Q: Our son, around 6 years old, is active and in good health. The problem is that he is very fond of rice. We insist that he have ragi / chapati at night, for which he refuses to take food and eats beyond limits at functions. Kindly help.

A:Though it is not such a problem for your child to be fond of rice, the consumption of ONLY that might not be very nutritious for him. If he likes to eat rice at dinner you could try to include chapati / ragi in his lunch. You could also encourage him to eat half a chapati in addition to rice for dinner. Try to make meal times a pleasant experience rather than a tug of war between him and you. Introduce different flavours (and consequently colours) in his chapati eg. methi stuffed chapati / parantha. Eating more at functions and outings is a normal phenomenon in children possibly because they have a larger variety and the company of other children or adults they like. Children imbibe a lot of habits by imitation. If he sees you piling your plate with food when you go out he is likely to do the same. Inculcate the habit of taking a few things on the plate at a time, finish those and then take the next helping. Notice the food he eats when he goes out and maybe you can make that with a few nutritious alternatives at home. Your child is growing and needs to eat nutritious food to grow and become healthy. A little bit of patience and encouragement from you should do the trick!