10 ways to help a child eat dinner

The focus of the article is on toddlers, but if you have an older child, do not leave now! Much of the information is going to be just as valuable.

Below are ten great ways to support children of any age to eat evening meals even if they are extremely fussy.

Before that though, please let me set the scene. If you have read any of my previous articles, you would know that my philosophy is that feeding is a multi-faceted undertaking, so having everything set up optimally to support better eating is important.

No one action or magic recipe is going to work as well as a whole series of intentional things that we put into place to help a child eat more widely.

Therefore, I’m a big proponent of routines, consistency, and expectations. Long-term these are what support better eating, especially for children who are a little less comfortable around food.

I wanted to focus on toddlers today as there are some specifics to their eating habits that are important to know. It is also a stage of development where feeding often does go awry. Unfortunately, it is the same stage where many of their food habits are forming so it’s great if parents can set meals up to work well.

Toddlers can seem to eat less than ‘normal’ when you are either comparing them to a baby or a…