Sometimes children over the age of 1 or 2, while they can eat almost all kinds of food, seem too lazy to chew, and refuse to eat more solid foods such as rice, beans, meat, bread, or potatoes.
To solve this problem it is important to create strategies that make the child want to chew food, such as leaving small solid pieces in the porridge or kneading only half the porridge, as well as having a lot of patience when eating.
- Having this type of problems with your children’s diet is not uncommon.
- And this usually happens because the child has gone through a difficult period in childhood.
- Such as frequent drownings or diseases that made it difficult to eat.
- Causing parents to use milk or porridge very often.
- Not allowing proper stimulation of chewing.
Here are 5 good strategies to try at home and encourage your child to eat solid foods:
Getting started with foods your child likes is an important strategy to help him accept a solid meal.For example, if your child likes banana puree, try giving him half a whole banana and let him hold the food himself to feel the texture and smell.In some cases, just repeat this strategy for a few days for the child to start taking food to his or her mouth spontaneously.
Leaving small pieces in the porridge is another way to make the child gradually feel solid foods, without forcing him to eat all the food solidly at once.
You can also use the strategy of kneading only half of your baby’s food, leaving the other half made up of whole foods and trying to alternate the texture of each food between tablespoons.
Creating small rewards encourages the child to progress in the diet, and it is possible to use incentives such as applause and smiles with each tablespoon he can chew, or by allowing the child to get up from his chair to sit at the table with other relatives.which will make you feel a sense of importance and maturity.
Letting the child take the food and give him a spoon, even if he is messy, is a way to encourage him to feed himself and feel a sense of power in front of the food, this is a good strategy, especially when there is another adult eating next to him, as the child tends to imitate the actions of family members , including gestures of taking food into your mouth and chewing.
In addition, letting the child participate in meal preparation also increases a child’s intimacy with food and makes it more likely to try the food he or she has helped produce.
Even if your child is older than two, starting the process of introducing whole foods can be the most effective way to get your child to eat solid foods.crushed milk, oats and soup as the child’s main meal.
When the child agrees to eat fruit porridge, try to put the fruit into small pieces and salted porridge, using mashed potatoes, crushed eggs, and minced meat, for example, reminding him or her to never force or threaten the child during the meal.
See these and other tips in the video below
Children who don’t chew them feed them solids and eat only mashed potatoes, porridge, porridge, and creamy or liquid soups can develop problems such as speech delay and difficulty correctly reproducing sounds, due to a lack of chewing and stimulation of facial muscles.Because the child speaks little or badly, the child may feel inferior or excluded when he or she begins to live with other children in school, for example.
These children need the support of the pediatrician and nutritionist not to run out of nutrients in the diet, compromise their immunity and prevent lack of growth and intellectual development.
Little by little he gets used to it and in a few months it may be possible to notice a good difference in his diet as well as in his growth and development.