Parenting

Your weekend favorite activities with your child perhaps are cycling, swimming, fishing, and walking around the neighborhood. These will make your child become more physically active and stimulate your child sense towards the environment. Active child tends to be healthier and grow well physically and emotionally. But, there is something that all parents should aware. That is hyperactivity. It is much more different than the active ones. Hyperactivity means that your child cannot control the impulsive behavior and attitude. When you take your child to the amusement park or country fair and after he gets home, he perhaps cannot sleep due to thinking of the activities in the park. He keeps telling you the activities and happiness of being in the park. Well, it cannot be considered as hyperactivity because what he shows you is a kind of enthusiasm and excitement.

One sign that you have to be aware is when he cannot finish the tasks because he cannot concentrate well. A simple thing can distract his attention and he does not want to finish the earlier tasks. He keeps moving to the other tasks continuously. Then, when he watches cartoon shows or movie, he feels uncomfortable by moving his hands and feet. Actually short attention plan cannot be the sign of hyperactivity. It sometimes represents that your child is lack of your attention. But, when it happens many times and gets worse, you need to be aware.

Being aggressive is something common in children, especially when they get new toys or visit the interesting place for the first time. But, being aggressive without worrying about the physical danger needs direct guidance. For example, your child is busy going up stair and downstairs without any clear reasons and purpose. This can be the sign of hyperactivity. This can be dangerous especially for children below eight years old. Surely, you need to discuss with your couple what to do next. Consulting what your child activities to the experts is recommended. You may also discuss with your family or close friends in case they have the same experience with the active children.

Picky eaters are everywhere. Even the adults can be one of them. So when you feel that your children and teens are so picky, you need to be calm down. There is no need to be panic and frustrated because this is common problem. Look at your neighborhood and see how many families who have to deal with the picky eaters. You need to think more seriously when your child starts to choose the unhealthy food. For example, she keeps asking you to serve deep fried chicken, canned food, sweets, and chocolate daily. Indeed, they are fine to be consumed, but in daily basis they are not good. Surely this condition is so bad because it can affect her overall health, growth, and intelligence.

Some parents are so creative in mixing and creating new food combination and new name of food. This will be interesting for both of you. You are challenged to cook something new and your child is exciting to hear the name of the food. Purchasing cookbook is recommended, so that you have proper guidance in cooking healthier food. Some other people succeed in hiding the ingredients the children dislike into the other food, such as fruits in yogurt and grated carrot in mac and cheese.

Go online and see the variation of creating Japanese bento. It is a kind of snack box and the food is managed and designed creatively and beautifully. This is a very good example you can imitate. Indeed, it looks complicated at first but by watching the video carefully and practicing on your kitchen regularly, it will not be difficult. The problem is perhaps on the ideas because there is a chance that your child asks for other designs. Although you are busy or have to work, you have to spend your time maximally for making sure that your child eats well. What you are doing will give advantages from now and your children future.

Since your toddler can eat herself, she has the right to take whatever on her plate. Ideally, she has to clean the plate as what you do. But sometimes she does not want to clean the plate. This is fine actually because sometimes she is not hungry yet at the meal time. Snacks and drink especially milk make her stomach full. Another time, she does not want to eat because she feels strange with the foods you serve. So, she only look, touch, smell, and flip the food. In this case, you cannot judge her as the picky eater. What she is doing is observing the food and analyzing the taste and texture. New ingredients and foods should be introduced regularly because she needs to enlarge the food variety to consume. Various food intakes mean that your child will not lack of nutrition.

Another time, your child may be confused because you serve baked potato rather than mash potato. Or she rejects the crispy and crunchy deep fried chicken because it is hard to chew. She may also avoid consume broccoli just because it is dark green and looks like small tree. These examples are considered normal at the beginning of the introduction. However, you should start to worry when she does not want broccoli, carrot, spinach, lettuce, and others regularly. Perhaps it happens because your child is confused about what to eat. Introduce one by one and use some tricks. For example, you can use your child favorite cartoon characters. Show her that the character likes to eat certain foods she doesn’t like. Show that the characters are healthy and can save lots of people due to eating healthy foods. This way works in many cases.

