Children who are picky eat indeed make parents annoyed and worried. There are children who just want to eat sausages and chicken nuggets using instant noodles, or just want to eat a special package menu at a fast food restaurant so they can get a toy gift. The picky phase of food is actually natural in the child's growth period, but that does not mean parents then continue to let it drag on. Eating habits like this for a long time are not good for your baby's health.
Why do children like to be picky about food?
Picky children eat in general because they are not used to eating habits like adults. Especially for toddlers who have just switched to a solid food menu, various shapes, textures, colors, smells, and new tastes from various foods can shock him.
In addition, the tendency to pick and choose food may also arise from the habit of children seeing their parents' eating patterns. For example, the mother who is not fond of eating vegetables or her father who just wants to eat it-that's all. Growth children follow what parents usually show as their main role model. So when you offer it to eat vegetables, he will refuse it because he thinks "My parents don't eat it, why should I?"
They will show their "protest" with low appetite, often refuse to eat, only want to eat foods that they know and like, and only want to eat in small amounts.
Picky eating makes the child's nutritional adequacy unbalanced
If the child is used to eating the same food continuously, his body will automatically regard the diet as a routine. This is certainly detrimental to the growth process. When the menu or food ingredients that children eat every day from morning to night are all the same, eventually this will limit the little one's nutritional intake. In fact, the body of a child needs nutritional intake which varies in proportion to each day to live a healthy life.
If the adequacy of child nutrition is bad, they have the potential to experience complications and long-term health problems. For example, if a child always eats packaged foods that are high in calories and salt, he will tend to grow fat and risk obesity at an early age. If you are obese, it usually tends to propagate to diabetes due to an increase in blood sugar due to excess carbohydrates.
The same is true if children only want to eat a little. Based on research, bad habits of picky eating can result in children having lower weight and height than other children of the same age. Picky eater children often lack fiber intake which makes them vulnerable to chronic constipation.
In addition, they also tend to lack energy and lack micronutrients, especially iron and vitamin A. Children whose nutrition is not very susceptible to infection. So, it is not impossible that your baby's growth and development is even hampered and even stops prematurely if he is accustomed to eating.
Picky Eater's child has a slow mental development
The habit of picking and eating not only can adversely affect the child's physical health, but also his mental development. Based on a number of studies available, Picky Eater's children turned out to have a 14 point mental development lower than children who easily ate.
This is supported by data from the World Bank which suggests that poor malnutrition in children is associated with a low IQ score. Various health problems faced by children due to malnutrition make them unable to concentrate on studying in class
How to prevent children from being picky eater
Even though picky eating is included in the natural growth phase of children, parents can prevent their children from getting used to choosing foods by:
- When you are preparing food, you can try to get your child to help you. However, keep in mind not to let your child use cooking utensils that can harm him, such as a knife.
- Invite your child to try a variety of new food menus. This will increase your child's curiosity to recognize a variety of foods.
- When eating together, create a pleasant atmosphere. For example, talk about positive things, take quality meals together and don't force your child to eat.
- Try to serve food in a unique and interesting form, so that your child feels interested in trying it.
- Give the distance of each serving of food at least 3 hours and serve 5-6 meals per day (including heavy meals and snacks).
- Try to eat foods that your little one doesn't like in front of your little one. For example, your little one doesn't like spinach. You can try to give an example of eating spinach in front of your little one and take it slowly so that your little one also becomes interested and wants to try it.