THE CHILDREN'S NUTRITIONIST

Meet Sarah, a HCPC Registered Dietitian and Paediatric Feeding Therapist with nearly 25 years of experience, dedicated to helping parents like you. With a BSc (Hons) in Nutrition & Dietetics and a research Masters in Paediatric Dietetics, Sarah’s expertise provides helpful guidance to make mealtimes a little more manageable. In her new blog, she dives into fussy eating and how to tackle it with your little ones, offering practical tips and success stories. Sarah also explores how PaediaSure Shake can be integrated into your little fussy eater's diet alongside mealtimes, to support their healthy growth and development*.

Fussy eating is a common struggle for many parents, raising concerns about whether their children are getting enough of the key nutrients to support healthy growth and immunity. 

It covers a spectrum that ranges from the typical toddler food refusal to extreme feeding aversions.

We are well aware that good nutrition is so important during the developmental years, and missing out on essential nutrients can have an impact on health, including bone health issues, poor immune systems & even impair cognitive development affecting intellect and reasoning skills1. 

Every meal and snack time is an opportunity for optimising nutrition and ensuring balanced dietary intake and supplements can be helpful alongside mealtimes. 

In this blog we are going to look at the nutritional supplement drink PaediaSure Shake which is designed to support healthy growth and serve as a nutritional safety net, helping to fill the gaps in a fussy eater's diet.

The Role of PaediaSure Shake in Your Child’s Diet

PaediaSure Shake is designed to support healthy growth in children⁴.

But it also contains an additional 26 vitamins and minerals, so works to support your little one as a multivitamin supplement too. 

Of note, it contains the essential fatty acids sometimes referred to as omega 3 and 6, vitamin D, and iron all of which are important nutrients for children yet are also often the ones in short supply in children5. 

Ultimately, it’s a supplement drink to go alongside mealtimes to give parents peace of mind that their fussy eaters are getting key nutrients required for healthy growth and development⁴.

Why Parents and Kids Love PaediaSure Shake

At The Children’s Nutritionist, a lot of our clients arrive already using PaediaSure Shake and parents tell us it's because their children enjoy the taste⁶ and see it as a fun milkshake to have in between or alongside meals. Bearing in mind that many of our fussy eaters have oral sensory differences7, it's reassuring to know that this nutritious food supplement is readily accepted.

Abbott, the company who makes PaediaSure Shake, states that 95% of parents recommend PaediaSure Shake⁸! They also claim that it's the most popular children's nutritional supplement drink in pharmacies in the UK⁹. 

When introducing new foods to children, it's not as simple as presenting the food and expecting them to eat it. Eating is a highly sensory experience and involves a whopping 32 sensory steps10 that have to be processed for each and every food.

Putting food in their mouths doesn't come until step number 28, before then children have to be able to visually tolerate the food, interact with it often using utensils or other foods, tolerate the foods smell from a distance and up close then be able to touch the food. Only then does food enter their mouths.

Therefore, it’s really important to not to expect your child to try a new food the first few times it’s offered. There's a whole lot of sensory learning that has to happen first. The key is to allow your child to become familiar with the food both at the table and outside of meal and snack times. Patience and consistency in your approach is key.

As well as the food, how you parent around food is equally as important, here are my top 10 tips for food parenting your fussy eater:

1. Follow a rhythm for eating - children need a predictable structure or routine around eating in order to learn their appetite cues.
2. Share a meal - sit with your children and share the same food so they can watch and learn from their best role models.
3. Know your role and theirs - your job is to decide what is on the menu, choose where you will eat and when you
4. Serve family style - have your children serve themselves from the food you have chosen for the meal, let them decide how much goes on their plate. This helps independence and curiosity and takes away pressure of expected portion sizes.
5. Introduce a learning plate - a side plate for less preferred food to be parked. But it’s not the ignoring plate. Encourage your child to explore the sensory properties of unfamiliar food such as what it looks, like, smells like, what happens when you blow it or prod it with your fork. Children can spit out onto this plate too if they want to try something but they’re not sure about eating it.
6. Check your expectations - remember children are learning about food and they’ll continue to learn right till the day they leave home. Don't expect a new food to be liked quickly. 
7. Make food fun - Food isn't nutrition until it's eaten so give it a chance by making it look nice, smell nice and taste nice. Yes, it's OK to flavour with butter or season with herbs. We can worry about healthy eating later once they’re actually consuming a decent diet.
8. Watch your words - did you know the words you use can harm or heal? Even gentle encouragement can stop children from eating. Try not to comment on how much or little, how fast or slow they’re eating as this feels like pressure and pressure causes stress levels to rise which switch off appetite.
9. Offer dessert at every meal - dessert is not a reward for trying a new food or cleaning your plate like it might have been during rationing when you didn't want any food wasted! It's just another opportunity for nutrients. Keep portions small, make them dairy or fruit based so they’re nutritious and never label them with an emotion such as treats or a reward for eating.
10. Boost activity before a meal - Children's appetites are driven by how active they are and how tired their bodies feel. Optimise appetite with a little activity ahead of mealtimes.

In conclusion, this blog outlines the challenges and implications of fussy eating in children, particularly the importance of adequate nutrition during the developmental years. 

PaediaSure Shake can be a valuable nutritional supplement designed to fill the nutrient gaps often seen with fussy eaters, ensuring they receive the necessary balance of protein, vitamins, and minerals alongside mealtimes. 

If you think your child would benefit from PaediaSure Shake, you can get a free sample delivered to you at home by visiting Abbott’s website here: https://uk.pediasure.abbott/free-sample/

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below what strategies you have found successful in helping your fussy eater try new foods.