There are many children who have great difficulty with food, textures, smells, shapes, colors... Many senses come into play during the eating process, and multisensory moments are often complex for our little ones.
On the other hand, it is very necessary to develop a good diet not only in nutritional aspects but also for the future. Language development, making the change from process to solid accompanies the development and stimulation of all the phonoarticulatory muscles and accompanies us in this much desired process of the development of "speech". It is necessary that our child has a good toneIn other words, your muscles should be in shape and ready for the entire joint to get going.
Some key points to keep in mind if we want to introduce new foods...
Prior preparation…
- Analyze whether aspects such as temperature, texture, mixed foods…may be influencing.
- Choose the right moment: Take advantage of the time of day when your child is most willing to try a new food.
- Offer him food when he is hungry: If it is offered to him after he has already eaten, he may be full and refuse it.
- Follow a ritual: We will always follow the same ritual, before eating we will remind you of the steps you have to follow (wash your hands, set the table, use your bib, sit at the table...), if necessary we will help you.
- Teach by example: Parents are role models for their children in everything, including nutrition. You can't expect a child to eat fruit if they see their parents never eating it.
- Let him take food from your plate: As long as it's not dangerous, let him eat food from your plate. Curiosity is the first step to getting him to eat solid foods.
- Don't live something as beautiful as the first years of a child's life as suffering: Many parents forget to enjoy time with their children because of issues like this, and it is the most important aspect.
Getting into the process…
- First contacts…
- Let it be touch it, smell it, and explore it even if you don't put it in your mouth.
- Be more flexible in other ways, encourage exploration…
- Allow him to eat with his hands: Getting messy is good for you, and kids love it! Leave teaching them how to use forks and napkins for later; for now, let them pick up food with their hands and experiment with it.
- Eat with him: Setting a good example is always very important. If your child sees you chewing and eating, they're probably curious and want to try what you're tasting. Try commenting on how good your food is, but avoid offering it to them so they don't feel pressured. The idea is to spark their curiosity and get them to imitate you.
- It is essential to accompany him in the process safely but with sum tranquillityThe key is to stay calm and respect their timing.
- On the plate…
- Accompany it on the plate of another food that YES you like it.
- Start offering small amount of the new food on the plate (2 pieces of tortilla, 1 tablespoon of rice...)
- Avoid sudden changes: If your child has rejected chunks outright, go back to giving them purees. The idea is to gradually thicken the purees so they get used to different textures.
- Camouflage: The bitter taste of calcium, which is so common in spinach, chard, cabbage, onions, cardoons, and broccoli, can be a sensory factor that negatively influences children's palates, causing them to reject its consumption. You just need to find something to counteract that bitterness.
- Give him mashed food with a fork: Bananas are generally liked by all children. Mash them with a fork and offer them to your child.
- Create fun dishes: On the Internet, in books, and in magazines, we have thousands of ideas for making healthy dishes that are great for kids. From animal drawings to anything you can think of.
- If he eats all the food he already likes and doesn't try the new food, it's time to use the reinforcers, “prizes” that will motivate you to start testing!
- Reinforce him every time he eats a spoonful or piece of the new food.
- Over the days, space out the reinforcement, for example 3 tablespoons and then reinforcement until the reinforcement is left at the end of the meal.
- Gradually introduce more of the new food onto your child's plate over the course of a few days and make sure they're eating it properly before combining it with a new food.
- Write down and record everything that happens... there are changes you may not notice, and they are there!
- Record everything that happens in an observation log every day: what he eats, what he doesn't eat, whether he eats with reinforcement, whether he eats little, whether he is calm...
- Ideas, meal duration, progress…
- Foods already tolerated
- New foods not tolerated
- New tolerated foods
There are others more specific techniques but they must be supervised by a professionalIf you think you're at that point, don't hesitate to seek professional advice so they can determine the ideal pace and method for your particular situation.
Cristina Oroz Bajo