Let Your Child Eat With a Choice of Food
Every time we go to the house of my friend Anna, she puts a plate of fruit for the children. Plums, Asian pears, melons. My daughter is always devouring piece by piece. However, whenever I feed my baby the same fruit at home, she is rarely interested in him. What’s the difference? I figured it must be Anna’s cute little food choice.
Anna buys hers in a Korean store. You can get them from Daiso ‘s bento supply section or Amazon . They are just small plastic pickaxes decorated with bunny heads, ambulances, or google eyes . You add one morsel to each bite of food – be it fruit, jicama slices, or mini meatballs – and let the kids feed themselves with their little fingers. It looks like a lot of work, but young children don’t eat that much. I would say that the procedure takes an additional 30 seconds. (To wash them, place them in a cup of water and a little dish soap and shake them.)
If you don’t want to buy food, old toothpicks can also encourage kids to try different foods. Jennifer Anderson, nutritionist and founder of the wonderful resource Children Eat in Color, about the “magic” of toothpicks, writes on her blog about the “magic” of toothpicks:
As soon as you calm down, when your little one fiddles with himself several times (they usually do this no more than a few times), pull out the toothpick. You can use a regular toothpick or a party toothpick. It doesn’t matter anyway. Your child will want to inject something as soon as he has it. Make sure you give them safe food (without choking). And let them go for it.
Anderson suggests giving your child toothpicks after 18 months, longer cocktail toothpicks after age 2, and food rations after age 3. Incorporate choices into your vegetarian happy hour and watch the carrot, pepper, and broccoli slices fade away.