Picky Eaters

The little girl is slowly developing her own personality and we get to witness a new side of her every now and then. Of late, she has become quite assertive especially during mealtimes.

For example, when she is hungry, she will demand for food, kicking and screaming. She knows I am preparing her meal and will call my attention by shouting. She becomes impatient and will cry if I am being slow (by her standards) in feeding her.

However, when she has had enough, she will just shut her mouth tight and turn away. These days, she has also this "bad" behavior of using her hands and hitting the spoon as soon as we are about to give it to her. Very messy, I tell you, as all the food bits fly everywhere.

Our concern however now is that sometimes she does not eat enough. She sometimes does not finish her food. There are occasions that it takes us an hour just to feed her. It would be fine if she finished her meal after spending an hour with her. But what bothers us is after spending that so much time with her, we sometimes are unsuccessful in getting her to finish it. It is very frustrating for both my husband and me.

We can't quite figure out what to do when these things happen. She used to just eat everything. Now, mealtimes are almost always a challenge for us.

I went surfing on the net today and was enlightened by an article posted on the topic of Picky Eaters on the Wholesome Toddler Food website. Did you know that toddlers going through a finicky-eating phase is considered normal? Well, surprisingly enough, the answer is yes. They go through this phase for emotional, physical and development reasons.

The article presents some reasons why toddlers often become picky eaters at this stage:

1. Little children thrive on routine and are sometimes fearful of new people or experiences.

2. Refusing food is a toddler's way of declaring her independence.

3. Food fights allow a toddler to observe cause and effect.

4. Some kids don't need much food.

I reckon numbers 2-4 apply to the little girl. It all makes sense now, which is a relief because we really were starting to worry.

To read more of this article, click here.