Tips for mealtimes

Read from http://parenthots.com/advertorials/Practical-information-and-tips-for-mealtimes.aspx and will try out the following tips:-

1 - Plan regular mealtimes

2 - Make mealtimes fun;
* by serving food in interesting shapes/sizes
* decorating plates
* by doing food presentations like "JH has got fish, carrots, and brocollis in her bowl, they will make her grow bigger and stronger! Let's eat!"

3 - Get them involved;
* At the supermarket, ask them to spot easily recognisable items such as tomatoes or carrots, then congratulate them when they get it right. Remind them that the ingredient they’re eating is one they cleverly found in the supermarket.
* they can watch and listen to you from their highchair as you peel and chop ingredients and talk them through preparing the meal.

4 - Treat your toddler like an individual
* Even though they’re little, your toddler will have already developed personal tastes about how they like to have their meals served.
• You can also give your toddler their favourite cutlery, plate and mug so they’re more likely to look forward to sitting down for a meal.

Challenging mealtimes

I am slowly replacing Jia Huey's daily porridge with rice recently. It has been quite a challenging start to get Jia Huey familiarised with the effort to chew, compared to the easy-to-swallow porridge.

Since the beginning, I have been patiently feeding Jia Huey at every mealtime, side by side, telling stories and even let her watch her favourite cartoon's DVD as exchange. Of course I know, feeding in front of the tv is not a healthy habit. But I would give in if it means Jia Huey is willing to chew and swallow her scoop of rice that she has been keeping in her mouth since 15 minutes ago! On average, every mealtime takes 2 hours to complete.

From here, I slowly observe Jia Huey's preference, I found that she prefers softer rice.

- Thus I start to cooking softer steamed rice, with more water and a bit of sesame oil to stimulate appetite. Also, by steaming the rice, the ingredients on top will add good flavours to the rice. (Thanks Shaw Fern for this fantastic idea!)

- I use softer ingredients such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, tomatoes or steamed eggs

- I chop all the ingredients into smaller pieces especially brocollis, carrots and baby corns to make it easier to chew.

- I substitute frozen fish with fresh fishes. In other words, I have been going to the market more frequently.

- Should I need to use pork as an alternative, I will mince it and marinate before cooking.

This has been going on for 2 weeks now, and her mealtime is shortened from 2 hours to 1.5, then 1.5 to 1 hour. My next target is to achieve 30 - 45 minutes each cycle.