If you are experiencing mealtime struggles with your child, you are not alone – in fact, 2/3 to 1/2 of all parents report at least one mealtime problem behavior that they experience with their child. Feeding your child can be stressful; after all, it’s one of a parent’s primary responsibilities to ensure that their child gets enough of the proper nutrition to grow and thrive. It can become beyond frustrating when a child can not or will not eat.
Parents of children with disabilities know feeding struggles all too well – did you know that 80% of children with disabilities experience some feeding difficulty? Feeding problems can range from physical swallowing difficulties to picky eating and food refusals. These feeding issues can begin at birth or arise when a child is challenged to eat new foods. A child’s feeding issues are influenced by many factors, which may include medical diagnoses, sensory processing deficits, and environmental factors such as socioeconomic status, family structure, and parental stress.
While the answer to any feeding difficulty is never easy, here are some simple tips to help establish healthy eating habits in children:
The power of a family mealtime routine is amazing! Kids thrive on the social interactions that occur during family mealtime, and they get to see great modeling of eating and enjoying food. The commitment to family mealtimes can seem daunting – take baby steps – commit to dinner once a week, then at least one meal a day, and then see how close you can get to regular family meals. Remember family mealtime can be just a mom and a child or the entire family, the point is that the child has someone to watch who is eating the same food at the same time as them.
UNPLUG at mealtimes. How can a child watch and learn how you eat when they are watching the television, playing with a toy, or coloring?
It may be messy – scratch that – it WILL be messy at first but children are more motivated to try new foods when they can do it themselves. Not only do children feel a sense of pride when they can feed themselves, but they also can prepare their body to accept the food.
Kids are fickle, what they may reject one time they may try again another time, but the opportunity HAS to be presented. Often, parents report that they have offered their children a variety of foods but have stopped because their children always reject new food. Don’t give up.
Move away from using the word “like,” aka “you don’t like it?” to “you’re not used to it.” When a child says, “I don’t like it,” remind them that they are just “not used to it yet.”
Portion size seems to be a general problem in our culture, but it is especially true when it comes to those with eating difficulties. There are three good rules of thumb when it comes to portions:
Chicken nuggets, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese = kid food, right? Actually, there really is no such thing as kid-friendly food; kids can and will eat everything. Did you know that children have the potential to eat up to 100-200 different kinds of healthy foods by the time they are one year old? It’s just that we don’t often present them with the variety of foods needed to build that huge repertoire. So forget the tater tots and applesauce and give your child a taste of what you are eating; you may be surprised!
While sometimes the last thing parents want to hear about mealtime is that they need to relinquish control, that’s exactly what they need to do.
Mealtimes are a shared responsibility amongst caregiver and child.
It is the parent’s responsibility to (a) establish structure around mealtimes, (b) dictate when mealtimes occur, and (c) prepare and offer the food. It is the child’s responsibility to (a) eat and (b) to determine how much they eat.
As a general rule, children should eat three meals and two snacks per day with approximately 2.5-3 hours between each to ensure optimal intake. Parents may think that their child eats more when they graze (i.e., snack here and there throughout the day), but in fact, research shows that children who graze eat a significant amount of fewer calories than children who sit for meals. And speaking of sitting, children should SIT when they are eating for no more or less than 25-30 minutes for meals and 10-15 minutes for snacks to ensure adequate time for appropriate intake. Remember, juice and milk should only be offered at mealtimes; offering high-calorie beverages throughout the day may dampen hunger and decrease the intake of healthy foods.
Feeding issues, problems, and behaviors cause enormous amounts of stress upon families and caregiver/child interactions. If you feel like you are stuck, seek help from a feeding specialist. You and your child may benefit from feeding therapy if your child:
NAPA Center provides innovative pediatric therapy services to children with various neurological and developmental needs. At NAPA, we offer both intensive feeding therapy and relationship-based developmental feeding therapy to address feeding issues, as well as VitalStim therapy for swallowing difficulties and speech therapy for speech and language challenges. If your child needs our services, we will work closely with you to select the best therapies for them, creating a customized program specific to your child’s needs and your family’s goals. Let your child’s journey begin today by getting in touch with our team!
