6 tricks to make your toddler sit during Mealtime
If your kids are super active like mine, I can understand your frustration dear mommy. I also struggle to keep my kids at the table during meal times. I also have kids who flee the table when dinner is served and they barely eat whatever I cook. If you are reading this, I am sure you are definitely looking for a solid solution that helps your toddler sit during mealtimes, right? Don’t worry, I have got you covered.
All of us want our kids to develop healthy eating routine and to discipline them but what to do what even sitting at the table is like world war III. Being a mom of two kids, one preschooler and one toddler, I am here to give you some practical advice that will work for you and your kids, trust me. So here are few tips from the bottom of my heart to make your toddler sit during mealtimes, and I apply those to my kids.
1.Fix your eating schedule
You may be thinking that how can you do that? But yes, I am asking you to fix a time for lunch or dinner, make a routine and follow it everyday. Our kids minds work with schedules. They work well with routines that are already set for them. When your eating time is fixed, your kids will expect same thing everyday and they wont fight the eating time.
2.No snacking before Mealtime
This one is the most important one because if your kid is snacking all day, eating cookies and biscuits and cheerios, how will they get hungry and eat a meal? Quite logical, right? So make a rule that there will be no snacks available at least 2-3hours before the lunch or dinner. This works wonders.
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3.Engage your kids in Meal cooking/preparation
I often ask my son if he wanna help me cook the dinner or help me set the table. He usually loves to do that and whenever he does, luckily, he loves to eat that dinner also. If your kid is messy, give him a vegetable and a butter knife or measuring cups or anything you think your kid will love. This has many benefits in my opinion. You will get to spend quality time with your kids and they will learn that meal cooking is a tough task. Most probably, they will eat the dinner peacefully too, as according to them, they were helping so now its time for reward, that is the meal. Kinda tricky, but this works too ?
4. Make sure your kid is comfortable sitting at the table
If your kid doesn’t like to sit on the chair, did u ever think that maybe this is the issue with the chair, not with your kiddo? Well, I also came to know about that recently that if your kid isn’t comfortable, he won’t sit. A high chair, a booster seat and related stuff is specifically designed for kids to sit properly during meal times so its not a bad idea to invest in buying something that will help your kids in sitting during mealtime.
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5.Introduce fun placemats or fun activities on the table
I do this too often because my kids love coloring. When they don’t sit still, I give them a paper and a pencil or colors and they do coloring and drawing along with eating. Of course, this is not my daily routine but it’s a trick you can try in the beginning and later get your kids fun placemats of their favorite cartoon characters. They will love to sit on the table. Try this !
6. Try to connect with your kids during meals
This one is a bit different and you must be thinking how it will help. So let me explain before you think this supertiredmom is crazy? well, I believe that every time when you are with your kids, you should try to create and maintain a connection with them. It can be about anything. About their day at school, about their friends, about the meal you are eating. You can talk about carrots when you are eating carrots and encourage them to talk more and tell them the benefits of eating carrots. There are millions of ways to connect with your kid, I will make a separate post about it soon.?
So these are the compiled ways to make sure your kids sit during meals. If you have any suggestions, you are more than welcome to share with me and let me know what you think of this blog post ?
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Saima Nadeem
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