Let me tell you about the time when my daughter Aliena was a year and a half. She had a really hard time eating vegetables. We were vegetarian at the time and I thought that a balanced diet should include veggies!
As hard as I tried and searched ways to be creative, nothing really worked. I blended veggies in sauces, made dips, pretended that broccoli were trees, made carrot muffins and zucchini bread. Veggies were not foreign in our house and were served on a regular basis. These were the foods that we would eat and that she was growing up with and nothing new and unusual. I was determined to find a way to get my daughter to like them.
One thing that I did notice that was bothering me is that she loved carbohydrates. She craved her cereals and oatmeal, devoured her crackers, ate the bread instead of her whole sandwich, inhaled her pasta and rice. She just loved those carbs.
As it turned out she ended up having some health problems and we had to severely restrict her grain consumption. Taking away her favourite foods was very much like going through a withdrawal period when you are addicted to something. Not only was she a toddler and going through normal toddler phases and sickness but she was going through a carb addiction withdrawal. Who new that this could even happen? But she just screamed at the cupboards were here food normally was. It took her a while to get over it.
After a few weeks of this she started to experiment with veggies. To my surprise she started liking them. She started eating them without being prompted to and she was even eating salads and other green stuff! I no longer had to disguise them for her.
Since realizing how detrimental excessive carbs can be to children, I also restricted my second daughters carb intake. From the moment she tried solid food she was enjoying her veggies. She is more of a picky eater when it comes to dark green salads, I can still get them in her with a little bit of creative play.
I try not to give my kids more than one serving of sprouted or soaked grains a day. The sprouting and soaking of grain is necessary to neutralize anti-nutrients. So they enjoy Ezekiel Bread and on occasion soaked oatmeal. As side effect of limiting carbs my kids enjoy their greens in green smoothies, and Aliena eats kale salads and collard green wraps.
Having kids means that you enjoy the company of their friends. It is a shame to observe today’s children say stuff like “I hate veggies and I never eat them”, Or that when you serve veggies for snack that it does not get eaten. Children are becoming malnourished even though they are eating plenty of food. It is just not the right kind of food.
This has been my experience.
I would love to hear yours! How do you get your picky eater to eat their veggies and green salad?
