Good Nutrition for Picky Eaters Feeding young children often presents major challenges for parents and other care providers. Toddlers and preschoolers may have erratic eating behaviors and when children refuse to eat or when they seem to pick at their foods, adults become worried or frustrated and aren’t always sure how to handle the situation. Consider the following facts about a child’s growth and development and about appropriate portion sizes and perhaps the picky eater won’t seem so picky anymore.

Although children continue to grow as they get older, their rate of growth slows dramatically after the first year. If a toddler or preschooler has a poor appetite compared to what it was when they were an infant, there may be a simple explanation. As children get older, their appetite decreases.

A newborn usually triples birthweight and increases height by 50 percent in the first year. A baby who is seven pounds and 20 inches at birth should weigh about 21 pounds and be 30 inches at age one. If that same rate of growth continued, however, that child would weigh two and one-half tons and be 19 feet tall by the age of six!

Fortunately, the growth "gallop" in early infancy becomes a "trot" in late infancy and is reduced to a "fast walk" throughout the remainder of childhood until the onset of puberty. If a toddler or preschooler has a smaller appetite, don’t despair. Some of that change is just a result of "growing up."

Children have food likes and dislikes just like adults, but there may be other reasons for a child’s pickiness. Perhaps a child’s pickiness is a result of being served unrealistic portions of foods. What an adult would consider to be an appropriate serving size might be much too large for a small child. Faced with having to eat so much, the child might just refuse to eat altogether.

Expecting a one-year-old child to eat a half cup of applesauce, for example, would be like asking an adult to eat a quart of applesauce. Not very realistic, is it?

Use this rule of thumb when determining portions of fruits, vegetables and many meats:

Serve one tablespoon of solid food for each year of age up to age eight. For example, at two years offer two tablespoons; at four years offer four tablespoons. Build to one-half cup or eight tablespoons by the time the child is eight years old.

For other items, such as sandwiches, be careful not to make portions overwhelmingly large. Offer a two-year-old a quarter of a sandwich, for instance. As the child gets older you can offer a half of a sandwich and eventually a whole one. Expecting a two-year-old to eat a whole sandwich could be compared to expecting an adult to eat four sandwiches in one sitting.

Remember, this is just a guide. You will need to make allowances for children whose growth rate varies considerably from the average. Perhaps the next time you start to complain about your picky eater, you’ll stop and think. Maybe they aren’t so picky after all!