An article I wrote for my local magazine on where to start if you want a different, calmer approach to your child’s mealtimes. Original article below.

Fussy eating coach, Grace Willis from Happy Little Eaters, gives her top 3 tips on where to start if you are looking for a happier and calmer way to managing mealtimes with your child in 2025.

1 - Where to begin?

There is an evidence-based feeding approach, called The Division of Responsibility, where the parent provides meals and snacks at set times during the day and the child decides what and how much of it they want to eat. In other words, ‘You provide, they decide’.

Grace adds, “You may worry, like many parents do, that given the choice, your child would only eat beige, bland and sweet food – a diet of chips and chocolate. It’s a valid concern, especially as there’s no room to hide veggies here, but the opposite is often true”.

2. Why this approach?

Research shows that when children are given some control over their diets, they eat a wider variety of foods and go on to develop healthier attitudes to food as adults. “When we, as parents, remove the ‘Just one more bite!’ approach, children can really lean into their own appetites and with any pressure removed, they can work out how certain food feels good in their own bodies, a skill most definitely needed going into adulthood”, Grace explains. Food for thought!

3. Practical homework

Yes, there is homework! By using this approach of letting the child be in charge of how much they choose to eat at the dinner table and ‘what’ they choose to eat, try a simple experiment for yourself and observe what happens when you don’t comment on what your child is or isn’t eating. If it helps, treat your child like a dinner guest, meaning give your child their food and let them enjoy it as you would a friend coming for dinner! This exercise of observing both your body language and what you say at the dinner table, can make a huge difference to how your child eats.

Want more mealtimes tips? Look no further than my How to Get Your Kids to Eat Anything download - you won’t be disappointed!