Fussy Eaters
by mathe | Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 9:31 am | Uncategorized |
Most mommies have a first-hand experience with a fussy eater. Getting a kid to eat well and to eat a lot takes more than a few tricks to make it happen. Sometimes, we mommies should be inventive, resourceful, diplomatic and down-right ruthless all at the same time, to be successful in teaching our kids to eat and eat right.
Our present health situation is dismal at best and totally tragic at worst. The growing obesity epidemic and our penchant for anything sweet, oily, sodium-laden food that can be served really fast is quite phenomenal. There has never been a society more dependent on fastfood than today. Thus, it is a responsibility of each mom to train her kids to eat healthy while they are still young. Unfortunately, for some, this is as difficult as teaching a dog to use spoon and fork.
As a vegetarian and a marketer of plant-based immune boosters, I have successfully transferred my preference for healthy foods (to a certain extent, at least), to my two sons. But that did not happen overnight. It took me years of discipline and firm policies on eating healthy before they came to appreciate the fact that they cannot just stuff anything into their mouths anytime they want. I do not see any end to this training, though, as long as they are still living with me. It is a daily thing for me to monitor what they eat and to plan what I should serve them
I want to share a few of the tricks I employed to make this happen, in the hope that other mothers and their kids would benefit.
First, it is wise to introduce as many flavors, tastes and textures of food as early as possible to a baby, so that it will get used to these and will not find them yucky when it is older. One good way of achieving this is by mashing, chopping or grating veggies. When my babies started eating solid foods, I would patiently mash anything that can safely be eaten and digested by a baby. I kept their meals varied so that they got used to a lot of flavors and tastes.
Second, I taught my kids the importance of timing in eating. Sweets, soda drinks or junk foods are not to be eaten before mealtimes. This is an understood policy and my kids know this very well.
This rule also comes in handy when they do not seem to like the food prepared for them, and they have ice cream or a piece of cake for dessert. They know that they cannot have those treats unless they eat a proper meal. The dessert, then, becomes their motivation to eat their meal first and eat a considerable amount of it.
Third, I make sure that they have greens everyday or at least four times a week. The fact that they see me and my husband prefer vegetables over meat, has ingrained in their young minds that veggies are essential. I did not try to put them on a vegetarian diet like me, but I have made vegetables a major part of their daily food. Now, my older son, aged 11, prefers vegetables and fruits over meat.
This meant incorporating vegetables into their favorite dishes. I am also an avid cook so this skill comes in handy in preparing, sometimes inventing dishes that they will like. Since they were accustomed to different tastes of food, I do not disguise any vegetable now that they are bigger, except when I add them to meat balls or something like that. Now they munch on broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms or potatoes. Spinach is not an abominable thing to them.
Fourth, incorporate nutritious ingredients into a favorite dish or the main course of a meal (for the older kids), regardless if it was ever heard of before. I have come up with a few tricks to achieve this. One is, I come up with tasty sauces with a hint of honey. The sweetness of the honey overrides everything else and my kids end up eating their beans and leafy vegetables.
I also have a list of versatile, nutritious ingredients that can make dishes really tastier and are real health boosters. Some of these are mushroom, pineapple slices, tuna, carrots, broccoli, and a whole lot more. Whenever possible, I include these in the dishes I cook.
These are only a few of the things that moms can do to train their kids to eat healthy. Every effort made towards this is an investment towards a healthier life for them. I would appreciate hearing from you as well. Your coping mechanism in this department is surely worth listening to.
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Tags: healthy eating for kids
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thanks for commenting on my blog. yes, we sure do have tough economic times ahead.
HotMomma,
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Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting on my card…I would have come by sooner, but the stomach virus (and other nasty germ-fests) have invaded my house and I didn’t have the desire to sit at a computer.
I love this article. I wrote about something similar awhile back…about a show I saw depicting some morbidly obese children and how their weight was being managed. And I commented about how my kids have inherited my love for a variety of fruits. Their love (or lack, thereof) for veggies definitely stems from dad…but we work on that as well. I’m not ready to become a vegetarian, but I do enjoy making healthy and HEALTHFUL meals for my family.