Dealing with Picky Eating

Follow set meal and snack time schedule

Help children to learn the consequences of not eating and regulate their hunger levels
Decide on a time range when each meal will be served daily.
There should be two to four hours in-between each meal or snack.
You can follow this schedule for two weeks and reassess the programme and your progress accordingly.

Adjust the times that you give snacks to ensure your child is not snacking too close to mealtimes. This could help regulate your child’s hunger for meals and teach them that access to food may be limited, so if they miss a meal they might feel hungry. At the end of the meal, take your child’s plate away. If they have not eaten much, support them to wait until the next mealtime or scheduled snack time. Alternatively, you can leave their plate on the side and they can help themselves from it later; but resist the temptation to prepare a different meal for them.
While you should try to establish set meal and snack times, also give some limited control to your child. A choice between a maximum of two types of foods/meals helps with the power struggle, which can occur with children (especially toddlers). More choice than this can be overwhelming for both your child and you!