| Is Your Child A Fussy Eater? |
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Is your child a fussy eater? A BBC news story today talks about how many parents mistake bad behaviour for eating disorders, and suffer nightmares at dinner time because their child refuses to eat. I have experience of helping parents with children who can’t or won’t eat certain foods, and almost always the problem began with child refusing certain foods and mum or dad ‘giving in’: usually because of fear the child will starve unless they give them what they want. How can you begin to resolve this issue? Firstly, rule out the possibility of an intolerance or allergy. The child may have good reasons for refusing a food and normally this will be quite specific items. Secondly, remember that children are mostly responsive to their family unit; they usually do things in response to others and things happening around them. So, what stresses are going on in the family? If you are ignoring and not resolving them, your child may be telling you they are not happy in the only way they can. Has there been a new baby? Is there tension in your partnership, or money or job worries? In this case, rather than sending your child to be ‘fixed’, consider help with family or stress issues for the grown ups. If you are stressed you are in no position to improve your child’s behaviour. Finally, if you seek help from a practitioner like myself, consider that children use ‘not eating’ as a powerful way to get attention from their parents, and to resolve this, along with professional help, you need to be resolved to do what it takes to get your child into better and healthier eating habits. My approach is to provide support for child and parents, teaching them how to handle meal times better, and focussing on practical ways to get your child eating. One of the key ways to do this is to make the sessions fun for the child, and to involve the parents as much as possible, so that what we learn in session can be transferred to the dinner table. If you’d like more information, please do call or email me on Sue Roberts Cognitive Hypnotherapy, NLP and Life Coaching in Burnham Slough Maidenhead
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