Meal times don't have screen times

Making your child eat food is not an easy task. Many of you struggle every day and most of you settle down on showing Mobile or tv to your kids while eating.

It’s the easiest way. Isn’t it? Everyone has done it and we all know that it’s not a healthy habit. While the child is eating he is distracted enough to gobble up their food and sometimes we also feel to have some quiet time. Well in a long run idea is couldn’t be more wrong.

Children are often quite fussy when it comes to eating. Parents constantly find it difficult to feed healthy food. We all are well aware that screen time during eating is not good for health.

Let’s find out some solutions to tackle these concerns.

• Children follow the example of their parents. I hope you agree with me. Better to check on our eating pattern.?When you model the same behaviour and make mealtime fun for the child, it will work wonders!
• Make a change to eat at the table away from the TV. It may take 6-7 weeks to get into the routine.
• Make meal time interesting. Give them variety of food.
• ?Get them involved in preparation. If your kids are too young then involve them in role-play. Where they pretend to wash, cut, cook, set table and eat food. This way they will understand process of cooking and understand why we cook.
• Every time your child eats food without watching TV/mobile give some simple rewards like high five, clap for child, sing his/her favourite rhyme etc. Don’t get involved in expensive rewards.
• Engage your child in stories, rhymes during meal time.
• ?Make meal time exciting like turn a piece of chapati/dosa into butterfly, rice into a mountain, curd rice as snow, water as river and what not. This will not only make meal time exciting but will enhance imagination and thinking of your child.

It’s not impossible to get your child to eat without mobile phones and TV. It takes some efforts and patience. Keep practicing and don’t give up and trust me it will be worth the effort.

By Prachi, Centre Head of NXT, Bangalore