Strategies for Mothers to Tackle Picky Eaters

A mother feeds her child from the moment the child is born. Thus starts her greatest responsibility and her  greatest worry.

To pick up from my previous article where I tried to play devil’s advocate for a picky eater, this one underlines some strategies for the harried mother.

1. Take a step back from the constant worry of trying to feed the child and observe successes in other fields like a  a satisfying performance academically or a well rounded individual who tries to implement values that you have instilled. If those are present then you are succeeding in your job as a mother. Feeding your picky child is just one area where you need some experimentation.
   

2. Avoid using sentences like “I’ll be  very unhappy if you don’t finish your food” or “mommy’s not talking to you because you trouble her to eat your food” That burden is too much for the little (or for that matter an older) child to bear. Do not link your happiness to the food eaten.
   

3. Protect your child’s eating habits. That should not be a topic of conversation. Pickiness can be traumatic for a mum, but this is one hardship she needs to grin and bear and go one step further and
   

4. Advocate for the child. The biggest support for a child is the mother. Defend their picky habits when well-meaning friends or relatives try to advise the child. It stresses a child to have random people comment on their most basic habit.
   

5. Once you have isolated this issue to be just between you and your child, there will be greater trust and willingness to accept from the child’s side when they realise how their mother stands up for them. Thats when you can lay down the law. Negotiable and Non-negotiable foods. Enforce that rule firmly with patience and no melodrama.
   

6. Once spelt out, a rule has to be enforced every time without ambiguity.
   

7. Through all this it is very important to rule out any nutritional issues which lead to pickiness such as lactose intolerance, hypersensitivity to certain foods, allergies to certain proteins, a zinc deficiency etc. Inspired by and dedicated to some of my dearest friends, who, driven by love are trying to make the best of a difficult situation.