Posted Nov 11, 2011
A healthy, well-balanced diet is essential to your child’s growth and development, but isn’t always easy to arrange. Using your child’s dominant sense can be the difference between an easy meal time and a battle ground.
The sound of a crunchy apple or the snap of a fresh celery stick is music to an auditory child’s young ears. They are able to determine freshness simply by the sound, and if it’s not there, often will refuse to eat. Routine is important to this sense, both in the regularity of mealtimes, and also in the pattern of food. Consider associating specific times of the day with food types: for example, eating fruit after school, or always having vegetables for dinner. The family meal is a joy to auditory children, as eating together allows for the conversation that they love so much. When presenting difficult food choices, consider playing their favorite tunes to help get them into a more positive and receptive mood.
For visual children, eating is never a matter of simply a plate of food. How the food is presented and what it looks like matters. Given the visual child’s pickiness, remember to pick your battles. Sometimes it’s better to cater to these idiosyncrasies, with the aim of a healthy diet. Make sure the food on their plate is neatly arranged, cut fruits and vegetables their favorite way, and let the child use their favorite knife and fork. It can be a small compromise, and better than the power struggle of trying to force the child to eat an apple with a brown spot. Allowing them to serve themselves from a communal family platter can also help, they chose it so they have to eat it, type of scenario.
Taste and smell children will sense the slightest difference in flavor. With these children, it really important to stick to the brands they like. Don’t be fooled into thinking your child likes “strawberry yogurt,” for it will be only one specific type of strawberry yogurt that they enjoy. Take notice of how fresh and ripe the fruit and vegetables are, before you serve them. Your child will notice the difference between the banana they ate last night, and the one they are refusing this morning. It’s important to keep meal times calm and friendly as this child’s natural sensitivity can affect how they eat when they are upset with either too much or too little food being consumed.
Tactile children like to eat quickly, and be done with mealtime as soon as possible. Anything that can be held and eaten on the move is a plus, with many smaller meals preferable to large, sit-down affairs. The trick with these children is to provide a variety of healthy, snack-type, finger foods. When you pick them up from preschool, come prepared with food. When they’re strapped in their car seat, hand them with a container of carrot and celery sticks. Tactile children often view eating as something they do, when they have nothing else to do! Once home, involve them in food prep – getting them to help prepare meals will ensure they eat, as it’s all part of the fun.
Healthy eating should be a positive experience rather than one that must be endured. By creating an atmosphere of fun and vitality, you will be setting you child on the path to healthy eating.
Priscilla J. Dunstan is a child and parenting behavior expert and consultant and the author of “Child Sense.” Learn more about Priscilla and her parenting discoveries at www.childsense.com
Priscilla J. Dunstan Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
