The appetite of toddlers (1-3 years) fluctuates a lot; sometimes your baby’s appetite dramatically increases without any reason but this is quite normal at this stage, in case he does not complain about other things.
Baby’s appetite fluctuate from day to day and from meal to meal; they may suddenly hate what they used to like, this is very normal!
Babies at this age can respond quickly to hunger and satiation, so trust your baby’s appetite and let him be the one who chooses the amount of food he needs.
As long as your baby is growing properly, it means he takes sufficient needs of food.
Follow these tips to help your baby eat well:
- Do not force your baby to eat more food and give him the chance to decide how much food he needs.
- Schedule the main mails and snacks every day at the same time. Three main meals, three snacks; try not to serve the snack before the main meal so he does not feel full.
- Make sure to give him water between meals instead of juice or milk which may fill his stomach then he will not have appetite to eat food.
- Be a good example to your baby by eating healthy food.
- Make meals time funny and away from stress and anger.
- Try to make your baby active most of time, for being more active burns more calories, the thing will make him feel hungry.
- Do not use food as a reward or a punishment in order not to be linked to positive feelings.
- Try to make your baby help you in preparing his meal and make simple things so this will encourage him to eat it.
- Do not serve big portions of food, but divide the meal into parts to encourage your baby to finish eating his entire dish.
- Continue offering your baby with different kinds of foods to choose one of them; even if he refused a certain kind of food do not stop offering him from time to time without using pressure.
- Give your baby enough time to enjoy his meal but not too much time so as not to feel bored. The best time to finish eating the meal is 20-30 minutes.
- Get cups and dishes with their favorite characters to encourage your baby and give him a chance to eat by himself.
- Make sure the snacks you serve to your baby are healthy and nutritious.
- Use spices such as cinnamon, coriander and thyme to enhance the flavor of food.
- Try to reduce fatty foods and do not use a lot of fat in the meals, as this may affect his appetite.
- You should keep in mind that your baby’s appetite would decrease when he is sick and suffering fever.
- The reason for your baby’s low appetites is drinking a lot of milk, so we recommend you to reduce the amount of milk and try to increase the amount of food.
- Zinc gets your baby’s appetite going. You can find it in wheat bran, nuts and pumpkin seeds.