Some children do not like avocado due to the smooth texture, while some others do not want watermelon since it is too watery. Other children hate grape since they find and chew the seeds and feel the bitter taste. Certain kinds of oranges have seeds inside and this makes the children have to be careful in peeling and eating. These examples make some children resist to those fruits. So, when you want to introduce these fruits to your child, choose the way that will make her comfortable. For example, you can help her peel and throw the seeds of oranges and grapes. Take her to the grocery on the fruit department. Let her look various fresh fruits and see many people who are purchasing them. This will increase her self confidence in consuming new ingredients and foods.

You should not be panic when you keep noticing that your child does not want to eat certain food. Analyze what foods she does not like. If you find that she rejects healthy foods and asks for the unhealthier, you need to find the solution as soon as possible before it affects her health condition. The solution is given based on the reasons why she does not want certain foods. Of course, you are forbidden to serve hot and spicy foods at the beginning of her eating experience. Chili and pepper are two seasoning that have to be avoided for the children’s food because they create food resistance.

In preparing the food for your child, make sure you cut the vegetables and meat in smaller shape. This will ease her to put the food on her mouth and avoid choking hazard. Bigger sized vegetables are allowed if you want to make them as finger foods. Having bad experience during eating creates resistance in eating certain foods. So, basically picky eater is not about the types of food but the way you cook and serve to your child. Another thing you need to evaluate is your eating habit. Do you eat various foods or not? Do you like certain foods and avoid the others or not? Or do you like junk food more than fresh food? By answering these questions, you will get the answer why you have to deal with the picky eater. It is just because you are the picky eater also.

You are the role model of your child. If you do not like green vegetables and do not eat these vegetables in front of your child, she will never eat them also although you have tried hard to convince her how delicious and healthy they are. Your child will look at you and imitate the way you eat. If this is the reason you need to deal, you have no more choice except starting to eat more vegetables, healthier foods, and more variety of foods. If you do this in front of your child, she will understand and believe that broccoli or carrot is delicious, lettuce and peas are the same yummy, and cabbage and bean sprout are tasteful. Trust yourself that you can do this not just as a role model of your child but also for your overall personal health.

Most families will be very happy and cannot wait longer for the breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. They are the time the family members can gather and share laugh and happiness. Sometimes good weekend ideas appear during meal time. Unfortunately, this happiness may turn to disaster when there is a toddler or child in a family who doesn’t really like the menu served although the dishes are considered as healthy food. This can be problem if she continues dislike the healthier ones and want to get the unhealthy. If this is your current situation, you are not alone. There are a lot of toddlers, children, teens, and even the adults who are considered as the picky eaters. Look at your big family and you will find the picky eaters easily.

In handling picky eater child, you need to know the sources or reasons why she becomes like that. In many cases, avoiding certain foods happens because the children take too much snacks or drinks before the meal time. It means they are not hungry due to the snacks. So, look at the snacking time you are applied to your child. A bottle of chocolate milk just half an hour before dinner will make your child refuse to clean the plate. If you insist to ask her clean her plate, it means you are educating your children to overeating. Of course, this is not good. The important point in introducing good eating habit is making sure that your child is able to feel what it is called as hungry and full. Therefore, you should avoid giving any snacks or drink too much before the meal time.

Another reason why your child becomes the picky eater is difficulty in chewing certain kinds of food. When she was about nine months, she started to eat textured food. However, the process sometimes fails, so that when she was fifteen months she kept eating smooth textured porridge. This situation will affect the following years to come. She does not like textured food because she feels difficult to chew. Vegetables like broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, and asparagus are not considered as the soft ones. So, your child will choose the soft vegetables like spinach and lettuce. She may not eat bacon and beef steak also although they are cooked done. But beef burger may be consumed because it is softer. By knowing the reasons, you will able to choose the treatment for your picky eater child.