How To Introduce New Foods Into Your Child’s Diet

Your child’s diet is something you are likely to devote daily effort to. Even more so if your child is one of those who don’t like to eat. Many children are very selective about food. They prefer to eat almost always the same things, prepared more or less the same way. So, changing your diet and introducing new foods becomes a real daily challenge.

We almost always end up in distress as mothers, as we know that little ones need a balanced diet to build healthy development.

Expectations with the diet

The first thing you should know is your child’s nutritional needs. This way you will be able to adapt the daily portions of each food group. For greater accuracy, take your child to a pediatrician or nutritionist. These amounts may vary depending on the country you live in and your child’s particular conditions.

If you fit your expectations, you will certainly also adjust the portions.

Keep in mind that during the first year of life, your baby needs to triple the weight. But once 12 months of age are reached, growth remains constant, even if slower, due to decreased calorie intake.

It’s also important for you to know that eating habits don’t take hold until after adolescence. So, take a deep breath because the task of establishing good dietary habits for our children takes a long time.

Experts recommend

• Offer small amounts of the new food. This way your child can tolerate and consume a little, which is enough.

• Be constant and persistent. That is, try again with the same optimism as often as necessary.
• Make mealtime a pleasant and enjoyable time. If you don’t sit at the table motivated, probably the smallest of complaints will cause you to fall out of your chair. If the time to sit at the table is not pleasant, you will not get your child excited to try new foods.
• Don’t make him eat it all. If he just tasted it, feel happy.
• Present food in an innovative way. There are many ideas for this nowadays.

Be persistent when varying your diet

Being persistent in making changes to your child’s diet is likely to be the most difficult. But you are not alone, almost all mothers go through this.

As a result, most children have an aversion to new foods. However, it has been found that if the same food is offered repeatedly, at least 8 times, it is much more likely that the gourmet child will dare to try it and still end up enjoying it.

So avoid feeling frustrated by your child’s tantrums and constantly offer the foods you want your child to taste. If you let a lot of time pass between one time and another it will be very difficult to reach your goal.

So, it is best to start incorporating one or two new foods a week. That way you can alternate a day between them, until you get to 8 or 10 times. Before reaching this limit, your child must have already “ventured” to prove it. Once you have this, be sure to offer the food frequently.

 Variety is the key

It is also important to vary in the way of preparation. Especially vegetables that are a headache for all parents. Generally, adults often associate vegetables with being on a diet. But in the case of children this is not the case. So, you can try tastier and more innovative recipes, even if they are not necessarily “healthy”, as the goal is not to follow a specific diet to lose weight, but to incorporate new foods and get used to the flavors and textures they have. This way, in the future your child will not need to diet as they eat in a balanced and healthy way.

You can try with vegetables au gratin, breaded, chopped as part of other recipes, baked in the oven or on the barbecue. They can also be sautéed in pans or steamed.

The most important thing for children is not only that the food is tasty, but that it appears to be tasty. Otherwise, no one can convince them to try any dish.