Often parents feel confused when the actual age is right for toddlers to know Ramadan fasting.
Every development child in general, different and unique, so in fact there is no standard standard when every parent should teach their toddler to start fasting. However, what parents can do in this case is to introduce rituals and fasting as early as possible to them.
Tips to Recommend Fasting to Toddlers
Introducing fasting to toddlers is something that needs to be done gradually. In addition, this stage is the stage where your little one needs to at least understand about fasting. So parents do not need to force it if the child is still indifferent to the fasting he is doing.
Here are some tips that can be done in introducing fasting to toddlers for the first time.
Understanding the concrete phases of the toddler
The concrete phase for your little one to start fasting is 1-3 years old. At this stage, toddlers are already in the concrete-operational phase where at this time they just understand everything that is tangible, concrete, they can hold, can feel and can see.
So that, before further disciplining them to be able to fast, children of this age need to know what fasting means, the purpose of fasting and the consequences of fasting itself.
Only when your little one is 3 to 5 years old will they begin to understand that fasting means neither eating nor drinking. Likewise, in the month of fasting there are several other worship rituals that also complement the worship being undertaken, such as tarawih prayer, recitation, lectures, breaking the fast together, eating sahur and so on.
In this case your child will probably ask a lot what is fasting and ask many other questions. No need to be upset if your little one faces this problem. As a parent, you need to be wiser and become a teacher to teach and direct your little one slowly and introduce fasting to him. Because that is the stage of the toddler’s cognitive development.
