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Vegetarian Journal
Excerpts
January/February 1997
Volume XVI, Number 1
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Air-atarians: What to Do When Your Toddler Won't Eat!
By Carol Coughlin, R.D.
"My child nursed like crazy as an infant, ate all the baby food I ever
offered her, but now practically lives on air! How can I get her to eat?"
Ahh, another "Air-atarian." Those toddlers who seem to eat so little it
seems as if they are living on air. Can you get them to eat more? Should
you get them to eat more? This can be a time of concern and frustration
for parents.
Growth Rates
Children grow two to three times faster as infants than as toddlers. Therefore,
toddlers will eat less per pound than babies. Don't let the growth charts
scare you. The 25th percentile means that about 25 percent of children
are at or below this line. Ask your pediatrician if your child is off from
the growth pattern she set as an infant. A sudden drop from the 75th to
the 25th percentile is of concern. But if your child has steadily moved
along at the 25th percentile, then that is probably her or his natural
growth pattern.
Kids have little stomachs. Don't expect a toddler to eat an adult portion.
The rule of thumb is one tablespoon of food per year of age. So if your
two-year-old eats one tablespoon of peas, then she or he ate half a serving.
A serving of a protein food is one ounce. And you should count one half
of a slice of bread as a serving. Little stomachs can fill up fast on high
fiber foods. It is okay to serve some refined grains. Foods like nut butters,
avocados, and tofu give more concentrated calories without overfilling
small stomachs.
You Can Lead Them to the Table...
Children this age are learning to make decisions and become more independent.
They develop preferences as to what toy animal to sleep with, what clothes
to wear, and what music to listen to. Unfortunately, this includes food.
My advice is to go with the flow. No child ever voluntarily starved himself
to death. He or she will eat when hungry.
Your job as a parent is to determine: What food comes in the house, where
food is served, and when food is served.
Your child decides: Whether or not to eat the food and how much to eat.
Nobody
out-stubborns a toddler. Don't get into a power struggle over food. Better
for your child to go two weeks without eating a vegetable than to damage
your relationship with your child, and your child's relationship with food
by forcing her or him to eat. This only reinforces dislikes and makes mealtime
unpleasant for everyone.
Clean House
This is a critical time to be sure that all the food in the house is healthy.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Any savvy four-year-old will refuse spinach
if she can hold out for a piece of pie. Why eat lunch when there is a dish
full of candy in the living room? If everything in the house is healthy,
then you can honestly say, "You can have anything you want."
If you do not want your child to eat it, then why buy it? A cookie jar
on the counter is like a sign hanging around your neck that says, "Nag
me for a cookie 30 times a day." If your children see a frozen dessert
when you open the freezer to get the green beans, guess what they will
ask for? By ridding the house of less nutritious foods, you allow the healthy
food you want them to eat to get center stage.
Set a Good Example
Do you snack on cookies or fruit? Do you drink water and juice or coffee
and soda? If you eat your 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day,
your child will learn to do that also.
"You Don't Like That!"
If you tell children they do not like something they will believe it. Tell
them they are picky and they will be. Many times kids will eat foods at
a restaurant or at a friend's house that they refused at home. Encourage
them to try foods and see if they like them.
Catch Them When They Are Hungry
Children are occasionally too tired to eat. They might be better off eating
dinner after a nap. Some kids do need time to wake up a bit before eating
breakfast. If your child seems very hungry at 3 p.m. and less hungry at
dinner, then move his dinner to the afternoon and he or she can have a
snack when the adults eat dinner.
Have trouble getting them to the table? Get rid of distractions by shutting
off the TV and the radio. Give them a one minute notice so they can wind
down their activity and know what is coming next. Or bring the table to
them. A picnic on the floor might be fun. Set out tropical fruits that
your child can discover on her safari in the jungle. This sure beats trying
to bring her back from another continent for a meal and a struggle.
If a food is refused, serve it again. A child may have tossed the green
beans on the floor to see if gravity was still working. There are so many
reasons for a kid to refuse a food: he is tired, he is teething, he heard
a truck go down the street, or he is coming down with a bad cold. Don't
necessarily scratch that food off your list forever. Think about the foods
you liked as a child. Now look at what you eat now. Tastes change. So just
because she spit it out at age 2 does not mean she won't ask for seconds
at age 4.
Sneaky Parent Tricks
Out of sight is out of mind. Hide unpopular foods. Puree the lentils in
the spaghetti sauce. Mix some carrot juice in the orange juice. Put wheat
germ and pumpkin in the pancakes. Who would have guessed there were turnips
in the mashed potatoes?
Feast and Famine
Children naturally vary their food intake from day to day, just as they
vary their activity. Therefore, evaluate your child's eating by looking
at a week or two of meals, not just one day. Try keeping a food diary of
everything eaten--and I mean one bite of your sandwich, one cracker in the
car, six grapes at Grandma's, etc. It is hard to remember that Brittany
ate everything not nailed down all last week when she has refused nearly
everything you offered for the past two days. When you add it all up you
might just find that your "air-atarian" is eating pretty close to the well
balanced vegetarian diet that you had been hoping for all along.
The Vegetarian Journal published here is not the
complete issue, but these are excerpts from the published
magazine. Anyone wanting to see everything should subscribe to the magazine.
Thanks to volunteer Jeanie Freeman for
converting this article to HTML
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� 1996-
The Vegetarian Resource Group
PO Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203
(410) 366-8343 Email: [email protected]
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Last Updated
September 20, 1997
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