Children and the Vegetable Challenge

Children and the Vegetable Challenge

January 4th, 2011 by admin  |  No Comments

There is no food group that is more likely to cause a child to push away his plate than vegetables. They are the food that parents most commonly struggle with getting their child to eat.

All babies are born with a sweet tooth; they prefer sweet foods because breast milk, the food they are naturally inclined to like, is sweet. Most vegetables are not known for being sweet, however most babies eat vegetables fairly easily when they start solid foods. Many parents find that the trouble with vegetables starts a little later in life, generally in the toddler years. Unfortunately, it can carry over well past toddlerhood and become a battleground for many years to come.

Serving Vegetables Kids Like

A big part of the reason kids won’t eat vegetables is that they either don’t look very appetizing or are cooked poorly, leaving them limp and flavorless. Many vegetables already tend towards a bitter taste, which doesn’t go over well with young kids, and overcooking them can make it worse. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and spinach are all likely to become bitter and unappetizing when overcooked, and they can be very hard to get kids to eat.

To avoid overcooking vegetables, try steaming them rather than boiling or microwaving. Not only will you preserve all the nutrients, but your vegetables will come out with beautiful color and a far less bitter taste. Even so, the right cooking method probably isn’t enough to get your kids to even try them to find out if they like them.

Add flavor to vegetables with sauces, dips and glazes for a taste your kids are much more likely to enjoy. Broccoli and cauliflower work beautifully with cheese sauces. Carrots can be easily glazed with a little honey. Creamy garlic sauce is a friend to green beans. Raw veggies served with a tasty dip are a great way to get older kids to dig in, and the cooking process hasn’t had a chance to affect the flavor or texture.

Hiding Vegetables

There are all kinds of recipes, even entire recipe books, out there aimed at teaching you how to hide vegetables. Some use a system of purees that you can hide in all kinds of foods.

Hiding vegetables isn’t the best way to teach your child healthy eating habits, but as long as you continue to offer the whole veggies, there is nothing wrong with a little creative cooking to ensure your child’s good nutrition isn’t being lost to picky eating.

Some vegetables are easy enough to hide in plain sight; you can mix mashed cauliflower in with mashed potatoes, for instance, and most kids will never know. The average kid won’t recognize the chunks in his pasta sauce as carrots, or the little green strips as spinach. But some are a little trickier. Finely diced vegetables can be easily added to meatballs, and your kids will never even see them.

Even if you choose to hide vegetables in your child’s food, remember to keep offering them; it’s important to their future healthy eating habits that they learn to give vegetables a try on their own. Hiding them while taking them off the menu in more obvious ways will make you child believe you no longer care if she eats them, which can lead her to believe it’s ok to skip them altogether. Hiding vegetables works for the short-term but doesn’t do much for long-term success.

Fruits or Vegetables: Which Does Your Child Prefer?

Fruits or Vegetables: Which Does Your Child Prefer?

November 15th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

Just like grown-ups, children will develop a preference for certain foods. At around 2 years old, a child’s taste buds begin to change, resulting in the picky eating phase that is common to many toddlers. They have also realized that they have control over few things in life – and eating is one of them!

Many children prefer fruits to vegetables naturally; they are sweet, and babies are born with a predisposition to like sweet things due to the sweet taste of breast milk. Not all children will carry this sweet tooth into later life, however, and some will decide vegetables are more their thing. Even more commonly, they will come to like some fruits and vegetables while disliking others.

There is nothing wrong with developing a personal sense of taste, but it’s important to make sure your child is eating a balanced children diet as well. If your little one has a distinct preference for one or the other of these two nutritious choices, it isn’t the end of the world, but you should make sure you try to keep them both on the menu.

When Your Child Will Only Eat Fruit

Luckily, fruit is generally a pretty healthy choice for a child, and is certainly better choice than some of the other favorite foods kids have a tendency to choose. Your child can get a great source of vitamins and minerals from fruits, as long as the choices are varied. Eating only bananas won’t provide all the needed nutrition. Keep offering different fruits, but don’t give up on vegetables.

