It is difficult for many mothers to feed their child. For some reason, the child refuses to eat. First you need to understand why he does not want to eat, does not like food, or maybe something hurts. We will understand this in our article.
How to feed the children?
Let's start with infancy. We’ll give some tips on how to improve your child’s appetite.
So, recommendations:
- You need to be more outdoors, it improves metabolic processes.
- Mom needs to be engaged in feeding, because the child is sensitive to her smell.
- Before starting the meal, it is worth making contact with the baby, stroking, shaking hands, kissing, because the mother causes associations with heat and food.
- If the baby is distracted by the movement of his arms and legs, swaddle him while eating, this will help focus on food.
If he nevertheless cries constantly and eats very little while feeding, you should contact a pediatrician. Now let's talk about how to feed a baby with a mixture. Of course, it is very good if the child is breastfed, but, unfortunately, not all mothers succeed, and they are forced to switch to artificial feeding.
If the child refuses to eat the mixture
The first thing you can do:
- Change the pacifier on the bottle so that the contents flow out in droplets.
- Do not rush to buy other food, try to reduce the volume.
- The mixture can be heated up to 40 C, but in general, it should be equal to body temperature.
- So that the baby does not burp, make sure that the mixture fills the neck.
- Check the nutritional composition, it may contain antibiotics, hormones and pesticides, which children reject immediately.
- Mixtures are digested longer in the body, so the number of feeds is reduced, and this will not mean that the child does not eat well.
- If the child is thin, but gaining weight, as expected, do not worry.
When a baby refuses food, something may be bothering him. The reasons can be both psychological and physiological in nature. A baby may refuse food if:
- stomach ache;
- teeth are coming;
- there is a runny nose, otitis media, stomatitis, measles;
- Do not like the taste of milk;
- just lazy;
- got sick;
- the child has a short frenum of the tongue.
In the latter case, it is necessary to consult a dentist. If there is none of the reasons, it is still worth trying to change the mixture.
Feeding from six months
From this age, so-called complementary foods are introduced. The baby’s kitchen becomes more diverse. A bottle with a mixture or breast milk will alternate with cereals, soups, curds. How to feed children after six months?
We note in advance that it is necessary to introduce products gradually, to watch the reaction to allergies. If it is not, you can safely continue feeding. First, juice, fruit and vegetable purees are introduced, then meat. Keep in mind that the baby will push the new thick food with its tongue for the first two months, it is still learning to eat. Therefore, you need to start with just one teaspoon, and then you can feed breast milk or a mixture.
Advice:
- If the child did not like the dish at all, take a break, do not give it a few days, then try again.
- Never shove a spoon into your mouth forcibly, this will contribute in the subsequent even greater rejection.
- If the child is not gaining weight and is inactive, you should contact a pediatrician.
When the crumbs are less than normal in weight, you think the child eats poorly than feed. But, if he is cheerful, active, eats well, you should not worry.
How to feed a child porridge?
An eternal question that worries moms. Kashka needs to be eaten. They are rich in carbohydrates, which fill the children's body with energy, vitamins and minerals.
From six months cereals are introduced: buckwheat, corn, rice. As a rule, it is difficult to feed a one-year-old baby. He grows up, becomes independent. And here the problems begin, does not open his mouth, seeing a spoon in front of him, thus showing his independence from his mother. But, of course, there may be other reasons.
And when a child turns three, he generally considers himself an adult. He decides what to eat and where to go. Therefore, the rejection of food will be a kind of protest. Perhaps the baby lacks your attention. It is always necessary to keep calm, not to break down and not to shout at the baby, to treat whims with understanding. So, let's move on to tips on how to feed a child porridge:
- In no case do not force! Food should not be a punishment. If you feed him by force, psychological problems can arise.
- The mode is very important. Feeding the baby is at the same time.
- Eliminate snacks in the form of sweets, chocolate between main meals. You can give nuts, dried fruits, vegetables or fruits.
- You need to walk in the fresh air for two hours before dinner. Prepare the soup in advance, so that when you return from the street, you can immediately eat.
- Do not give your child sugary drinks. They are also considered food. It is better to give plain clean water, and stewed fruit as a dessert after dinner.
- Give the child to kindergarten. It is there that the crumbs begin to eat well. The teacher has no problem how to feed the children. Everyone eats. Firstly, the regime, secondly, there are no snacks, and thirdly, the collective.
In fact, in order to feed a child, it is necessary to arouse his interest in food, and cook deliciously, taking into account his wishes, because he is already a great personality. Let us dwell on the question of how to feed a small child.
Food should be varied!
Indeed, it is very difficult to create a balanced menu. After all, the baby must eat meat, and vegetables, and fruits, and cereals every day to get enough vitamins and minerals. So, the tips:
- How to feed a baby with vegetables? Many babies categorically do not eat onions. It needs to be cut very finely, and with long cooking it will become invisible, and the taste and useful properties will be preserved. Potatoes need to be cut finely so that the piece fits easily in the baby’s mouth.
- The meat should be served in a soft form. The baby eats juicy meatballs and meatballs with pleasure.
- To feed a child with vegetables or fruits, make the presentation creative. They can be cut out in the form of different figures, beautifully laid on a plate with a fun composition.
- Change the consistency of the dish. If tired of mashed soup, serve it with small hard slices, for example.
- Food should not only be healthy, but also tasty. If you are preparing a dish of broccoli, add a pinch of salt, oil.
- You can buy beautiful plates with the image of fairy-tale characters. There will be good motivation for the child. After eating the soup to the end, you can look at them, say hello.
- Porridge must also be prepared tasty, without lumps, which is especially true for semolina. Add a little sugar so that it is not cloying, put a pinch of salt. Semolina can be flavored with cinnamon or vanilla.
