Let Children Love Vegetables

Vegetables are generally rich in vitamins and minerals. However, a great many children are unwilling to eat vegetables, or they do not like the taste of some vegetables. These phenomena worry their parents. One method can solve this problem. That is to add vegetables to the supplementary food since the babyhood.

In the very beginning, parents can feed their babies with some vegetable juice. Usually, tomato juice, cucumber juice and carrot juice are preferred by babies. After this period, babies are able to eat some vegetable paste. When children are one years old, they are free to eat mashed vegetables with porridges or noodles.

Children accept vegetables step by step. When they are fed with milk, the vegetables that their mothers eat would influence the taste of milk. As a result, children always have the same preference with their mothers. Therefore, mothers themselves should not be picky in eating vegetables. If children do not like one or two vegetables, please do not force them. As children are picky in cereal and vegetables, such a phenomenon is normal. And fortunately, parents have many other kinds of vegetables to choose. When babies are three months old, their intestines and stomachs are not so well-developed that only paste or juice is suitable for them. Parents could judge the wastes of babies to see whether vegetables are suitable or not. If the wastes seem abnormal, stop feeding them these vegetables and change other types.

The making of paste or juice should be careful. First of all, parents have to choose clean and fresh vegetables. If fertilizers are largely used in planting, the roots of vegetables would turn red. And their tastes would change after being processed. Therefore, fertilizers and pesticides in the vegetables should be eliminated in salty water before cooking. Secondly, when making the paste or juice, parents should take the preference of their children into consideration. For example, if a baby does accept the taste of carotene, his parents can choose to add to orange juice or tomato juice to the paste. Thirdly, the cooking should not last too long, or the vitamins and chlorophyllwould be damaged. Fourthly, it is better for parents to make vegetable paste or juice themselves instead of buying canned food. It is because preservatives are usually added so that the canned food would not be go bad quickly. If parents have no time and energy to make food for their children, they are suggested to buy single vegetable mush rather than mixed vegetable mush. In addition, use the spoons to feed babies. Or the saliva would make the food go bad easily.