Vegetables – Getting Your Child to Eat Them!
By Dean Ing
Let’s face it, a lot of young children, openly declare they don’t like vegetables, with the rise in fast food and families cooking less and relying more on takeout, this has become almost epidemic. The huge rise in obesity is of much concern to many, families are turning back to healthy and more nutritious food in a home cooking environment, but the problem still remains, a lot of children will not eat vegetables!
Some of this may be due to habit, or the fact that they genuinely don’t like the taste of certain vegetables. And this can have a large psychological impact on the child. You may have resorted to bribery, punishment forced your child to sit there waiting in vain until they have eaten all their food, all to no avail. I know of one mother who finally out of sheer frustration forced the food down her child’s throat, that child would vomit the food back up all over the dining table. This caused enormous distress to the whole family and eventually she gave up and let the child eat what he wanted.
Sometime later, it was found that the child was very sensitive. To the bitterness in certain vegetables like broccoli and the problem was overcome by using a few simple ideas to make the food more palatable to the child. He loved peaks, so the mother started preparing home-made pizza with a pita bread base and would introduce pureed carrot into the tomato sauce and eventually began serving the child whole baby carrots but sautéed in a little honey.
Another idea is to introduce some sweet potato into mashed potato as well is making it more palatable, sweet potato is loaded with vitamin A. Zucchini is a fairly bland vegetable, and not the favourite of many children, one trick is to introduce it into home-made muffins, the secret is to be as creative as possible. Instead of just plain old peas and carrots, try adding a little cornstarch butter and chicken stock, this makes a delicious sauce that truly complements the vegetables!
Make educating your child about nutrition as fun as possible, with the use of anecdotes and fun filled facts. Mealtime should be fun time and tried to minimise external extractions such as television. There is no harm in having an off half an hour during mealtime. This will increase communication, and the family enjoyment of the mealtime occasion. Remember to introduce things slowly. Don’t try to do it all at once, and if at first you don’t succeed don’t let it get you down.
You can also try other ideas. Let your child help choose produce while shopping, help them to learn where vegetables come from and how they are grown. Even the humble potato has to come from somewhere! For snacks and inclusion in school lunches. You can try a little bag of mixed dried fruit such as dried pears, apricots, apple, along with a few raw unsalted nuts as this is a far more healthy alternative to candy bars. My mother used to do this when we were children, and I found I constantly had to fend off my friends at school, who would delight in these tasty treats.
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