Focus on the Family Malaysia

If you've ever been around young kids at the dinner table, you know what a hassle it can be to get them to eat.  This is Dr. James Dobson with Focus on the Family.  We've all seen parents who spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to keep their young children from starving to death.  But it's a problem that should never have been allowed to develop.  The dinner table is a major battlefield of childhood, especially during the toddler years.  But it doesn't have to be.  I strongly advise that parents not get suckered into this arena because it's a no-win situation.  A mother is in a powerless position when she puts four greenbeans on a fork and resolves to sit there until her son or daughter eats them.  The anxious parent is destined to lose that battle.  Instead of begging, bribing, and threatening a child, I recommend that you simply place good foods before him cheerfully.  If he chooses not to eat, then smile and send him on his way.  He'll be back; and when he returns, take the same food out of the refrigerator, heat it up and set it before him again.  Sooner or later, he'll get hungry enough to eat.  Don't permit snacking or substituting sweets for nutritious foods, and don't fear the physical effects of hunger.  A child will not starve in the presence of good things to eat.  Just wait for that wonderful physiological process called hunger to take over, and then you'll turn mealtime madness into peace and tranquility.  This is Dr. James Dobson for Focus on the Family.