One of the most notorious challenges faced by many parents today is getting children to willingly eat any forms of what are generally considered healthier, whole foods – and when these kids are picky eaters, the challenge is expanded into getting them to eat anything at all.
“This is why we are first looking to address the issue of getting them eating first – this is definitely the biggest challenge, and the one that must be tackled before looking at any other aspect of child nutrition,” HaruPlate Co-Founder Irvin Tan told FoodNavigator-Asia in the most recent episode of our Food and Beverage Trailblazers podcast.
“We have been doing a lot of research over the past few years relating to mealtime behaviours, and have found that a lot of picky eating behaviour or reluctance to eat has a lot to do with the environment that the kids are eating in.
“The fact is that this can be a stressful situation especially when faced with a food they are not fond of, and at this age they don’t have full control over their emotions or ways of expressing themselves yet which is what tends to lead to mealtime meltdowns.
“One way we have been working on to reduce the barriers to proper mealtime behaviour has been with using mediums of play to improve these behaviours.
“Every child is of course different and parents are going to need to identify the most significant triggers, but gaming worked well for me on a personal level - I used it with my own child who was a very distracted eater, as it helped him to deal with his short attention span but still kept him coming back to the table for the next bite.”
He also stressed that there is a need for more consideration of cultural differences when it comes to getting kids to eat healthier.
“Taking Asia versus the United States as an example, we can clearly see how different the cultures are when it comes to regular eating in a collectivist versus individualist society,” he said.
“It is the same reason why products such as TV dinners work in that market but not in Asia, as it is normal to eat dinner alone in front of the TV there but here it is expected for the family to gather together for meals to be eaten together.
“This is the sort of cultural difference that the food industry must properly understand to gain clarity of how kids discover nutrition and learn about new ingredients or healthier choices.
“In addition, there also needs to be that awareness that many new mothers and young families have far less time to cook compared to past generations so products for children need to take that into account by not only being easy to use but also already compact with optimal nutrition, which can help to alleviate the stress of mothers in that regard.”
Listen to the podcast above to find out more.
