I’M sick!”, “I don’t want to eat”, “I don’t have time to eat!”. These are excuses most parents face when a child does not feel like eating or drinking. Yet it is important that the child has something. As the ward sister commented this morning, “Ms Rekha, the children are so ill they do not want to eat and drink.” My immediate response was “give them what they like but supplement the food.”
A good example – children love jelly. So one way of getting some extra calories is adding extra glucose or sugar into the jelly. Make them in different shapes and colours, then discuss the objects with the children before they are eaten. Parents and carers should try some creative ways to sneak the calories into children’s food.
