Next to getting kids to fall asleep, mealtime battles are among the biggest challenges for parents of preschool-age children. The fact is that we cannot control what or how much our children eat. What you can control are the choices you provide. Provide your child with healthy choices and a well balanced meal. Know that they will not let themselves starve. Beyond that, your begging, pleading, threatening, and bribing will only result in an increased battle for control during every meal.
With preschool-age children the time that you sit together as a family and actually eat will be short (maybe five to fifteen minutes). You want to send the message that mealtimes are a time for the family to sit together, connect with each other, talk and laugh. Years from now you will not remember if your child ate their broccoli but everyone will remember if mealtime was a relaxed, happy time for the family to spend together. Research indicates that families that eat together on a regular basis help their children grow up well.
A few tips:
- Don’t expect your child to eat a lot of food. Young children often eat small amounts and want to eat many times a day. Small frequent meals are actually a healthy way for adult to eat as well! Simply make sure what your child eats is healthy most of the time.
- Let your child serve themselves. Talk about the foods groups (there are many colorful posters to help children understand this at www.mypyramid.gov ) and encourage your child to take at least a small portion of food from each group. Discuss the impacts of wasted food and encourage your child to take small portions and come back for seconds if they are still hungry.
- Encourage your child to tell stories during meals. If your child is getting too carried away with talking and not doing any eating simply ask them to take five bites before they continue their story. Soon they will learn to balance their talking and eating.
- Don’t engage in a battle of wills. If your child refuses to eat, say, “I’ll save your meal, when you are hungry let me know.” Later, when your child asks for a treat or dessert calmly say, “You can have dessert as soon as you have eaten your dinner.” You’re child may be strong-willed and may not eat for a period of time, but they will not let themselves starve!
- Ask your child interesting questions, tell stories or take turns telling jokes! Anything you can do to make meals interesting and fun will increase the amount of time your child sits at the table and the longer they sit, the more they will eat.
- Be calm and consistent! In time your child will learn the expectations for mealtime so you can enjoy this time as a family!
