Picky eating feels like a no-problem until we become parents and experience the frustration of kids not finishing their food or hardly eating at all. My 5 year old’s eating habits are erratic. Sometimes he will eat a lot, sometimes almost none. He drinks water like a bird and must only take at most 3 glasses a day. Every time we visit the pediatrician, he is 3-4 pounds underweight for his age. Nonetheless, he is always energetic and so the thought of my son being malnourished does not even count.
Until our last hospital visit when the pedia warned me that my son is already in the peak of his growing years and if he doesn’t gain weight, he will not reach his maximum height. She advised that growing requires proper nutrition especially carbohydrates. Also, his recent confinement was a result of not drinking enough water.
Inadequate weight and height, and a weak immune system are signs of malnutrition or malnourishment. If like me, you suspect malnutrition in your child – here are personal strategies I devised to proactively improve his eating habits:
1. Make eating a heavy breakfast a habit – normally I give wheat bread or pancakes to my son in the mornings. Now I serve him rice with the available viand. I observed that since breakfast is the first meal of the day, the probability of my son eating more is higher. This means he can easily finish a higher calorie meal.
2. Supplement with milk – I now serve my son a glass of warm milk every breakfast. I am still breastfeeding at age 5 and I still think human milk is superior than any animal’s. Right now, I am treating prepared milk as a supplement to what I can personally offer to my son.
The pedia also recommended to stop breastfeeding but I don’t know if I agree after all the literature I read on breastfeeding until 6 years of age. Interested to hear your thoughts via comments.
3. Lunch at school – My son’s school is very near to our house and for this week, we committed to “observe” his lunch time eating habits plus engaged the teacher on how we can work together so that our son and other children can be encouraged to finish their lunches.
Before, I sometimes allow Ashton to just bring sandwich for lunch and just give him a proper lunch after school. Now I know it’s better to always have rice for his lunch then feed him a sandwich when he returns home.
4. Two snacks a day – speaking of snacks, I now give my son two snacks in the afternoon this is usually at 2pm and 4pm. I like to serve him his favorite fruit during this time plus a healthy sandwich or pastry.
5. Early dinner – if we can, dinner is served at 6.30pm now instead of 7pm to allow more time for proper digestion before bed time. There have been times when we allow our child to eat later than 7pm because he is still playing but this results to indigestion leading to vomiting before bed time.
I also mentioned in a previous post how I am now stricter on bed time. Going to bed early 8-9pm encourages growth as well as allow children to wake up earlier to eat breakfast on time. This means a bigger gap between breakfast (8am) and lunch (12nn) that will encourage proper digestion and appetite.
It’s hard to believe that malnutrition and underweight children can be common in an ordinary household even if we have the capacity to serve healthy nutritious food. Last weekend I saw a documentary of less fortunate children (Kalam by GMA News TV) and how undernourished they are, going to school with empty stomachs.
If parents like me already struggle in enforcing healthy eating habits to our children, how much harder is it for parents without the money to buy the food itself?
Not for marketing purposes but I’d like to share this video sent to me by Mondelez as part of their Joy Schools Program. Here is an example of how private sector can work with schools in feeding programs and education for both less fortunate children and their parents:
Nutrition affects the learning ability of kids and like what the teacher said, it’s difficult to teach a child with an empty stomach. The good news is we can get involved and promote feeding programs that provide:
– Daily meals of rice with nutritious viand for school children
– Food education for students i.e. how to buy produce from the market to cook healthy meals
– Children and their volunteer parents are educated on backyard farming. What’s amazing is how the produce are used as ingredients for the feeding program.
Here’s another video for inspiration:
What do you think? If you have tips on how you encourage or even trick your child to eating what he’s suppose to eat, please help us fellow moms by sharing via comments below.
