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Tips To feed right and Increase Your Child’s Appetite

Today, one concern we all moms discuss the most is How to feed their fussy eaters or How to increase a child’s appetite. The kids these days aren’t interested in food or we can say they are distracted much with the “Screens”. Their appetite is gone for a toss. So, how can we make things better when it comes to healthy eating. Increasing a child’s appetite can be tricky, especially if they find the food unappealing or they are struggling to eat on their own. However, don’t stress there are ways to help them eat right and eat better.

Here are some suggestions for boosting healthy eating habit and increase a child’s appetite :

 

1) Drink water early morning

Even before offering them milk or breakfast, Offer them water. Having water first thing in the morning help not only in cleaning their intestine but also helping in building the right appetite.

Eating right and buidling appetite in children

2) Compulsory healthy breakfast

A healthy breakfast boosts metabolism after the night‘s fast and gets the body ready to face the day. Hence, eating a healthy balanced breakfast is bound to help increase your child ‘s appetite.

To help them eat their first meal of the day ensure that you too have your breakfast along with a cup of milk or tea. Basically, ensure that breakfast is one compulsory meal in your house. If your child is going to school, ensuring their tummy is full is really important to give them the right head start of the day.

 

3) Feed frequently

It is observed that kids who fuss a lot over food, are the ones who are force-fed. Also, chances are they may not be hungry enough due to lack of physical activity or low appetite.

Try to add a few fun activities in their day so that they have enough physical activities and offer them healthy food/snacks every couple of hours. They may be eating their standard three meals. But that may not be boosting their digestive system enough, to make them feel hungry again. Regular healthy balanced meals in small portion every 2-3 hours will help build their metabolism.

healthy snack fox nut, makhana
Fox nut Cutlets

4) Snacks are meals too

We often offer junk food like cookie, chips, candies, chocolate etc for snacks. But if you want your child to have a better eating habit and appetite offer snacks as good as meals.

Instead of a cookie, you may offer them a vegetable sandwich. Instead of chips, offer cereal, dry roasted nuts like fox-nuts, almonds, raisins, yoghurt, milkshake etc.  

eat Dates in summer, date bread, shake
Date Milkshake

5) Never substitute milk with a meal

It is observed that one of the reasons for low appetite in kids is a problem called ‘too much milk’. When kids have milk as fillers, it tends to kill their appetite for the next meal. So keep their milk intake in a limit.

Also to add dairy in their meals in forms like cheese, yoghurt, or cream. You may also include other calcium-rich cereals in their diet like Ragi

Health benefits of Amaranath
Amaranath patties

6) Offer favourite foods

Kids will be kids, we can’t force them to eat Dal, Rice, Roti Sabzi for each meal. The very first sight of food is the first problem we need to tackle. Make it interesting, colourful with some favourites of your child.

You may try offering his/her favourite foods initially. Once their metabolism is running, Healthy food can follow. We have to ensure that our little one starts accepting the very idea of eating.

Also Read: How I feed by Fussy eater

7) Offer small bite-size food items

Small bites of food would build metabolism, which in turn would improve their appetite. Offer smaller bites of and finely chop vegetables to your child. Slowly, their want for food will increase. One can continue offering small bites until they start self-feeding and decide their own bite-size themselves.

tuggunmommy
Stuff paratha with curd

8) Avoid oily food

Our traditional Indian parents have a tendency of offering high calorie ‘ghee-loaded’ food to children. Such fatty foods may help them gain weight but they make them feel full for longer and kill their appetite for the next meal. Going easy on less fatty products and including more of dairy products would help.

 

9) Play more

We all know that involving in any physical activity like playing any sports or exercising would help better.

Instead of offering them a screen, play with them or let them go out with friends and enjoy some physical activities. If you see that your child isn’t eating or has a declining appetite, increase playtime. You will definitely see that hunger coming back! And when they are hungry they won’t fuss much about food. As a parent ensure you fill their plate with right nutrients.

Yoghurt or curd: What's the Difference?
Strawberry Flavored Yoghurt

10) Don’t skip dessert

kids love sweet, in fact, we all love our desserts. including a dessert in their mealtime, will have something they look forward too. 

You may try some fruit-based desserts which would be healthy yet help in building an appetite. They would work towards improving their digestion and boost their metabolism. It is also seen that colourful fruit-based desserts attract children to finish their meals faster.

how to feed a child right and increase apptite

Have you got more ideas/tips that helped your feeding your fussy eating child or how to Increase a Child’s appetite? Share your suggestion in the ‘Comment’ section below. Let’s help each other

how to Increase a Child’s appetite

“This blog is a part of the #WeeklyBlogHop hosted by Alpana www.mothersgurukul.com and Neha Sharma  www.growingwithnemit.com. I would like to thank Judy (www.theotherbraininc.com) for introducing me to this blog hop and would further like to introduce Priyal (www.parilifestyle.com) to share her take on the prompt.

 

30 thoughts on “Tips To feed right and Increase Your Child’s Appetite

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    • Thank you

      Reply
  • Your article is quite elaborate and covers almost all the major concerns of mothers out there. I’m sure they’ll find it useful!

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    • Thank you!!

      Reply
  • These are some wonderful tips to help kids with their appetite and eat right. We would often skip on dessert, but looks like we should let them enjoy it as much:)

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    • Oh yes!! Healthy fruity dessert bring so much joy in food. Do try

      Reply
  • Khushboo

    These are some great and helpful tips for kids to eat right and healthy.

    Reply
  • Jhilmil

    Breakfast is the way to start the day for kids and adults . As parents we must start following strictly and kids will surely copy us .

    Reply
  • Feeding right is so important for kids. The growing ages lays the foundation for later years and hence they need to get the right nutrients.These are some great ideas to get it right. Drinking water first thing in the morning and physical activity are so important.

    Reply
    • Glad you liked it. Thanks for reading

      Reply
  • Yes, you have chalked out the plan so well. I feel all new moms should read this post once.

    Utpal Khot

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    • Thank you so much.

      Reply
  • These tips are so apt for mothers to increase their kids appetite in the right way

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  • A informative post for parents, a small changes can make huge different, will try to incoperate in my kid

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    • Oh yes! Small little things counts a lot. Like drinking water first thing in the morning or that little fruity desserts. Do try

      Reply
  • Such good tips to make kids eat right and we’ll. I agree that food that looks good and is served in right portions works for them.

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    • Yes Varsh, looks are so important for kids these days 🙂

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  • I have noticed sometimes my aunt substituting milk for meal when my lil cousin is not in the mood to eat. I must share this with her!

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    • Yes please, do spread the word. Thank you for reading 🙂

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  • Very useful ideas. For the right growth, it is very important what they are eating and when they are eating?

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    • True that!

      Reply
  • Such an amazing post . It is very helpful for new mammas there ! I will share it with them

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    • That is so sweet of you. Thank you so much

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  • thanks for informative tips. Common mistake we make is substituting milk with a meal. My mom too say the small small healthy snacks also a good option.

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  • Good one Gunjan. In my family few kids often took too much milk and cried to skip meals. Later, doctors suggested to reduce milk to optimum. Too much milk might hurdle digestion for kids too. I’m glad to see we practice your suggestions at home.

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    • Yes in fact my son vomitted often if he had milk prior to any meal.

      Reply
  • Noor Anand Chawla

    Nice work Gunjan.. these are all tips I can stand by as a mother myself.

    Reply

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