The fresh puree made just this morning is splattered across the floor and smeared on the baby glaring at you from his highchair. Taking deep breaths, you put on fake smile and try to ‘gentle parent’ them into eating. However, too many meals go like this, and you are at your wits end. You are tired, but your baby still refuses the meals you prepare, so now what?

Introducing solid foods to your infant is a wonderful milestone, there are typically some surprises and difficulties involved. Food refusal—those small bent heads, sealed lips, or the infamous dish toss—is a typical occurrence for many parents! It might be perplexing and annoying, particularly if you've lovingly prepared wholesome meals. Mealtimes can be less stressful and more pleasurable for you and your baby if you know why they might refuse food and how to handle it gently.

1. Recognize the Root Causes of Food Refusal

A baby may avoid food for a variety of reasons, the majority of which are normal for their developmental stage. You can handle food refusal with compassion and reassure of these factors:

Preferences for Texture and Flavor: When babies begin solid foods, they get exposed to various flavors and sensations. Babies may reject the food at first due to unfamiliar tastes or textures whether that be a lumpy puree or a harsher taste. This is to be expected, but with constant exposure they will eventually accept it.

Teething Pain: Teething babies may become cranky, and the strain on their gums may cause discomfort when they chew or swallow. During this period, they could avoid eating until the pain subsides or favor soft, cold foods.

Signals for Hunger and Fullness: Babies have a keen sense of when they are hungry and full. They will probably decline meals if they aren't hungry or if they've had enough. It's crucial to understand that babies have different appetites and don't adhere to rigid timetables. It is also good to remember that babies will hit the growth spurts, a period where the body grows rapidly and needs more attention. When this happens expect them to feed more than usual to keep up with the demand of their growing bodies.

Handle food refusal with patience.

Create a good relationship with meals by gently and patiently handling food refusal that can help you and your baby feel less frustrated. We Understand that you want to make sure your baby is fed, because a full baby is a happy baby. However, forcing food into their mouths when they clearly don't want it is a sure way to traumatize them and make any hope for happy feeding in the future impossible.

Respect the signals: Recognize your baby’s expressions that cue a lack of interest or frustration. Don’t try to force-feed your babies when they turn their faces or seal their mouths.

Introduce food gradually: When introducing new food combine it with food they are already accustomed too, which will make the experience easier. A great way, this can be done by adding a small amount of the new food to a plate and filling the rest with what they know. Gradually you can increase the portion size of the food.

Keep the mealtime enjoyable and relaxed- Avoid pressurizing your child to eat, because stressing them out will lead to tantrums and chaos for the whole family. Mealtime is family time so try to eat together with your kids to encourage them to observe and mimic you. Another benefit of eating as a family is that they will learn table manners, the importance of family and its great way to bond.

Explore food using strategies.

There are gentle ways to encourage your child to eat certain foods without forcing them.

Serve a selection of food: Provide a diverse menu of food with different textures, colors, shapes, flavors, and sizes. Keep on experimenting with the meals and don’t give up as babies take time to develop the taste.

Combine mealtime and playtime: Let them handle the food by urging them to crush, smell, and even touch various foods. Even if it would create a mess, let the kids develop a connection with the food on their own.

Follow a practical and balanced approach.

Along with loving support, here are some helpful hints to help you and your baby through the process.

Follow a flexible schedule: Although you must create a consistent meal schedule to make your babies learn when to expect food, don’t get fixated on this initially.

Stay calm and positive: Try not to lose your temper when your baby refuses to eat food even after several attempts. Instead, think of ways to make mealtime enjoyable even if it is snack time.

Don’t focus on quantity: Instead focus on exposing your baby to a variety of food rather than on how much they eat, because every nibble or lick keeps the food interesting.

Food shouldn't be treated as a reward or a punishment to prevent confusion in babies.

Crawling thoughts

It is crucial to lay a positive foundation for a healthy relationship with food rather than merely focusing on babies’ nutrition. Every stage of a baby's eating habits provides an opportunity to discover their preferences and tastes. By being patient and positive, you can think of your baby's mealtime as a time for bonding rather than a daily task. For advice on how to make your parenting experience enjoyable and easy, read up on our blogs on Wondrfly.