My family members are unashamed meat eaters. I often feel as if my life choices might offend them. So, you can imagine some of the difficulties we face when caring for my 4 year old niece. She often makes demands for hurtful foods such as McDonald’s, eggs, and milk. Thanks to the government’s WIC program, her shelves are overflowing in these hurtful foods. Instead of having a discussion with her about how milk is bad for you, we redirect her requests into more healthy options. Luckily it’s pomegranate season, so deserts have been even easier than usual.
How can you get a child who wants white bread, milk, cheese, and chicken to eat a healthful diet you ask? Well, we start by having no unhealthy foods in the house. We also take effort to prepare meals that she’s used to like spaghetti. She doesn’t even notice the whole wheat pasta, but she does notice the lack of meat. Rather than the missing meat being a problem for her, it leads her to making requests from the items she sees us eating.
children model your behavior
At our most recent meal we made her a simple tomato based whole-wheat pasta dish with some broccoli and peanut sauce (no-salt peanut butter) dip that we know she likes. For ourselves we added kale and onions to the sauce to make a real treat. Several minutes into the meal my niece made a delightful, yet simple request, “Can I have some of that green stuff?” I replied telling her that she was asking for the kale that we had bought at the farmers market together earlier and gave her a little to try. She ate it with a happy, “I like kale!”
substitute for old favorites
When she won’t eat what we have, we offer her choices that are familiar to her like, “milk” (soy or rice which she happily drinks as milk) or eggs (scrambled tofu). We will soon tell her that these favorites of hers aren’t actually milk and eggs.
when all else fails
When she’s feeling picky or unhappy with the choices on her plate, or my haphazard cooking ability, I open the fridge and the cabinets and let her choose something she likes to eat. Since all the food in our house is healthy, no matter what she picks, she will get a healthy meal.
No related posts.
Did you enjoy: Feeding a Resistant Young Child? Then subscribe to The Casual Vegan by Email or you should follow me on twitter here.
The Next Post: Pomegranate Season
The Previous Post: T. Colin Campbell on Larry King
Comments About Feeding a Resistant Young Child
// 2 comments so far.
kristen // October 26th 2009
Going to the Saturday Farmers Market or even just the produce section at the grocery store is a great way to get kids excited about plant-eating too — As Greg and I walked around with our niece at the market, she munched on a basket of cherry tomatoes, and whenever we go to the produce section at the grocery she is reminded that she loves grapes and oranges and apples. The week before, I got her interested in going to the Farmers Market with Greg by charging her with the task of finding me the perfect tomato as I stayed home to do some chores.
Chandelle // November 11th 2009
I am very lucky because my kids have been on a plant-based diet since birth. I have so much respect for parents who make the change with older kids and push through the struggles to adapt to new tastes. My kids love to go grocery shopping with me. As much as I can, I give them free range in the produce section to pick out a few things that they love. My son always gets broccoli, collard greens, and a fruit (lately pomegranates), while my daughter gets apples, apples, and more apples, until I steer her to the veggies, where she gets carrots and celery. Farmers marketing is fantastic because the kids get to see where their food comes from and realize that food doesn’t have to be shiny or pretty to taste good. In fact, I love to charge my kids with picking out a “weird” food so they can see how good it tastes! That’s a lot of fun for them, finding a knobby squash or strange-colored tomato. Sharing the pleasures of whole plant foods with my kids is one of my favorite parts of being a parent. And bringing them into the kitchen for food preparation is so important. They love to help me and even the smallest children can do things like peeling garlic and stirring spices into apples before baking.
You can follow any responses to this entry via its RSS comments feed. You may also leave a trackback by clicking this link.