It can be a little tricky sometimes to get your kids to eat everything off their plate, but this mum seems to have cracked the code.
Two-year-old, Harry, would only ever eat cheese on toast, binging his mum, Grace Mortimer, to tears.
Everyone loves a good cheese toastie, but we all know it’s important to have a bit of diversity on your plate, especially when it comes to the kids.
"It happened overnight and he went from being excited with any food put in front of him to refusing everything”
The pressure was getting to them, resulting in tears from both sides practically every mealtime.
''I was constantly worried he wasn't getting the right nutrients. There were times when I was beside myself, it was all I could think about. The stress was ridiculous”
''We were both left in tears most mealtimes, it was relentless”
This began to change when Grace made the decision to adopt a more relaxed approach to meal times. So she started to let her son choose for himself when he wanted to try new foods. If he wasn’t interested when she played the food out, Grace would set it aside for Harry to come back to when he was ready.
"Letting him take a breather and then coming back to it, helped him understand that this was the food on offer and we're not going to waste it''
By taking this relaxed approach it gave Harry time to have a breather, and stress levels on both sides started to fall.
"As soon as I relaxed, Harry did too and he started eating what I was giving him,''
It was pretty quick acting too, with Grace noticing changes in as little as a month.
"The first real breakthrough was a cheese and bean patty that I made out of cupboard staples and he still loves them now.”
"Then I'd try disguising foods, like grating carrot into a spag bowl and again, with more perseverance, he'd eat it.”
"I'd just kept introducing new things into his diet and kept trying because you've got to introduce as many flavours as you can when they're young.”
It may take some time but piece by piece you can diversify mealtimes and prevent food waste.
And as for Harry, Grace says the most important point is: “he's a little boy who loves food - just as he should."
