How to correct children's picky eating?

Children with picky eating habits can eat a lot of the food they like, but won't eat a single bite of the food they don't like. Picky eating is very beneficial to the growth and development of children. Frequent picky eating can cause children to suffer from malnutrition, decreased resistance, anemia and other symptoms. For children who only like to eat meat and don't like fruits and vegetables, the lack of vitamins can cause severe constipation. Parents must correct their children's picky eating problems in a timely manner.

Correction method 1. Zinc supplementation: Appropriate zinc supplementation can help improve children's picky eating, because one of the components of taste buds in saliva is zinc. When zinc is deficient, it will affect the function of taste and taste buds and reduce the taste function. Therefore, children can eat more zinc-rich foods such as oysters and walnuts.

Correction method 2. Avoid strenuous exercise before eating: Children have no appetite right after strenuous exercise. If they eat at this time, they will inevitably be picky. In the long run, they will easily develop bad habits of being picky eaters.

Correction method 3. Encourage children to do pre-meal service: Children are naturally interested in the preparation work before meals. Parents can take advantage of their curious and active nature and let them help set the tables and chairs, serve dishes, and distribute bowls and chopsticks. They can even let them help wash vegetables and get condiments when cooking. Children will naturally be very excited when they see the fruits of their own labor.

Correction method 4. Give children the opportunity to eat independently: Children aged two or three will have the desire to eat independently. Parents must not ignore this psychological need of their children for fear that they do not eat enough or that they will dirty their clothes or the floor, which will cause the children to lose interest in food. Of course, when parents are training their children to eat independently, they should pay attention to the abilities of children of different ages. For younger children, the feeding practice period should not be too long. Generally speaking, a two or three-year-old child may become tired and unwilling to eat after five minutes of eating with a spoon. If the parents think that the child does not eat enough, they can feed him again to make sure he is full and well fed; it is best not to force him to continue practicing, otherwise it may also lead to picky eating and refusal to eat.

Every kind of food has its own unique nutrition and function for our body. Being too picky about food will not only affect the normal development of children, but also affect their psychological development and have a great impact on their personality. We should consciously expand our children's food circle and not eat the food they like every day.