and improvement.
As a consequence, mealtime can change into a hectic expertise–when it must be a time to take a seat and reconnect with your loved ones.
These 11 suggestions will assist keep away from energy struggles at mealtime, and assist your toddler eat a balanced food plan you be ok with!
1. Listen to Your Child’s Appetite
Your little one is aware of when they’re hungry and when they’re full. As a consequence, respect their urge for food and permit them to take heed to their physique’s indicators. Don’t drive meals or snacks in your little one or beg them to attempt bites. This creates an influence wrestle.
This doesn’t imply you permit them to eat at any time when they wish to, however as a substitute throughout mealtime, permit them to eat what they wish to. That may be all of their meal, or solely a portion of their meal.
Serve small parts to your toddler. They don’t must eat as a lot as adults. This may even assist them really feel much less overwhelmed after they see the meals on their plate.
Allow them the chance to ask for extra if they’re nonetheless hungry.
2. Create a Mealtime Routine
As talked about above with introducing solids, create a mealtime routine.
Offer your little one three meals a day, plus two alternatives for a snack. If they don’t wish to eat throughout certainly one of their mealtimes, they’ll have their meal throughout certainly one of their snack occasions.
Instead of providing your toddler snacks all through the day, which is able to seemingly trigger them to not be hungry throughout mealtime, supply them a snack at particular occasions (which may very well be simply ending what they didn’t eat within the prior meal), and supply them with water to drink between meals in order that they don’t refill on different meals or drinks between meals.
3. Be Patient with the Introduction of New Foods, Keep Trying, Be Consistent!
New meals are thrilling for kids, but additionally they will not be positive how you can react to them. The first time it’s supplied, they might solely attempt a small bit. Reintroducing new meals as repeated publicity will encourage them to offer them a attempt.
It could take as much as 100 tries earlier than your little one accepts a brand new meals!
Instead of speaking about how a brand new meals tastes, speak to them concerning the colour, form, texture, and odor. Continue to serve your little one nutritious meals till they change into accustomed to it — they might even begin to favor it.
4. Don’t Offer a Child an Alternative Meal
While your little one could flip up their nostril on the meal put in entrance of them, don’t supply to make them one thing else. This reinforces the concept if they are saying they don’t like one thing, you’ll give them a most well-liked meals.
5. Don’t Keep “Junk” In The House
For the identical motive as above, you additionally don’t wish to hold snacks and “junk food” in the home for easy accessibility!
If it’s not in your home, your little one just about received’t have the ability to eat it, and it received’t be tempting.
So in case your little one asks for ice cream as a substitute of their dinner, and also you don’t have any ice cream, it turns into fairly straightforward to softly say no and remind them what their dinner is!
6. Allow them to Choose Fruits and Vegetables to Try
Kids of all ages want some selections of their lives.
Imagine that each single minute is determined for you, and also you’re consistently being instructed what to do. It’s regular for kids to wish to take management, nevertheless it’s your job to set boundaries and restrict selections.
It’s okay to offer your little one two selections for a meal (however don’t give them 10 selections)! You can say, “Do you want a peanut butter sandwich or a cheese sandwich for lunch” for instance.
You may also take your little one to the grocery retailer or farmer’s market with you and ask for their assist in selecting vegatables and fruits. This will assist them really feel in management and enthusiastic about attempting the meals they select.
7. Don’t Compare Kids
If you’ve gotten multiple child, and one little one occurs to be pickier, don’t evaluate them to their siblings! That’s going to have the alternative impact you need and shall be discouraging for your little one to attempt new meals.
8. Limit Distractions
It’s not all the time attainable to take a seat down as a household and eat along with everybody’s completely different schedules today, however do your finest to make mealtime particular and restrict distractions. Turn off the TV, take away toys and different distractions, in order that your little one can deal with their meals.
9. Don’t Offer Dessert as a Reward
When you supply dessert as a reward for ending their meal, it sends the message that dessert is the most effective kind of meals to eat. This encourages your little one to have a stronger want for sweets. It additionally doesn’t present any intrinsic motivation to eat nicely throughout mealtime.
Instead of providing dessert after each meal, supply it as an choice just a few nights every week, or make dessert one thing like fruit or one other wholesome alternative served with the meal.
10. Don’t Label Behavior or Foods!
I’d keep away from saying issues like “you’re such a picky eater” or “don’t be a picky eater” to or round your little one. This is as a result of kids will undertake the labels we give them, and it’ll simply reinforce choosy consuming conduct!
Instead, don’t give a whole lot of consideration to after they’re being choosy, and simply say one thing like “it seems like you don’t want to eat right now, that’s ok, your meal will be here when you are ready.”
I’d additionally keep away from giving an excessive amount of reward for “healthy eating” since your little one could solely find yourself maintaining a healthy diet if you’re round to obtain that reward, nevertheless it received’t construct the long-term instruments they’ll want for wholesome consuming all through their life.
11. Make Mealtime Fun!
Eat collectively as a household; make mealtime “together time”. Talk to one another about your day and permit your kids to ask questions and be curious on the dinner desk. Serve a wide range of colours and textures, minimize their meals into enjoyable shapes, and serve veggies with a dipping sauce you understand they like!
Final Thoughts
Introducing your little one to solids, and inspiring them to eat a wholesome, well-balanced food plan as they develop into the toddler stage is each thrilling and difficult. By utilizing the Positive Parenting Solutions method, you possibly can keep away from mealtime battles, whereas encouraging your little one to attempt new meals and permitting them to really feel management over their meals selections.
About the Author
Anjali Shah is a meals author, published author, board-certified well being coach, nutritionist, mother of two, and proprietor of The Picky Eater, a wholesome meals and life-style weblog. Her work has garnered nationwide consideration as she has been featured on Oprah.com, Women’s Health, Cooking Light, Reader’s Digest, CNN, Food Network, SELF, Glamour, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, Whole Foods, SHAPE, and at Kaiser Permanente. Anjali grew up a “whole wheat” lady however married a “white bread” form of man. Hoping to show that nutritious meals might in truth be scrumptious and fascinating, she taught herself how you can cook dinner and efficiently remodeled her husband’s consuming habits from a food plan of frozen pizzas and Taco Bell to her wholesome, but flavorful recipes made with easy, healthful elements. Anjali’s packages are targeted on educating people and households how you can make wholesome selections and choose the correct meals on the grocery retailer for total wellness and upkeep. After changing into a mother, Anjali expanded her packages to incorporate methods and strategies to fight choosy consuming in kids of all ages. Anjali began The Picky Eater in 2011 to make wholesome meals accessible, tasty, straightforward to make at house, and picky-eater-proof. Follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
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