As your little one is introduced to solid foods, you will notice that he develops this strong desire of feeding himself. He will always be keen to put food into his mouth before you make an effort to feed him the same.

It comes as no surprise when kids stand a bit opinionated about what food they will have and what not. Mothers often have to face this feeding problem with kids. At times they like a certain food type and suddenly they turn their minds to something different. Dealing with this toddler behaviour is surely tiring.

Steps Mothers Can Take
You will have to understand this very fact that your child can’t make healthy choices on his own and forcing is never the ideal solution. You should in fact encourage him to engage in healthy eating and must make an effort to provide him a healthy structure too, but all this should be done without any kind of forcing. Serve him the quantity which he is okay with, because your child knows when his stomach is full. Don’t enforce the ‘finish whatever is served on your plate’ rule.

It might happen that on some days your child may not eat the healthy food as prepared or offered. However, instead of worrying over that you must analyze what all he had in his diet in the week before. As long as you are meeting with his dietary needs as per his age, you certainly don’t have to worry. It’s absolutely fine to feed your child in smaller but regular intervals.

Effective Ways to Tackle Feeding Problem in Kids 
It won’t be as easy as saying; you will surely have to make some efforts. But if you have these steps by your sides, things would get a lot easier.

1. Provide your child with a variety of healthy food choices and let him feed himself as this gives him to experience little freedom when it comes to eating food.

2. Never use sweets as rewards for managing your child’s meal time. Bargaining or threatening of any sort is only going to result into power struggle. Instead of saying, ‘You will get an extra cookie if you finish the soup’ you should engage your child in some healthy talks about the soup, tell him about the many benefits it gives him and how his body would become stronger if he intakes it.

3. Always encourage family meals as much as possible. This leaves a good impression on your toddler. Looking at everyone in the family making healthy food choices, he too will follow suit.

4. Kids would certainly take time to accept a new taste, so be patient. Don’t remove any item just because your child refused to have it at first. If he turns away from the peas you have cooked so wonderfully, try and include them in his diet on some other day. And if possible, bring some change in the cooking mode so as to alter the taste. Keep repeating it unless your child picks up the taste of it.

5. Always ensure that you guard the liquid intake. If your child is drinking too much of milk or juice, his hunger would cut down and he may not be able to get the needed nutrients from the healthy meal he was supposed to eat. Limit juice intake to 1/2 to 3/4 cup a day, and for babies under age one, no juice is to be given.

When Should You Give Your Child Extra Vitamins?
As per American Academy of Paediatrics, if your toddler is eating variety of foods, he doesn’t need a dose of multivitamins. It’s needed only if your little one doesn’t eat meat, fish, iron-fortified cereal, or dark and green leafy vegetables. Your child’s health care provider will tell you whether or not your child is in need of multivitamins.

But do remember that your child will for sure need good amount of vitamin D as it aids the body in absorbing calcium and phosphorus, which contribute in building the bones. You can give him food products rich in Vitamin D or get some substitutes.

Managing feeding problem in kids can be less troublesome if you can take care of his diet structure and daily nutrient needs.