Sometimes, a child who likes only fruits will be more likely to try vegetables if you add a little sweetness to the mix. Try cooking carrots with a little honey; they are already naturally sweet, and the added sweetness of the honey might just put them over the top for your little one. Throw a sweet fruit in with the vegetables; try dried fruits mixed with green beans or peas, or combine sweet potatoes with apples.

If your child doesn’t like the texture of vegetables, try serving them raw or only slightly steamed instead. Keep a close eye out for possible choking hazards, but give fresh veggies and dip a try. If your child prefers fruit because it is crisp, cold, and uncooked, trying fresh vegetables might help.

If Your Little One Prefers Vegetables

It’s a rare child who chooses veggies over fruits, but it certainly does happen! If your child prefers vegetables, there really isn’t a whole lot to worry about as the nutrition provided by a diet rich in various vegetables is very well balanced.

Still, don’t skip the fruits. As with a child who prefers fruit, it’s a good idea to keep the diet as balanced as possible to ensure the best sources of nutrition. Keep offering fruit, and again try mixing it into the vegetables. Fruit makes a wonderful, convenient snack – try serving it with a yogurt dip to make it more fun.

Throughout childhood, your child will likely have several changes of heart as to what foods are on the in list and which are out. It is a time of developing tastes and opinions, and your little one is discovering personal preferences and learning how to express them. The best thing a parent can do is to keep offering different foods. The more often your child sees a food, the more likely it will eventually make it onto the “like” list.

Your Baby’s First Fruits and Vegetables

Your Baby’s First Fruits and Vegetables

September 19th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

Fruits and vegetables will be among the first baby foods your baby will try, and will be an important part of a healthy baby diet from this point on. Introduce fruit and vegetable purees to your baby one at a time, and remember that he might not accept a new food right away. Keep offering rejected foods; it can take multiple attempts before your baby decides he likes it.

Where to Start

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t necessary to start baby on vegetables before fruit. Starting with fruits won’t cause your baby to have a sweet tooth, mainly because he already does. Breast milk has a sweet taste; therefore babies will naturally be predisposed to liking sweeter flavors. This doesn’t mean your baby won’t enjoy vegetables, just that you might need to offer them several times before he decides to eat.

Great choices for first fruits and vegetables are easy to digest, nutrient rich choices that are not likely to cause an allergic reaction. Try fruits such as bananas, pears, apples and avocadoes. For first veggies, try carrots, peas and sweet potatoes. You will need to start with smooth and fairly thin purees. If you are purchasing baby food, start with stage one purees which are the smoothest and the thinnest. Alternatively, you can easily make your own fruit and vegetable purees at home.

Making Your Own Baby Food

Homemade fruit and vegetable purees are a simple and budget-friendly choice, as well as a very healthy one for your baby. You can make your own purees of just about any fruit or vegetable you can think of, quickly and easily at home. The first thing you will need is something to puree the food in; a regular food processor will work great, but there are also baby food makers available that are reasonably priced if you prefer to have a dedicated machine.

Most fruits and vegetables will need to be cooked prior to pureeing. The best way to cook them is via steaming; unlike boiling, steaming will leave the nutrients in the fruits and vegetables intact. You will need to cook everything until very tender to create a smooth puree, so it may require replacing the water a few times. A simple steamer basket that fits inside a regular pot is the most affordable method of steaming. After steaming, save whatever water was used in the cooking process. You can add it back into the puree to help thin it out. Blend until smooth, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired texture and consistency. You can then freeze your purees in ice cube trays for easy portioning later. After freezing, dump the trays into a sealed bag that you can label with the date and type of food.

Bananas and avocadoes make excellent first foods for your baby, and as a bonus, they don’t need to be cooked ahead of time. Simply mash them well and serve! Both are great sources of nutrition.

Adding New Foods

As you expand your baby’s diet to new fruits and vegetables, do so carefully to watch for an allergic reaction. You should add a new food no more than every 3-5 days. This slow pace with allow you to pinpoint which food caused any reaction your baby might have. Even though you are starting with the least allergenic choices available, there is always some risk that your baby could have an unusual reaction. Take it slow – this will also give your baby a chance to really experience the food and get used to the new flavor.

