Vegetables are the foods that usually cause major problems in infant feeding. Children tend to reject them because they do not like them and parents do everything possible to disguise them so that they go unnoticed at meals, but we must know that it is not good to camouflage the vegetables to the kids. We will tell you why.
Children experience what is known as neophobia, the fear of trying new foods, a fairly common disorder in childhood. Children need to take your time and a good dose of patience from parents to end up accepting them.
But the best thing to avoid children suffering from this aversion to new foods, and especially to vegetables, which occupy the least graceful place in children's preferences, is to accustom children to Try new flavors without camouflaging them since they start eating solids.
Vegetables in the children's diet
Vegetables are essential in children's diet because they are a important source of fiber, vitamins and minerals. They are in the second level of the nutritional pyramid along with the fruits, although due to their importance there are those who propose that they occupy the first level instead of cereals.
Thanks to their contribution of vegetable fiber they favor intestinal transit, they also have few calories (so it is recommended to accompany them with legumes, rice and meat), low in protein and fat and lots of water. They act as antioxidants protecting from chronic diseases and helping to maintain the health of tissues such as skin and mucous membranes of the body.
Introduction of vegetables in the children's diet
Since they begin with complementary feeding, after six months, they can start slowly trying vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes, green peas, green beans, zucchini, squash, leek, celery, broccoli.
It is recommended to give them after taking milk, because milk is still the most important, but yes give them to try the vegetables, always one by one, and then combine them so that they get to know new flavors and textures.
As of the six or seven months, according to the pediatrician's recommendation, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions and asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, cabbage, beets, turnip, asparagus, chard and leafy vegetables in general for its high nitrate content.
Ways to prepare vegetables without camouflaging them
When it comes to babies less than a year old, when preparing them, they are cooked with little water to take advantage of the nutrients that remain in the broth and drain well.
They can be crushed to make porridge or crush them with the fork, or cut them into small pieces so that the baby can catch it with his fingers. To add caloric value and some flavor, you can add some olive oil.
Not camouflaging them does not mean they are not tasty. There are hundreds of ways to prepare vegetables, without hiding them, so that they are tastier for the little ones.
We must not press them or force them to try new foods, because they can produce the opposite effect to the desired one, delaying their acceptance.
Camouflaging means hiding and hiding the taste of vegetables is not what we want, if we intend to end up accepting them. You have to put imagination to prepare them in different ways, combining them with different foods, until they are more pleasant, but without pretending to hide them.
The only thing we get by hiding vegetables in the preparation of meals is that they don't know them. Knowing them, tasting them, touching them, feeling their texture, their taste, their color, is the way that children become familiar with them. Therefore, the sooner they make it more natural it will be for them.
If, in preparing them, we camouflage them "so that they do not know that they are there," the child will never lose the sense of ignorance towards food and they will never know if you feel like it or not.
Babies usually accept them better, and if not, we should keep trying very patiently. It is said that up to ten attempts are necessary for the child to accept or permanently reject a food. Sometimes, the food they didn't want to taste, at the same time they accept it without problem.
But children tend to be somewhat older than the most reluctant to eat vegetables. That's when we have to display all our imagination to prepare them without camouflaging them because it is not good to camouflage the vegetables to the kids. They can be au gratin with cheese, prepare a caramel cake, a carrot pudding, a chard omelette or some spinach snacks.
In this way, the vegetable looks, is not camouflaged, receives the flavor of other foods but the child knows he consumes them.
Finally, the best way to get children to be interested in knowing new flavors is to involve them in the preparation of food. Motivation is very important when it comes to eating, and when participating in the preparation of the dishes they feel more motivated when it comes to trying them.
