Are you often feeling worried about how much your child should be consuming? If so, your child may be feeling this stress and resisting your offered food even more!
Our children need to eat less than we think. Refer to our tummy size guide which illustrates just how small your baby’s stomach is during their first year of life. In addition, your toddler’s food consumption can vary greatly day-to-day, where one day they eat an entire Costco hotdog and the next day, just a few crackers.
There’s a great mindset shift you can take to ease the stress: “I will focus on food exploration instead of food consumption.“
The more a child is exposed to flavors and textures, the more their food repertoire will grow. Focus on describing the foods with their color, shape, smell, texture and taste. Check out Arielle Dan Lebovitz: 101 Descriptive Words for Food Explorers for ideas.
Food exploration also helps us learn about our child’s preferences and how to offer foods they have been denying in different ways. For example, if a child prefers crunchy foods over soft foods, try offering a mashed food (I.e. avocado) on a crunchy food (i.e. cracker).
Research say foods need to be offered up to 15 times before we know if we like them! We just have to continue the exposure in fun ways. An additional way to explore foods outside the table is with sensory bins and food prep!
Furthermore, remind yourself that it is developmentally normal for toddlers to resist foods. They are learning bodily autonomy, testing boundaries, and their senses are changing.
So be patient and be confident that your child will expand their food horizons in time, as long as we keep offering foods in fun ways. Follow along on our newsletter and on social for ideas and inspiration!