Common Feeding Myths Uncovered

Common Feeding Myths Uncovered

September 2nd, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

As a new parent, you will receive a lot of advice from just about everyone you meet on every possible topic related to raising a child. One of the most popular topics is feeding, as everyone has an opinion on what is the right way to go about it. Unfortunately, some myths are being perpetuated by these well-meaning people. The best way to stop the spread of feeding myths is to uncover the truth.

Feeding Myth #1: Solids Help Babies Sleep

You’re exhausted, and you feel like if you have to get up one more time in the middle of the night you are going to keel over. It’s not hard for a new parent in a state of sleep deprivation to cling to any possible thread of hope for a better night’s sleep. So when a friend or relative suggests adding solids to baby food diet earlier than you had planned, it sounds fairly reasonable. After all, if baby stays full longer, he will sleep longer, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t true. There is no evidence that starting solids early, or really at any time, has any effect on a baby’s sleep patterns or the duration of night sleep.

Right now, the AAP recommends waiting until baby is 6 months old to start solids. While it may be tempting to start your baby early in search of better sleep, it’s not a good idea. Babies need to be developmentally and physically ready for solids before starting. Giving a baby whose digestive system isn’t ready for it solids might cause gastrointestinal upset – which could disturb sleep even more.

Feeding Myth #2: Fatty Baby Foods Will Make Your Baby Fat

Although a diet high in fats isn’t a good idea for grown-ups, babies need a lot of fat to promote brain development. Babies under 2 should always get the full fat version of foods like milk and other dairy products. Foods like avocadoes are very high in fat, but contain the good fats that your baby needs to grow. Never put a baby on a low fat diet, and if you have concerns about your baby’s weight, talk to your pediatrician.

Feeding Myth #3: Giving a Baby Fruits Before Vegetables Leads to a Sweet Tooth

This popular myth states that if you give a baby fruits as a first food, your baby will refuse to eat vegetables due to having developed a preference for sweet foods. The truth is, there is no evidence that starting fruits first will cause your baby to dislike vegetables. As for the sweet tooth, all babies are born with a taste for the sweet. This natural preference exists because breast milk is sweet, and babies are predisposed to prefer the taste of breast milk over anything else.

Feeding Myth #4: You Can’t Start Finger Foods Without Teeth

Babies can learn to chew even before they have teeth. Most babies will develop their front teeth, the incisors, first, which aren’t even helpful in chewing most foods. Molars don’t usually appear until much later, when your baby is already quite proficient at chewing a number of foods by mashing them with her gums. There is no reason to wait until the first few teeth appear to start finger foods – just watch for signs of readiness and choose foods that will dissolve easily in the mouth, and can be mashed without real chewing.

While these are only a few of the rumors you may hear about feeding your baby, hopefully this list will encourage you to seek out the truth before taking any steps to change your baby’s diet.

How Much Sugar and Salt is OK?

How Much Sugar and Salt is OK?

August 28th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

As adults, most of us know the pull of salty and sugary foods. They comprise most of our favorite snack foods, and we can’t help loving them even though we know they are bad for us. The foods that aren’t a part of our healthy diet aren’t a good part of a child’s diet either. Unfortunately, with added sugar and salt popping up everywhere, controlling your child’s intake isn’t easy. With vigilance and attention to food labels, you can keep your child’s salt and sugar intake under control.

Avoiding Excess Salt

Sodium is a mineral that is required by the body to maintain a balance of fluids and avoid dehydration. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to get the required amount of sodium. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get too much, which can be just as bad as or worse than too little.

Sodium is added to all kinds of processed foods, from canned vegetables to frozen foods. It’s especially prevalent in things like canned soups, which are a popular quick meal option for busy parents. Happily, the food industry has recognized the problem with excess sodium and is offering low-sodium or even sodium free versions of canned foods. Canned vegetables are now available packed only in water. Soups are now available with much lower sodium content.

While home cooking should be safer because we control the amount of salt we put into our foods, we often don’t realize that sodium at home doesn’t just come from a salt shaker. Condiments, seasoning blends, and popular cooking flavorings all contain more sodium that most of us realize. By trying to cook healthy foods at home, you could be serving your child more sodium than is healthy. Again, reading labels is important!

