Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

If you have a child and you have NO problems whenever it comes to mealtimes (ie. Your child eats anything and everything you serve), consider yourself ‘lucky’.

Because most parents go through phases where the child gets rather … picky, about what she / he eats.

Especially when he or she is teething, or feeling unwell.

Some kids continually remain as picky eaters. Some ‘grow out of it’, eventually. Some are … just not as bad.

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All my three kids eat vegetables, but I go through different kinds of mealtime difficulties with my three kids.

[Anya at 3 years and 4 months]

> Anya

As a toddler, Anya would eat anything, BUT she ate superrrr slowwwwly.

I still remember how she’d spend around 2 hours to finish up her lunch (at the time she’s 2.5yo, and I was training her to eat on her own). Daily mealtimes became a test of my patience. Difficult months they were.

(Read about how I dealt with her super slow mealtimes HERE)

Now that she’s 8yo, she’s open to tasting new food and is not considered as a picky eater (by us =)

[Vai : 1.5 years old]

> Vai

Since the day Vai was first introduced to solids, at 5.5 months, my days were just … super difficult.

He’d REJECT solids, all the way till he’s past 9 – 10 months, if I remember it correctly.

He’d swing his head to avoid any food encounter, swat my spoon, refuse to open his mouth, it was just horrific (and I have LOTS of *fun* photos on this one!)

(I wrote about how I tried different tricks to deal with this mealtime struggle HERE)

[Vai : 8 months old]
Things got a little better when I let him eat on his own.

Self-feeding proved to be the better solution for this guy. Very messy, but at least he ate!

By now, he’s the more picky one. Eg. He prefers to eat only what he likes and needs to be told ‘very firmly’ to try out new food (ie. Even to just give a quick, small bite).

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> Brie

It’s still too early to say what she’ll be like, but so far, she does get very picky when she has a cough or a runny nose, eg.

She’d eat very little, and fuss during mealtimes.

And because she 95% of the time refuses to be spoon-fed by us, she’d just … not eat. And I can feel how her weight ‘drops’ over those few days!

(When such a ‘difficult’ phase happens, I’d usually bring along snacks and bread rolls in my bag. She welcomes bread most of the time, so to me, it’s better for her to eat some bread whenever she can, than not eat anything much simply because I stick to strict mealtime schedules. And oh, I usually would go for wholemeal bread too)

Thankfully, when she’s back to her healthy self, mealtimes are somewhat better too (still messy, but better =)

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As mealtimes and kids being picky eaters are common issues faced by many moms, I interviewed Chef William Wongso the other day. He’s one of Indonesia’s well-known culinary experts who still travels internationally for ‘food-related’ trips!

I asked him for tips and here’s the video on OUR CHANNEL!

The video is in Indonesian, so here’s the summary of what he shared, in English =)

> If a child becomes a picky eater, it’s the parents’ fault.

Many moms are busy outside the home these days, and the child is taken care of by someone else, eg. Domestic helper. Mealtime policy becomes : ‘Just as long as my child eats something’, and when the child doesn’t want to eat, they’ll just order home deliveries, eg.

> There’s no such thing as ‘healthy food’, unless it’s home-cooked

> Parents can prepare healthy vegetable soups for example and keep them in the freezer first, so the soup is always ready for the child to have at home.

> Vegetables that are already in the soup contribute to the taste, BUT when the soup is heated up before a child’s mealtime, fresh vegetables must be put in, because the child needs to SEE the actual vegetable shapes and colours. So, be it soup or something that you stir-fry (with little oil), children need to see, taste and experience different ‘textures’, since young.

> When the child keeps on ‘rejecting’ food that’s given to her, sometimes the parents may need to … just let the child go hungry at times, ie. The child has no other option but to eat what’s in front of him/her (This is of course in the context of a healthy and normal child)

> Children need to have a big ‘taste memory bank’. They don’t have to always ‘consume’ the food / drink in great quantities. Since they’re young, you can expose different tastes / smells to a child (by a quick lick, eg), and he/she will be more adaptable to different tastes as they grow up.

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Do YOU face mealtime struggles?

What are YOUR tips on raising a NON picky eater and in dealing with picky eaters?