Raising Happy Eaters At Any Age With Solid Starts

Whether you’re introducing your baby to solids or getting your toddler to try new foods, feeding little ones is a lot of work! And while salad’s usually a hard sell, that doesn’t mean you’re relegated to chicken nuggets and noodles for every meal, or that every bite you offer your baby has to be bland.

With the feeding specialists from Solid Starts, find tips on how to expose little ones to new flavors and get them excited to eat, along with easy-to-wash outfits and bibs for the ensuing (yet adorable) mess.

 

 

Starting Baby On Solids

1. Eat together. Babies who are part of family meals tend to have more fun, and are more engaged during mealtime. 

2. Eat the same food as your baby at the same time, even if that’s just a nibble for you.

3. Let baby get messy! Mess is inevitable and may lead to more joyful mealtimes later on.

4. Manage your expectations. It takes time and many mistakes to master the skills required for eating. Be patient. Focus on building the skills needed to eat, not how much.

5. Expect that your baby is capable of learning to enjoy all flavors and textures of foods you eat.

 

 

Getting Toddlers Interested In New Foods 

1. Feed you, feed a stuffed animal 

Allow the child to feed you a bite of new food and feed a bite to their favorite stuffed animal. This helps the child touch and explore the food with no pressure to eat it. Remember: Engaging with the food is the first step to eating it.

2. Use a fun new utensil 

Most toddlers love the novelty of a new and silly utensil. Bring a measuring spoon, a parent-size utensil, tongs, or chopsticks, and let the child choose and use a new utensil to pick up or serve their food.

3. Questions 

Ask the child anything and everything about the food on their plate. 

• Ask them to find food of a particular color. 

• Ask them to find certain shapes. 

• Ask the child to compare two items on their plate—Which is bigger? Smaller? Crunchier? 

4. Use a dip 

Consider your goals when selecting a dip for any given meal or snack. 

• If the goal is simply to help the child lower their resistance to eating vegetables, then use any dip the child loves and will eat. 

• It’s okay if the vegetable acts as nothing more than a vehicle for the dip. 

• The dips encourage the child to pick up the vegetables, smell them at close range, and put them in their mouth—all perfect segue to one day eating those vegetables. 

Need some dip ideas? Yogurt (sweetened or plain), any nut butter, ketchup, ranch, olive oil, guacamole, cream cheese.

5. Cook together 

Cook and prepare a meal together, which allows a child to explore and touch food without the pressure or expectation to eat. Have the child help wash and prepare veggies. Ask them to smash potatoes or mix seasonings together. As the child helps, occasionally pick out a bite and taste it so they see the action as an option. Don’t ask them to try or taste the food, but know that if they watch you do it, they might join in.

 

Managing Toddlers At The Table

1. Offer choices with loving boundaries. 

Toddlers love choices, and choices help calm most situations. Let them choose between two cups or plates, or whether they serve themselves or you serve. Similarly, serving small portions of 3-5 food items at each meal empowers the child to choose what they eat and often leads to a more enjoyable meal.

2. Serve the same meal to everyone in the family. 

Cooking and serving one meal for everyone at the table is better for you and better for the child. Research shows that when toddlers consistently receive the same food the rest of the family is eating, the child tends to be more open to exploring new foods and less picky. 

3. Expect meltdowns.

No matter how empathetic you are or how many choices you give, toddlers struggle with emotional regulation. Crying and screaming will just happen—whether hearing “no,” or if you peeled the banana wrong. Be loving and empathetic and acknowledge their disappointment: “You didn’t want green beans on your plate… That’s not what you expected…” (But, don’t move the green beans off the plate.) 

4. Encourage exploration and let go of consumption. 

Getting a toddler to taste new foods or eat what’s served is often an uphill battle. Instead, focus on their strengths: curiosity. Encourage food exploration rather than eating. The more they explore a food, the more likely they’ll decide to taste it. 

5. Keep your cool and feign indifference. 

Toddler years are all about testing boundaries, pushing limits, and exploring. This is normal and part of learning. Focus on keeping your cool and channeling calm confidence as you teach the child about new things.