Why these days child become a fussy eater…

Fussiness is a big problem in today’s children. I have gone through the same problem some times before. While writing this post I asked a question to my mother -in-law, mumma why theses days all mothers are found complaining about the same problem that their children doesn’t eat anything?

She started laughing and said now a days mother’s don’t have much work except taking care of their baby.

She said, in their time, they don’t had much time to look at their baby. They were so busy in taking care of the need of all the family members. That time, there used to be joint families and mothers had lots of other work including taking care of their baby. Mothers of that time never used to run behind her child for finishing the food because they don’t had that much time to spend with their kids.

But now a days, we all have a nuclear family with 2-4 members and we mother’s get enough time to spend with their naughty dear one and the top priority for all mom is their kid and their food. If our choosy kid doesn’t finish one food, we mother’s prepared the next item in few minutes and again started putting efforts for making them eat.

Food chart for 3-4 year school going kids

After her explanation, it became so clear in my mind that it is the main reason behind our child fussiness. We mother’s are responsible for our child’s fussiness about the food.

Food for 11-12 months Baby

Today mothers can be found discussing usual story that “my child eats nothing” or “my child eats like a bird” and that ”I have tried virtually everything to make him eat but all in vain”. The meal times are virtual mini-wars. One side is the valiant, adamant and determined one fighter and on the other side of the fence is the whole family with mother and grand parents indulging in all sorts of pranks and gimmicks to make him eat.

Food for 9-10 Months old Baby

What we mother do these days to make our little customer eat:

1. The child is coaxed, cajoled, forced and bribed to eat.
2. He is distracted by telling a story, showing a picture book, his favorite ad on TV or a cartoon movie. What I do , I tell you, I have downloaded baby rhymes and show to her at her fooding time.
3. The child is running around while mother is chasing him with his food plate in her hand.
4. The whole family revolves around the child with a fond hope that he will eat something.
5. The meal times become unpleasant, emotionally surcharged and stressful both for the child and family.
6. The worst scenario is father or grand mother physically restraining the child and mother literally forcing and pushing the food into the child’s mouth. He may vomit or spit after the feeding brawl.
7. The child is neither having loss of appetite nor is he on “hunger strike”. The more he is forced, the less he eats. He has a good appetite for the foods of his liking but they are often denied by the family. This is a very common phenomena seen in many child that they eats well at the neighbor’s house or at a birthday party.
8. If the child is not chubby but otherwise active, playful and wiry, then there is no need to be worry about.
9. The parents are worried because child is not gaining weight as he did during the first year of life.

Food for your 6-8 Month old Baby

It must be kept in mind that weight gain velocity slows as the child grows. During 3-12 years of age, children gain merely 2kg body weight during one year as compared to weight gain of 750-1000 g per month during first 4-6 months of life.

So try not to get frustrated when he suddenly refuses his favorite foods. Just accept that he’ll eat it again in time, and remove the plate without any comment.
Hope you get some idea why your baby is doing so.To get regular updates please subscribe to my blog and my face book page.