Introduce New Foods For Your Kids: When the nutritional requirements of children demand that their diet change, it is normal for parents to feel fear that the children will refuse food. In those cases, they must resort to tricks to introduce new foods.
Regardless of the appetite of children, at any age of their stage as infants may suffer from the so-called neophobia. This is translated as fear of the unknown or novel.
If adults often refuse to try new dishes, they will not have that feeling. For this reason, we want to talk to you about the subject. So that, having the necessary knowledge and tools, you can manage the situation in the best possible way.
Where does fear or reluctance to new foods come from?
The fear of trying new foods is not an exclusive attitude of children; we humans are rooted in what the scientists call the “dilemma of the omnivore’. According to this, we feel an unconscious fear to try new foods due to an anchored memory that associates the intake of unknown plants with serious stomach discomfort, or even death by poisoning.
It follows that what we may consider a reluctance to eat at the whim of children is actually associated with their instincts of more archaic survival. If we actually respond unconsciously with an aversion to new foods, how can we use those most basic instincts in our favor to get children to eat the new things we want to give them?
Tricks to introduce new foods
There are many tricks to introducing new foods to children’s diets. Next, we will provide a list of the recommended ideas; also the most effective.
Play with food
It is estimated that the texture and color of food are determining factors in awakening the reluctance to eat in children. If something looks doughy, lumpy, or crunchy, there is an 80% chance that children will feel disgusted and not want to eat it.
With these tricks to introduce new foods, this task can be made less traumatic for everyone.
However, if the child manages to be in direct contact with the food of the ‘rare’ texture through his hands, a feeling of familiarity will be created in his mind that will induce him to want to taste and then consume a good portion without feeling fear or repudiation.
Do not force him to eat
If a child is forced to eat food by means of punishments or by force, the most deeply rooted feelings of rejection will be created in the child. A child agrees to consume good food after he has tried it repeatedly.
This implies that you can start by offering your child a spoonful of the new food; If you do not want it, stop and after two or three days, you repeat the action. It is obvious that patients will be needed. But with the frequency of the intake, the dish will become familiar to the child.
Teach from the example
It is not enough that we tell the child to eat certain foods while noticing that we do not. Children learn and repeat actions through imitation. When the children notice that we eat a food with a lot of interest, joy and it seems that we enjoy its taste. They will immediately feel the confidence and interest to try it to confirm for themselves what it is about.
Avoid giving excess sugar-rich foods, fast foods, or fried foods
If you want to add more vegetables and veggies to your diet, avoid overeating sweets, stir-fries, or foods that include flavor enhancers, such as monosodium glutamate present in fast food. This will prevent them from feeling comfortable consuming products whose flavors are not artificially manipulated.
“If the child manages to be in direct contact with the food of the ‘weird’ texture through his hands. A feeling of familiarity will be created in his mind.”
Finally
It is important to know that if you seek to introduce new foods to your child’s diet. It is important that, at lunchtime, you can sit down at the table with him. So that the child feels that together they are experiencing the flavors of the child’s new foods.
To achieve this goal, the child must be focused on the act of eating. Therefore, turn off the television, move the toys away from your view and stimulate it without pressing it while they are at the table so that the experience is positive.
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