Baby and Toddler Tips for A Healthy Relationship With Eating

Today, I'm going to share with you my four Es of feeding, and these aren't just tips. These are four mindset shifts to help you give your baby or your toddler a healthy and happy relationship with feeding. With these mindset shifts, you'll be able to think about feeding in a whole new way and set your baby on the right path. Feeding is much more than just what we eat and what we like or don't like. Feeding is a whole culture and a whole mindset, and we want to give our baby a beautiful gift. So let's start now.

My name is Lindsay, and welcome to the Little Foundations Channel, where I help parents and caregivers create healthy habits with their babies from the very start.

Alright, our first E is Encouragement. And by encouragement, I don't mean, "Hey, try this, eat that". I mean that this is when our baby is going to start to learn from us. From a very young age, babies start to see how other people in the house interact with food, how they react to food, and how they react when your baby makes a face, whether they like something or they don't like something.

So, this is really important that we're encouraging a very, very happy, positive relationship with feeding. And that means we have to turn inward and look at our relationship with feeding. And sometimes, it's really hard. We grew up in a different culture and a different time, and our well-meaning parents and caregivers and coaches and teachers said things that may have put us on the wrong path, and we may have struggles with our relationship with food and feeding and raising a little one is a really great time to turn in and reflect and see how we approach feeding and how our baby may perceive that.

So, it's a great time to recognize that we are encouraging them, and we want to keep everything about feeding really positive. And we want to make sure that we are modeling that beautiful, healthy, happy relationship with feeding.

The next part of encouragement is that eating is a social activity. So, we're not forcing our babies to eat, but we're encouraging them to be with us, to eat with us, to watch other people eat, to talk about food, and to have a shared experience.

Again, your baby is going to look to you for their model. How we respond to new foods or new experiences or what happens if they don't like something or maybe they have a messy face? How are you going to react? So, even when it's hard, keeping your reactions really happy and light and playful will help them to feel the same.

Alright, our second E is Exposure. This one may be my favorite. Exposure is so important. It is the number one thing that we can do to prevent picky eating, to prevent negative reactions to food, to prevent a problem later on down the road. The more and more we expose our babies to foods, not only new foods but foods multiple times, the more comfortable they will be with that food.

And exposure means in your baby's lifetime, and especially in these first few months and years, we are going to expose our babies to many new foods. That doesn't mean they're going to eat it. That doesn't mean they're going to love it. It means that we're giving them the opportunity to be around food in a happy and positive way.

Sometimes, if a baby tries something and maybe they don't like it, the parent will feel bad and say, "Oh, he/she doesn't like that" and then the food disappears for months or even years. The baby may have just not liked it at that time, and they're not going to get the chance to learn to like it if that food never comes back. Our job is to expose them, and they can decide if they like it.

But just because they had an experience where they didn't like it or they don't like the taste or maybe the texture is not their favorite, it's important that we continue to show them those real foods that we have in our house. The more that you expose them, the more comfortable they'll be because the food looks familiar. "I've touched this before," or "I've smelled this," or "I've tasted this," or "I saw my family cook it," or "I got this at the market". Those exposures to food will pay off. Maybe not overnight, but it will pay off in the long run.

And this takes us right into number three, Experience. We want to give our babies many different experiences with food. And that means changing your mindset to think of your baby as a partner in this feeding journey from day one. As your baby starts to get older, we want them to pick food from the garden or pick up food at the store. We want them to find the produce or put it in the bag. We want them to put it in the refrigerator or pretend to wash it.

Having them be a part of the feeding experience from the very beginning. As they get older, they can be a part of the cooking or be in the kitchen and hanging out with you while you're cooking and chopping and prepping the food. We want them to be around food and have many experiences with it.

Again, the experience part is not that they need to eat it. We're not pressuring them. We're giving them the opportunity to experiment with that food, to have the experience of how it feels on their hand or having the opportunity to play with it without feeling pressure to eat it. A lot of babies, as they get bigger, will start to feed you the food, and that's a great experience. While we want them to be eating, it's great for them to have the experience of knowing that food is to be eaten and that everybody can share. Having that ability to touch the food and pass it around or take it from one bowl to another or share it with different family members is all a part of the experience.

One of the biggest parts that comes with this E of experience is letting your baby get messy with food. And in some people, this is really hard for them. But I can't tell you how many benefits there are to letting your baby get messy. Having your baby feel the food and play with it and experience it in different ways helps them to become more comfortable. If there's something that they don't really like or they haven't tried before, give them the opportunity to play with it for a long time. And you might see that as they get more comfortable, they'll be more interested and willing to try it.

And our fourth E is Engagement. And this means two different things. It means that your baby is engaged with food, and that you're engaged with them. It's hard when we're rushing from one place to another. But when you can, as often as you can, even if it's one brunch on the weekend or one minute for a snack, sit down and eat with your baby. You can model great engaged eating for yourself and show them that we can stop and engage with our food, and the food is entertaining enough.

The other part of engagement that can be really hard, especially for older kids, is that we don't need toys and electronics or TV. We don't need to have a tablet propped up in front of us or the TV on. That really takes babies away from their eating experience. And sometimes, I know we've gotten into a habit, and we didn't mean to. I understand. But as best as you can, even if you have to turn it off and get through those hard moments, you will see that your baby will start to be engaged in their eating.

If you have a baby who loves to eat with the TV on, sometimes our baby can head down the wrong path. It's kind of like the movies where you think about, you're watching the movie, and you didn't realize how much popcorn you ate. It's because we're passively involved in that eating, and we don't want that to be the new norm for your baby. We want them to explore the food, to get messy, to get their hands dirty, and to have fun. Eating is something that we do together, and we really want to think that big picture. At the end of the day, we want to be sitting together for family meals. We don't all want to be on our tablets and our phones. We don't want to be demanding other foods. We want to eat one family meal together. And I promise you, your hard work will pay off.

The fact that you're here watching this shows me that you're interested. It shows me that you want to give your baby a healthy and happy relationship with feeding.

Alright, and just to recap, our first E is Encouragement. Think about how you approach feeding and how your baby may perceive that. Let's keep it really positive. And number two, Exposure. Make sure that you and your whole family understand that we are giving our baby the opportunity to be exposed to foods. There's no pressure that they need to eat it. We're giving them the opportunity to be around many different foods, many times. Number three, Experience. Getting messy, going to the store, going to the garden, prepping and cooking and serving the food all together is a great experience. And for Engagement, as much as we can, as often as we can, no toys and electronics. Just simply exploring the food, playing with it, having fun, and engaging with the food. Getting hands-on and getting comfortable.

If you have these four mindset shifts, these four E's, you will see that your baby will start to take charge and take interest. You're doing a great job. Let me know how it's going. I can't wait to hear how you are trying your four E's with your little one. 

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