Tips for decreasing mealtime battles in young children

Some tips to make mealtimes more pleasant when your young child has type 1 diabetes include:

• Setting up and enforcing rules (and consequences) for staying at the table during mealtime.
• Praising your child for making healthy food choices and for not engaging in non-eating behavior, such as playing with the silverware, during the meal.
• Rewarding your child for appropriate mealtime behavior.
• Ignoring any non-eating behavior, such as talking or playing with the silverware, during meals.
• Planning one or two alternative meal choices that can be made quickly, but are nutritious. Your child needs to agree in advance to eat these alternative meals when he or she refuses the prepared meal. You can plan your meals and have your child choose alternatives at the beginning of the week. A registered dietitian can help you design alternative meals for your child.

Avoid:

• Preparing an alternative meal during or shortly after a meal. Instead, let your child choose between the prepared meal and one of the alternatives before beginning the meal.
• Frequently reminding your child to eat during the meal.
• Punishing your child for not eating.
• Giving "sweets" or other foods as rewards.
• Offering dessert only if another food is finished or the child "cleans" his or her plate.