- Involve your baby in the cooking process. It is very important for children to feel necessary and loved, useful.
You can give the baby just a chicken leg, they love them very much. And one more important tip, do not introduce harmful foods, such as sausages, chips, soda, and so on, into the diet as long as possible. We briefly consider one more question. How to feed children who are sick, and is it necessary?
The kid got sick: is it worth it to stuff food by force?
Never! In principle, a child should not be forced to eat, and when he is unwell, this cannot be done categorically. Many mothers believe that he must eat, otherwise there will be no forces for recovery, this is an erroneous opinion.
During an exacerbation of the disease, you should not feed the child. The body fights the virus, and food at this moment will be digested for a long time and hard. This can make the situation worse. You can give a light non-fat broth or rice, but only when he asks for it. And you need to give a drink a lot and often.
It is very important to instill a nutritional culture for a child from childhood, to explain that harmful foods have a bad effect on the body. Demonstrate with examples. Do not force to eat up to the end, let him eat as much as he wants. It is necessary to impose a little, it is better to put an additive. A slight feeling of hunger is not as harmful as overeating.
Another tip, you can not feed the baby, distracting cartoons. The further you go, the harder it will be; it becomes a habit. Then the shift will have to come up with other entertainments. And also in no case can you blackmail the baby and bargain with him. Now let's talk about how to feed a child who does not eat anything in the morning.
Rules for breakfast
The main mistake of parents is to rush the child, saying, they say, they are late because of him. Food consumed in the negative, under oppression, does not bring benefits. What rules should be followed:
- If possible, it is better to have breakfast with the whole family. It doesn't matter how old the baby is.
- The meal should take place in complete tranquility.
- Make the dish beautiful. Even simple oatmeal can be freshened with jam, berries, dried fruits and so on.
- It is necessary to try not to make a cult from eating, to jump in front of the baby with persuasion.
And what can be prepared for breakfast so that the child eats with pleasure?
Tasty food ideas
Products must be healthy and environmentally friendly.
So, you can cook:
- Cottage cheese casserole, made from oatmeal or rice. It can be served with honey, jam, fruit slices.
- Fritters and pancakes. Only it should not be semi-finished products. Bake better in olive or butter. Serve with sour cream, yogurt, honey. You can come up with different useful and tasty fillings.
- Boiled meat with vegetables. It can be beef, rabbit, chicken, turkey. Any vegetable side dish is suitable, but it is better to refuse potatoes in the morning, breakfast will turn out to be difficult.
- Boiled and fried omelettes. To prepare the first, you need a baking bag.
- Sandwiches. Take the whole grain bread. And instead of sausage, baked meat. We supplement with a salad leaf or any vegetables.
- And, of course, porridge: buckwheat, rice, oatmeal.
You can flavor dishes with various spices: cinnamon, vanilla stick, cloves and others. But with seasonings you need to be extremely careful, they can not be consumed by children under four years of age. Your child eats poorly than feed him for lunch?
What should be the lunch?
Full-fledged. It accounts for the largest amount of food consumed per day. To begin with, the baby can be offered a salad. The portion should be small. If summer is in the yard, we take tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, finely chop everything or three on a grater and season with sunflower oil or sour cream. In winter, you can use carrots, Beijing cabbage for salad, white cabbage is recommended to be included in the diet from two years old due to coarse fibers. As well as boiled beets.
After the salad, serve the soup. Soups can be prepared both on meat and vegetable broth. If the latter is used, further lunch should include animal fats.
There are a lot of cooking options. The main thing is that the products are fresh and healthy. It can be beet soup with rice on chicken stock, fish with cauliflower or without it.
Dish on the second
It is better to give preference to cereals and vegetable stew from broccoli, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, tomatoes and so on.
For example, prepare vegetable stew with rice. We need: carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, zucchini. Finely chop the vegetables and put them in a pan. Add rice and water. Cereals with vegetables are stewed until cooked, at the end you can add a raw chicken egg, stir everything and bring to full readiness.
And compote
This is a sweet drink, so it is best served after dinner, so as not to interrupt the baby's appetite. You can cook compote from dried fruits, make it unsweetened and healthy. Dried apples, pears, dried apricots, prunes, raisins will go. Serve recommended to cool. Thus, we know how to feed a child at lunch.
High tea
And now we’ll argue than to feed the child at midday. Every day, the baby should receive a balanced diet. Therefore, if there was porridge in the morning, you can give a fermented milk product or a dish for a snack: casserole, cottage cheese pancakes or cottage cheese. Supplement with kefir or drinking yogurt.
Conversely, if in the morning there was a casserole, cereals can be served for afternoon tea. But not in its traditional form, but rather a dessert. For example, mannik with cherries, oatmeal cupcake and so on.
Dinner
It should be small and high-calorie, light. It is not particularly different from breakfast. The main thing is to replenish the supply of useful components that the child did not receive during the day. If for breakfast the baby ate oatmeal with dried fruits, in the evening you can serve a dairy dish.
If the choice fell on porridge, it should be given before bedtime for an hour. It is necessary to abandon pearl barley, semolina, wheat, millet groats.
You can offer omelet, casserole, vegetable or cottage cheese, baked fruits for dinner. As well as kefir, yogurt and other dairy products.
And finally, we learn how to feed a child if he does not eat fruits and vegetables in their pure form. They can be masked. Suppose we add chopped apple into pancakes. And we hide all unloved carrots in a pie or casserole.
And the sweet tooth, who are accustomed to traditional chocolates, can also be surprised. For this you need dried fruits, any. They need to be carefully chopped, pour boiling water. Ten minutes later add vanillin, cocoa or milk powder. Then roll in coconut and clean for an hour in the refrigerator. The delicacy is ready, tasty and healthy!