Pre-School Eating Habits and Nutrition Help

Pre-School Eating Habits and Nutrition Worries

Last week I took Erin to the doctor’s for her pre-school appointment. I didn’t even really know that this was a thing. We got a letter through saying it was time for her injections and the receptionist on the phone said we needed a 20 minute pre-school appointment. I had no idea what to expect apart from the obvious injections. The appointment was more useful than I thought it was going to be though and I got to have a really good chat with the nurse about anything I was worried about.

One of the biggest subjects we spoke about was Erin’s eating habits and what she does/ doesn’t eat. It was a great time to bring up my worry about her having an aversion to hot food and the nurse really reassured me that it wasn’t something silly to worry about. I explained that over the past maybe 6-8 weeks Erin has become a bit more adventurous with food and is actually asking to try new things so she wasn’t so worried about it being something that would last.

Something else that we spoke about was how much Erin eats. The nurse gave me a really helpful guide to portion sizes for children Erin’s age and what kinds of things she should be eating daily. A while back we wondered whether we were giving Erin too much food for meals and thought she might be getting a bit overwhelmed by what we expected her to eat. Not too long ago my Mum bought Erin one of those portion plates that makes meal times a. bit more fun and since we started using it, Erin has really been eating better.

5532 a day

When I looked through the information I realised Erin really wasn’t doing as badly as I thought. It turns out that portions sizes for Erin’s age are really quite small so I think we’re just about offering her the right amount now. Obviously, there are some things she likes to eat more of and will happily eat a bigger portion and that’s absolutely fine.

When Erin was at her old nursery she used to have hot lunches so I knew that they were helping her to try new foods but when that stopped, it became a bit harder, especially as Erin has packed lunches at nursery now. We don’t get many actual meal times together any more as Erin doesn’t eat dinner on nursery days. She’s so tired that she falls asleep around 4:30 or 5pm and then is asleep for the night. I have to really try to make sure we have a family meal together on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and that it’s a hot meal too.

I think it’s really easy to question how and what you’re feeding your child. I don’t think you ever really get a lot of help or guidance about it and that’s a shame really. I really thought that there was no way that Erin was getting nearly enough of everything she needed to be eating but our appointment really helped to put my mind at ease.

You can find the information we got at the doctor’s here!


PIN IT FOR LATER

Pre-School Eating Habits and Nutrition Help

9 thoughts on “Pre-School Eating Habits and Nutrition Worries”

  1. My eldest is a fussy eater too and won’t eat hot meals either. I keep hoping it is a phase – but its been almost 2 years now! It’s so hard to know what is best for them, but he loves fruit so at least I don’t have to battle over that.

  2. There are so many people out there who are clueless at nutrition and who think kids should grow up eating kid’s food, aka processed crap. We are lucky both our girls are good eaters and they eat the same as us most of the time which is pretty much always cooked from scratch and a good range of all the food groups

  3. I’ve not heard of the preschool appointment either but I think that’s a great idea.

    We normally just take children to the doctors if they are ill so don’t always get to raise any issues with someone because getting an appointment when your ill is hard enough.

    Food is so tricky for a lot of children that any advice is welcome x

  4. I don’t remember either of my two having a preschool appointment, only their jabs – I think a lot of parents would benefit from the peace of mind if the appointments are as positive as yours.

  5. My daughter is really fussy eater, tends to eat the same stuff but normally it’s a good balance.

  6. Oh this is a really useful tool for giving your littles ones a balanced diet. Mine were much better eaters at that age than they are now.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.