Does your child eat vegetables?
I hear many stories that parents are having a trouble getting kids to eat vegetables.
But my daughter loves her vegies.
Strange but true..
How did she get to like her vegetables?
Here’s some tips and how I got my daughter to eat and like vegetables.
Ever since she was 6 months old, I have fed her nothing but healthy foods.
No junks for snack time.
She always had steamed broccoli, stick vegetables like carrot and celery, fresh fruits or dried fruits, sometimes rice crackers or home made organic muffins, occasionally biscuits (but almost always organic low sugar ones) for snack.
I have never forced my daughter to eat anything. Even vegetables, I just leave some broccoli or carrot in front of her on her little table, and wait and see what happens.
She may have thought it was a toy first. She played with it, breaking it into half, fiddle it with her fingers, and eventually she put it into her mouth.
She might have spat it out first (like broccoli). Or she sometimes liked it (like carrot). But if she didn’t like one vegetable, I just tried other vegetable then come back to the one she didn’t like and try again a few days later. If she still didn’t like it, I tried it again a few days later. If she still didn’t like it, I tried it again 1 week later.
Now she eats all vegetables. She even gets crunky if she sees me chopping up vegetables but not offering her one!
Kids love putting anything into their mouth.
They just do, because they enjoy oral exploration.
They do not like anything bitter though, because they associate bitterness as something poisonous.
Vegetables are diffinitely not bitter.
Babies eat toy, sand, mud, horse pooh, you name it, babies put anything in their mouth and eats pretty much anything.
Kids eat what they are made to eat, I believe. They do not have a choice over food when they are little. If you feed them junk, they probably continue to eat junk and not like his/ her vegetables.
If you give them white bread, they probably continue to eat white bread (I think white bread gives you nothing but empty carolies), and when they are given brown bread (multigrain or wholemeal) for the first time, they may not like it because it tastes or looks funny…
If you give them lollies, chocolates or chips for snack, they will continue to eat those unhealthy snack.
If your child is over 3 years old and he/she does not eat vegetables.
That is probably harder to re-train him/her to eat vegetables.
Earlier you start, better it is.
If they still do not like their vegetables even you tried everything you could since they were a little baby, then you might have to start hiding vegetables in their food 😦
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