In our practice, I often meet parents concerned if their child eats enough, they ask how to support a child who picks the certain products or does not want to eat vegetables and fruits. When considering the problem I always discuss the following factors contributing to actual situation:

• psychological aspect - what atmosphere is when you eat, whether it is forcing the child to eat unconsciously, if we pour our worries, fears over a child, or maybe the behavior of the child is a way to get attention because it needs support in another sphere and / or presence a parent ... There are many psychological aspects that should be considered.

• eating habits in the family - remember that we adults decide what is available in our kitchen. We choose food products. If you can find various types of highly processed snacks, sweets that contain a huge amount of sugar, salt, fats, we can not be surprised that the child does not want to eat dinner. Especially if a few minutes earlier had ie. a cake, sweet yogurt or a sweet fruit juice the boy or girl would not be hungry

• sensory disorders - which occur if the nervous system improperly organizes sensory stimuli. The child does not properly interpret the sensory experience like touch, smell, taste, sound ... Such disorders may be the cause of food selectivity. For example, they choose all soft or creamy food because may have a problem with chewing, for a child with olfactory hypersensitivity the meals may smell too intense which results in eating few tolerated groups of products... These are just examples, and the symptoms can be much more and not just related to food. The child may be very sensitive to sounds, it feels bad in a new place, it reacts badly to hygienic activities, balance and concentration disorders and many more. Sensory disorders require consultation and therapy.

• disorders of the digestive system - children who have a strong appetite and taste for sweet or flour products they may have, at the same time, problems with the digestive system, for example constipation and / or diarrhea, abnormal stools, abdominal pain, gases ... They may have imbalanced intestinal bacterial flora, parasites, yeast hypertrophy which in consequence can lead to leaky gut syndrome. In these circumstances some carefully taken interview and some diagnostics are essential to agree the applied nutrition strategy.

• food intolerances - which are often the result of an earlier intestinal flora imbalance or digestion disorder. It is quite often that the child craves for those food products that do not serve him and may even be harmful. For example, some children with autism spectrum disorders love to eat pasta, rolls (gluten products) and love to drink milk and dairy products (yoghurts, cheese...). These products overly stimulate children in different mechanism which result with poor concentration and speech development abilities.

The above factors are often combined and should be analyzed and addressed gradually step by step. Keeping in mind the psychological site, you can not force the child to eat or put any pressure on him. It requires a lot of patience from the carer or the parent. Empathy should be the basis for working with a child, we need the ability to build a close relationship with the child, while maintaining his autonomy, giving the child our attention and presence. The quality of meals and the atmosphere when we eat depends on the environment in which the child is brought up. It learns specific dietary behaviors based on repeated specific behaviors of parents, habits practiced at home, patterns of behavior.

1. It is important to give children the opportunity to learn about the variety of foods. If we want our children to eat grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat with taste, we must present these products to them. We enable children to get to know the food product with all their senses before preparing a meal from it. If possible, let the children have a product to watch, smell, taste and let us prepare a simple meal together. This is more important for a child than telling about something that has vitamins and that you need to eat it to be healthy. Work with all senses is particularly important in sensory disorders. I encourage you to use food products to play, such as counting fruits or vegetables, sorting vegetables and fruits by color, using a variety of groats/grains.

2. It is worth creating a home garden, even on the windowsill . Children can plant sprouts and herbs to care for and observe how they grow.

3. Conversations with children may also help . For example, you can tell about the apple: where it came from, how it grew, was blooming, how the fruit was made, when ripened throughout the summer to become a juicy sweet apple, or tell how bread is made - from grains of wheat to a scented loaf.

4. Pre-school children learn by imitating parents, teachers and other children. It is important that the meal takes place at a shared table together with the family members or in a kindergarten with the participation of a teacher. Both parents and teachers are a role model. If adults will eat the same meal with children with an appetite, create a friendly and calm atmosphere, children will be eager to eat even unknown dishes. Children watch both the guardian and each other. It's easier to break individual resistance in the group.

5. If it is possible, let the children decide, for example, about the selection of side -dish. For breakfast, let's avoid serving ready-made sandwiches, but on large plates, arrange the individual ingredients: meat, vegetables, herbs, or let sprinkle some selected seeds or nuts into the porridge. Children with the option of independent choice are more likely to reach even less known products.

6. When composing meals, remember that children like simple dishes mader from simple natural products. When introducing a new product, this should be done gradually, eg, ice cream made from pressed juice.

7. It is not allowed to force children to eat particular meal or dish or compare them to other children (eg. "See Eve how has eaten nicely, and you did not touch anything from the plate...").

8. The best way is when the child eats itself , it is unacceptable to push the spoon into the mouth. The pressure exerted on the child is counter-productive.

9. During meals, avoid talking about the impact of nutrition on health .

10. Meal time is the meal time only, let's teach children the awareness of eating. Children cannot eat while watching a fairy tale movie, playing the computer game, watching the books. Meal time is a time of savoring the aesthetics of a given dish, its smell and taste.

Finally, I would like to pay attention to one more aspect. Some children eat mainly liquid, mushy, soft products that do not require biting and chewing. They of suffer language-speech problems. Biting, chewing and swallowing allow proper development of  the muscles within the oro-facial area, which is of great importance for the development of speech and articulation. Logopedic (speech and language) exercises have a positive effect in problems with biting, chewing and swallowing and can help the child overcome food barriers.

Author: Emilia Lorenc