 Hello everyone, so I wanted to discuss about you know lot of issues that mothers may face you know and one of the most important issue that I come across is that you know mothers they worry that children have become picky eaters okay. So what is picky eaters, picky eaters means their children would want to eat what they want to eat and not what is offered to them okay and they would not, they would refuse to eat if they are not given their food of choice and this is a real issue because you know like of course in US we call it terrible too so it starts you know around age of 2 and I think this is completely avoidable. You can prevent it completely and the way I recommend is that from beginning from 6 months onward you know mother has to remember that she is the boss. She will basically decide what child wants to eat okay and if that kind of discipline continues then you will not see lot of this picky eating. So for example you know once baby realizes that he or she has more control you know and you will see around say 18 months of age you know and some children if they are very smart even a little bit earlier you know lot of time they will reject certain food and in some time they would basically prefer certain food you know and mothers they obviously I mean I do not blame them but you know mothers have this tendency that oh baby does not like this so okay I am not going to give this food but I am baby likes this food I am going to make that more often okay. So what she is doing is basically she is trying to kind of do what baby likes okay and somehow then eventually what happens then baby prefers of course more sweet taste you know taste which are much more palatable. So baby would prefer those taste and mother eventually end up giving only those kind of food. So in such situation what I recommend that baby should basically be given all the food which are cooked at home okay and of course you know let baby taste it you know and not to force it. So if baby say takes one bite and then baby did not like it then leave it you do not need to force the baby to take it but it does not mean that you know baby did not like it. So now you give say fruit or you give something which is sweet you know just so that baby did not like it. I feel that you know it has to be done very smartly very you know very slowly you know but to continue to give that food which baby did not like you know for at least next 10 to 15 attempts in next you know one month, two months you know because what happens sometime the new taste it takes baby for long time to like that taste you know and like for example I will just give you my personal example where my daughter she did not like you know kind of bengen you know eggplant and of course you know it was we had made this kind of routine in a house that even if she did not like one particular food any time if I made it she had to try at least one teaspoon. Of course this is possible when they become little bit older but you know as I am saying that all this habit starts from childhood okay. So make sure that you know you give this you know try this food very often and then make a rule you know for older than two, two and half you can start making rules that okay if you do not like it it is okay but she has to try or he has to try please one teaspoon any time if that food is cooked in the house okay. So that way many times what happens is after maybe few attempts and you know if you make it in a different way maybe they just start liking it and they then they start accepting that new food. So you know do not get disappointed if child do not like a new food point is to you keep exposing that baby to that new food frequently so eventually they kind of the food grows on that taste bird and then they start liking it okay. So that is one thing second thing is that many times you know what happens when this is I am talking about little bit older children you know even around say two years of age or so they start demanding the food that they like okay. So for example many children say no no I do not want to have this vegetable I want to have you know this aloo sabji or I want to have you know this pasta or I want to have this you know because I like this and of course when family would want to make a child happy so what they would do is to they would not give you know food which is cooked at home and they would make something special for the child which a child prefers okay. Now I do not like that I mean once in a while if as a family you prepare something special and if child is enjoying that is fine but on a routine basis I do not recommend that you know you cook something special for the child differently separately whatever you cook for the family you have to teach baby or child to eat that same kind of food you know you do not want to have special kind of for a child or special food for mother-in-law and special food for father-in-law and you know all that is it is I think it is very much spoiling you know and if child grows up in that kind of environment you know he or she will learn the same thing okay so have of like a family pot and teach that child that this is what it is if he wants to eat eat otherwise he can sleep you know hungry he will be fine you know do not spoil the habit and once they understand that their demand is not kind of taken care of they will learn to eat okay so do not give in to the demand as I said special occasions are different you know so if you have made special dishes for any occasion of course give it to the child but it should be as per your you know recommendation as your as you wish you know not child's wish okay this is one way of preventing your picky eating and another thing is many mothers have this habit of giving milk to the child you know I am talking about again children who have come off for breast milk after 2 to 2 and half years of age and they have a habit of drinking big class of milk early in the morning okay now I do not recommend having milk first thing in the morning because of course they are rushing to school right and we want them to have proper breakfast in the morning so what I recommend is to give them proper breakfast you know whatever breakfast that you have prepared healthy breakfast you know what too much of poha and upma and salt basically avoid too much of starch give them lot more protein and good fats so you can give that breakfast in the morning and then give them milk okay but do not fill the stomach with milk first because that child will not have breakfast and that will cause you know that milk will dip that blood glucose level and then again they will be hungry within hour or two okay so do not fill the stomach just with milk okay 3rd point that I want to kind of discuss is many children they have a habit of you know children who have come off breast milk early on you know and they have a habit of drinking too much milk and even even older children you know they some of them have a habit of drinking one liter of milk a day or maybe sometime you know one and half liters of milk in all different forms so not necessarily dairy milk but you know sometime they have lot more paneer they have lot more dahi they have cheese so you have to calculate all the day okay so I recommend the children should not have a dairy product more than 500 ml per day okay so obviously under two years of age it's mother's milk but other dairy products are your dahi your cheese you know your of course your curd your cheese your paneer so you know just combine all that and it should not be more than 500 ml okay because what we have seen it babies who get lot more dairy products say beyond 500 ml they have a risk of developing iron deficiency anemia and we don't want iron deficiency anemia any young children because then they'll have a problem of kind of you know cognition issue and it will be irreversible damage to cognition cognition means the intelligence okay so just just remember to not to give too much of dairy products just you know you have to you have to control okay and some children they just love dairy products you know and they have this habit of just taking that bottle all day long and they keep sipping on it another point which is important is the juice now please avoid fruit juices and young children you know this are all basically sugar water nothing else you know so it's all it's all water and fructose there is no fiber there's nothing everything is kind of drained out so avoid giving anything in a liquid form best thing is to really you know you can just give soft fruit you know cut it and they can they can chew it and if child is small you know you can just make like just mash it with hand and children can have it okay so do not give juice or fruit juice or any of those liquid liquid food okay another point is tea and coffee now many times we see that lot of these children are given tea and coffee you know early on especially in urban slum that you know we work in and they start tea by four months of age you know even older children they have a habit of drinking tea please avoid giving tea to children and even adults do because I mean obviously not with the food which is high in iron you know because it will prevent the absorption of iron okay so that one point is important about not to give tea or coffee or I mean another thing also which I see is a lot of these mothers have the habit of giving you know junk food so they start with you know biscuits and they start with lot of this junk food very early on so again please talk to mothers and tell them about you know why we don't want to give junk food to babies you know they are completely they lack nutrient density there's the empty calories and it will cause more problem than you know any any other kind of help you know so thank you so much and if you have any suggestion, recommendation please write to us thank you