Making Food fun
Meal times with the whole family sat around the table chatting, laughing and all tucking into their food is something I would love to happen in our house. In fact meal times can be a stressful, if not the most stressful time of the day for parents of a fussy eater.
We would all love our children to eat a variety of healthy meals, full of vegetables and protein. However meal times can become a time of dread rather than a happy fun time. If this sounds all too familiar, then you are not alone. It is a widespread issue affecting masses of families.
Before I had kids I never would have thought getting a child to eat their tea would be so difficult.
How naive I was.
As parents we have all read the articles about ‘dealing with fussy eaters’, and they offer some sound advice.
One thing we have found that works in our house is MAKING FOOD FUN!
Our toddler went through a period of not eating lunch. She would dig her heels in, and then a few hours later she would be so hungry that her usual small snack would not satisfy her. This then messed up dinner time too.
So fast forward a few weeks of not eating lunch; the usual suggestions tried and failed; and toddler finds a pink Yumbox in my office. She wants it. So I let her choose what to put in it (within reason).
Her lunch then consisted of a variety of foods. Small portions 
of somewhat random items so I quickly found that for her, variety was key! So I dug out the play doh / food cutters and began to make cute little shapes out of food. Making faces, and little animals out of fruit and veg; and making sandwiches into shapes. Cutting a flower shape into cucumber is actually a really easy way to get the skin off!
I got slightly (very) addicted. To both making cute lunches for toddler and her actually showing an interest and more importantly; eating them. I made food art out of everything! There are so many fun ideas for lunches and food art on pintrest & facebook – take a look at our pages!
In my search for other fun food cutters I came across Funbites – a food cutter made and sold in America which makes bite sized food! I loved the idea and as they were not currently sold in the UK, I decided to import them to sell in my online shop. It was not a surprise that toddler loved them! They are really easy for her to use too, so she can get involved in making her food. They come in 3 different shapes – squares, triangles & heart shape (squares are our favourite).
We love making bite sized skewers and patterns using the different shapes.
Making food fun, and serving a variety of different foods has worked for us – that’s not to say it will work for you – but as parents of fussy eaters know – anything is worth a try!
Yumbox, funbites and a variety of other accessories can be found in our online shop at www.beloandme.co.uk.
