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How many times have you plopped a carefully curated tray of food down [3] on the table and wondered why your toddler isn't eating it [4]? If we can get my 2-year-old to deviate from scrambled eggs, salami, and tangerine slices, it's a big day in our house. That's partially why I was so excited to chat with TikTok's Hungry Fam [5], known for their videos in which toddler Sarang chows down on everything from octopus to Korean corndogs. How is this little person eating chicken wings when my child won't even touch a sandwich? ("No" is the only constructive feedback we've received from her.)
"One thing parents can do is just model how to really enjoy and be excited about food," Sonsern Lin told POPSUGAR. "Our theory about why she's such a good eater is because we're filming these videos — in a way, we're emulating the action, so I'm showing my excitement to eat the food, and she wants to copy me. That also gets her excited about the food. We've noticed that her energy is a reflection of our energy. If we're in a good mood, she's in a good mood, and if we're really excited to eat something, she's like, 'I wanna eat that, too.'"
It sounds so simple, but by the time our family sits down for dinner, I usually just want to shovel food in my mouth and stall until bath time. It's never occurred to me to show visible excitement for the food I've prepared (or in some cases, ordered on Postmates). My child is just beginning that stage in which she wants to act just like Mommy and Daddy, so it's the ideal time to show her just how pumped we are about eggplant parmesan. We'll report back when she's eating steamed glutinous rice pudding [6] like a champ! Until then, check out POPSUGAR's full interview with Hungry Fam [7] for more tips.