Dinner's Ready!

Want your youngster to come running when tea’s on the table? Making mealtimes enjoyable is easier than you think

- Penny Stretton

From the moment your hungry bundle enters the world, a huge amount of your time is taken up with feeding her. If you’re not busy satisfying her appetite, you’re probably thinking about how long it’ll be before you need to! So when the time to wean arrives, you excitedly imagine all the foods she’ll try. But how come she’s throwing her toast on the floor when for weeks she’s been trying to gnaw yours? And what do you mean she doesn’t like broccoli? It’s not exactly the Bisto advert you imagined, is it?

But there is a happy ending to this story. And to get there, all you need to do is remember that meals are a pleasure. “Mealtimes take a huge amount of effort and can be quite tiring,” says Dina Rose, author of It’s Not About The Broccoli. “To help set youngsters up to enjoy the times we eat, and like food as much as we do, we need to lighten the mood and reduce our expectations.” So forget those table manners, and try a new set of dinnertime rules instead.

Wipe the slate clean

“If you expect your child to eat as much as you want her to, to enjoy a new food and to sit still, mealtimes are likely to be stressful because she won’t meet your expectations,” says Dina. “So don’t expect your young child to act like an adult, or even an older child, at the table. Expect her to be hungry and tired. Expect her to need a little extra help getting food onto her spoon, and to manoeuvre the spoon into her mouth. And expect her to drop some along the way. That way, you’ll come to the table prepared to give her the extra support she needs.”

Take her seriously