Picture Menus
If your toddler always wants the same meals, try giving her a picture menu with other choices before mealtime.
By: Trish Kuffner, author of The Toddler's Busy Book
Picture Menus
If you like to give your child a choice at mealtime, but he tends to want the same meals day after day, picture menus may be the answer.
Materials
- Pictures of your child's favorite meals
- Heavy paper
- Glue
- Magnetic clip
Directions
- Plan several different meals that you know your child likes, being sure to include a variety of healthy foods (fruits or vegetables, protein foods, and grains) in each one.
- Cut out pictures of each meal from grocery store flyers, coupons, product labels, or magazine pictures.
- Glue the pictures to index cards or pieces of heavy paper (one meal per page) and hang them on a magnetic clip on the refrigerator.
- After your child chooses a meal he'd like, move that card to a different location until all the cards have been used up, then start over. Your child still has a choice, but there will be less arguing, indecision, and monotony.