Not swallow the food

Hi Pricilla. My daughter was exactly the same until last year. She would barely eat and could keep food in her mouth for hours. I too used to switch on the TV or play rhymes to make her eat. Well, it did not work for very long. It got very frustrating for us after a few months as mealtimes were like a battlefield. Then I had decided to remove all distractions and get her to focus on her food. I got her more involved in deciding the menu and asked what she would like to eat. I actually made whatever she wanted. This way she used to eat a little more than usual. Most toddlers of this age are fussy eaters and most grow out of this phase. We need to be patient- no shouting, threatening or punishing while eating and we need to keep trying. Mealtimes should be something they look forward to; it should be fun.

Also please take a look at the following links for talks on how to encourage a child to eat. Many parents have shared their tricks and ideas on how they got their fussy eater to eat better. Hope they help you too. Here are the links 1. https://www.parentune.com/parent-talk/upset-not-eating/237 2. https://www.parentune.com/parent-talk/2years-child-nutrition/157 3. https://www.parentune.com/parent-talk/diet-intake/290 4. https://www.parentune.com/parent-talk/battle-over-breakfast/213 5. https://www.parentune.com/parent-talk/baby-doesnt-eat/334

Kindly also take a look at this blog. It has a few recipes for toddlers. I made a quite a few of those recipes for my daughter. Hope your son likes them too. Here it is https://www.parentune.com/parent-blog/healthy-and-fun-food-options-for-your-toddler/195 Take care.

Hi ! Pricilla, there might be a couple of things that you may have to do to bring about a change in your child's eating habit. A child 's willingness to eat is guided by a couple of factors; 1. Hunger 2. Distractions 3. Kind of Food 4. Environment. You can take care of the first part by making sure that the child does not have access to any kind of food or snack 1 - 2 hours before a main meal and that your son is hungry and looking forward to his meal. Secondly, things like television is the biggest distraction the best thing would be to have a verbal conversation with him and keep him engaged ( i would tell a story to my child and the moment the chewing would stop , my story would stop ... it used to work :-)). Thirdly , making sure that their is a variety in the food that you give him will keep him interested. Lastly , at three a child is capable of eating on his own , even if you need to feed him , make him sit with you , while you are eating ... once he looks at you eating and finishing your meal and going on to the next thing that you want to do , he will follow suit. Rather than putting the tv to feed him , change the approach to " he will have access to the tv /game /cartoon / whatever is his fancy only after he finishes the food. Hope this helps