I attended a small group seminar for parents with slow weight gaining or picky eater children. It was a very informative morning! Ms. Velvet & Ms. Noelle who facilitated the seminar did it in a very personal way, asking all 7 of us parents how the feeding problems started and how it was at the moment, resulting to a more tailor-fit recommendation.
A typical feeding session...
Here are the things I've learned.
- Food that Bulk Up
- Avocado
- Camote
- Plantain (saging na saba)
- Buco Meat
- Beans & Lentils
- Nuts
- Unheated Vegetable Oils (Olive oil, VCO, etc)
- Sugar destroys the mouth sensors, causing kids to prefer sweets over nutritious food such as vegetables.
- Formula contains a lot of sugar so it doesn't help if you'd like your child to eat healthy. Breastmilk is still best for babies and fresh milk for older kids.
- Pediasure was intended for the clinical treatment of severe acute malnutrition and shouldn't be given to healthy, normal kids. It replaces a whole meal making the child feel full as a result.
- According to Ms. Velvet, Food is discipline. Power struggle in food is just the start of the many possible power struggles you'll encounter with your child as they grow. If you can discipline your children with food, you can also discipline them in other areas.
- For older kids, you can encourage them to eat nutritious food by involving them in the process of making the food, from growing the vegetables, to preparing them in the kitchen.
- For younger kids who throw tantrums at feeding time, calm down and show no emotion. Have them sit in Indian position while crying until they're done with it. Then offer food again.
- Did you know that there are healthy alternatives to our usual seasoning? From the seminar, I learned that you can replace soy sauce with Bragg's Liquid Aminos and table salt with Himalayan salt.
- One creative way to kickstart your child's journey to nutrition is to display a food rainbow. Your kid should be able to eat at least 1 healthy food as the colors of the rainbow a week. If they complete the rainbow you can give them a prize. She recommended non-material prizes but more of fun learning experiences.
- Another great way to keep your little ones interested with nutritious food is to use a dinner puzzle/maze. The Dinner Winner shown below is just a fancy tray used for this purpose but you can create your own. Set a rule with your kids that they can't say no to food unless they've already tried it. With a wonderful tool like this, you can encourage your child to finish the whole maze by offering them prizes similar to the food rainbow.
your every woman,
