Child Development Articles

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Playing with Foods

By September 18, 2011 Noren or commonly known as Shin-chan, a Japanese popular cartoon, turns to 18 months and 3 weeks. His height was 85 cm and weight was 12 kg while he was measured last month. Noren is big, he is actually comparable to other children in his age.

He starts to eat foods himself. He cries for eating foods himself. I was happy at the first time when I learned that my little son started to eat independently and I encouraged him to eat by himself. A few minutes later, he spread rice all over the place. In fact, he was striving to put the spoon into is little mouth. He was difficult to demand his little hands to touch the spoon and putting foods into his mouth. I was not upset but I laughed. I told myself that my little son is starting to learn. He will learn about how to use the spoon quickly.

Unfortunately, he failed to put the spoon into his mouth. One reason that I observed was not because of difficulty in demanding his hands to use the spoon, but it was his playfulness. He likes playing with foods which sometimes upsetting me. I wonder how to stop my child from playing with foods. If I took the foods from him immediately, he would cry out loud. One not-good attitude of Noren is that if we immediately stop him from doing something, he would be stubborn and keep doing things we do not want him to do. When he was with me, I tried to explain to him and insist him from stop playing with foods. I used only soft words with him. Noren understand a lot of the language though he could not speak. After he understood my soft insisting, he stopped playing it. But, it was for short time. So, what can I do next? Shout at him? force him to stop playing? or just simply taking him away from where he sat?

Fortunately, I came up with one interesting article about ‘How to stop your child from playing foods’. I read it with interest and I think it is worth sharing with all my friends who experienced or will experience similar issue. Please read the article below and if you are interested, you can register to be the member of the group via  http://www.babycenter.com

The article is written by Patricia Henderson Shimm, parent educator and author
http://www.babycenter.com 
It may be difficult to stop your child from fiddling with her food overnight, but how you respond when she does can gradually bring about change in her behavior. Although it may be tempting to scold her for playing at the table, try not to. Instead, when you sit down for a meal, enjoy your food and see whether she follows suit. When she starts building forts with her mashed potatoes or castles with her broccoli, calmly say, “Oh, I see you’re finished eating,” and take her plate away. You can also remind her that food is not for playing but for eating. The point is to avoid turning mealtime into a battleground or into a manners lesson in which you constantly have to monitor what she’s doing with her food. You concentrate on your food and assume she’s doing the same with hers. If you’re worried that she’ll starve, try not to show it, and take heart: Kids will eat when they’re hungry, especially active 2-year-olds who need an endless energy supply to fuel their growing minds and bodies.

If she seems uninterested in what you’ve prepared for her, avoid asking what she’d like to eat instead. Turning your kitchen into a restaurant where your child can order what she wants for breakfast, lunch, and dinner can be disastrous. If you operate on the assumption that everyone is eating what’s on the evening’s menu, she’ll soon learn to eat what you make.

Your child may also be playing with her food because she’s not hungry. To remedy this, don’t let her snack for at least an hour before meals so she will have the appetite to eat when it’s time. She may also be getting bored, so keep mealtimes to a realistic timetable. Your toddler really can’t be expected to sit still for more than 15 minutes at a time, even if you’ve served her absolute favorite dish. Include her in conversations by asking about her day and make the best of your time together as a family, then let her run and play while the rest of the family finishes their meal.

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