Fussy eaters

• Establish a mealtime routine. Initially, organise your toddler's meals around the times of the day they are hungry. As your toddler grows older his/her meal times will coincide with the family's meal times.
• Let your child eat at his own pace and don't insist that the plate is cleared. Rushing your toddler through a meal puts pressure on them which can reduce appetite and come across as fussiness.
• If your toddler has refused a food once, don't give up. Try serving it again in a few days time. You could offer the same food a different way. Some new foods need up to 10 tries before they're accepted.
• Make sure their eating environment is kept calm and they're concentrating on their meal – so no TV!
• Stick with small portions to start with and only give more if they're still hungry.
• A vegetable aversion is one of the most common food fads in toddlers - and one that causes parents a lot of stress. Try serving the vegetable raw or blanched or as a snack. Make vegetable fritters or use vegetables as pizza toppings. Include easily hidden vegetables like grated carrot in meals like lasagne or meatballs.
• Keep in mind that fruit and vegetables provide similar nutrients. If your child likes only a few vegetables but eats a good selection of fruit, relax and just keep offering vegetables in different ways.
• Having family meals with your toddler can really help if their natural hunger pattern coincides with your regular mealtimes. Even though every toddler is different, some young children copy the behaviour of other people, so if you are enjoying a nutritious meal, your toddler may well watch and learn from what you are doing.
• Praise good eating and as much as possible ignore undesired behaviour. For instance, praise your toddler when they finish a meal or enjoy a nutritious snack.
• Talk about the food you enjoy. Your comments like 'yum yum this apple is gorgeous' or 'this spinach is great' can emphasise the foods you'd like them to enjoy.
• Avoid 'force feeding' or stand-over tactics; this only puts unnecessary stress on you and your child. Bribes, games of persuassions and distractions aren't the answer and are actually counter-productive. Threats such as "You can't have any dessert if you don't eat your vegetables", leads to foods being percieved as "good" and "bad" in a toddlers minds.
• Remember, parents and family members need to support each other, be consistent with action and message, and be good role models. Make sure your own food habits set a good example.

The most important thing is to try to be patient. It may seem that your toddler's tastes are changing by the day, but that is not a bad thing! Cheer up! What is spurned today may well be hot favourite next month! Persevere and keep offering a nutritious variety of foods for a balanced diet.