The Sweet Side of Life

The good news is, there is no evidence that sugar really causes children to be overactive, nor does it necessarily lead to obesity – in moderation. The real problem with sugary foods in a child’s diet is that they tend to replace healthier foods, and provide empty calories instead of options full of nutrients.

Sugar is added to all kinds of foods, even those aimed at children – perhaps especially those aimed at children. It’s well know that kids like the sweet stuff, and manufacturers are tuned in to your little one’s sweet tooth. Candy isn’t the only culprit, in fact it isn’t even the main culprit. Fruit “drinks”, yogurt, cereals, granola bars and more all contain large amounts of sugar. While some of these foods might also offer nutritional value, usually due to being fortified, it doesn’t make them the healthiest choice. Nutrients that appear naturally in foods are better absorbed by the body and healthier for kids. Try sweet treats that appear in nature, like fruits and berries, instead of processed sugar for a treat that is both sweet and healthy too.

Everything In Moderation

You have heard it before, and it applies here. Denying kids the odd treat will make them more likely to gorge on it when they do get the chance. And what’s life without a little fun? As long as you keep the sweet and salty treats to a minimum, there won’t be a lasting impact on your child’s health. Making a regular habit of it, however, will set your child up for potential health problems in the years to come.

Healthy Ways to Satisfy a Sweet Tooth

Healthy Ways to Satisfy a Sweet Tooth

July 7th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

Finding ways to satisfy the craving for a sweet treat is not just a problem faced by pregnant women, but by much of the population at large. However, in pregnancy nutrition is vitally important, and satisfying that sweet tooth isn’t always in the best interest of a healthy pregnancy.

Fortunately, there are some sweets you can enjoy virtually guilt-free. With a few substitutions, changes, and some fresh ideas, you can take care of your sweet tooth and your baby’s needs at the same time. Here are some ideas for common sweet cravings.

The Craving: Chocolate

One of the most common cravings for women, whether pregnant or not, is chocolate. Luckily, chocolate doesn’t have to be unhealthy. Instead of reaching for a chocolate bar, try one of these ideas to take care of that craving without taking in empty calories.

Make a cup of homemade hot chocolate – with real cocoa, sugar and milk, not from a mix! Sure, it contains a little sugar, but it also contains calcium, vitamin D and antioxidants. The rich chocolaty flavor of real cocoa can’t be beat.

Melt some semi-sweet chocolate with a little butter, and use it like a fondue to dip fresh piece of fruit. You will consume much less of the chocolate, and get all the healthy fruit at the same time!

The Craving: Baked Goods

When you feel like you just have to have something only the bakery can provide, take heart. There are options other than cakes and cookies that can satisfy that desire without all the fat.

First of all, if you must have a sweet treat from the oven, make it your oven. When you bake at home you will know exactly what went into what you are eating. You can also make healthy substitutions to the recipes, such as replacing some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, or using applesauce in place of some of the oil or butter.

Choose baked goods that contain healthy ingredients, such as pumpkin muffins or banana bread. They will still have extra calories, sugar, and fat, but at least there will also be some nutritional value.

Sometimes the craving for something sweet and baked can be satisfied with a warm piece of whole wheat toast smothered in peanut butter and an all-natural fruit preserve. Give it a try – you might find it works better than you would think!

The Craving: Ice Cream

Many a pregnant woman has felt that incredible urge for something cold and creamy. The good news is that ice cream isn’t entirely bad for you if you eat a small amount and choose a lower fat option, such as frozen yogurt. It does offer some nutritional value. However, there are even smarter ways to indulge this craving.

Buy some freezer pop molds and fill them with healthy choices such as all all-fruit smoothie or your favorite 100% fruit juice. Stash them in the freezer for those ice cream cravings and enjoy a frozen treat that’s a whole lot better for you. You can also purchase an ice cream maker and make your own ice cream from fresh, healthy ingredients. That way you control what goes into it, and thus what goes into your body.

Most of us have a sweet tooth now and then, but during pregnancy it can seem to be a regular occurrence. If you plan ahead, choose smart options, and remember to keep all those sweet treats to a moderate level, you can indulge that sweet tooth with no regrets!