The girls are now 2 and a half years old, the age where kids can be very picky and choose to reject many foods provided to them. I have been lucky to have my girls accept most fruits and vegetables, and love them! Toddler nutrition is very important since daily intake of many nutrients may not be met if your child does not eat properly. I'm no nutrition expert and the intentions of this post is not to tell any parent how to feed their child, this post will simply give other parents an idea of what I provide to my children and how I helped them to love their fruits and vegetables.I started my girls on solids at around 6 months. They were premature by 2 months, however, they were not restricted to any special diets and did not have any developmental delay which enabled us to start them at a normal stage onto solids. When I was a child, my family tried pretty late on serving my brother and I fruits and vegetables. I wanted to make sure that my children were exposed early to all different types of foods that they most likely would not like as they got older, you know like broccoli and other green foods.
One of the most helpful things that I learned was to NOT cook separate meals specifically for kids. This tip not only helps with less dishes, but it promotes the meals and enhances the child's urge to eat. When a parent is enjoying the same meal as a child, there is no urge for the child to want what is on the parent's plate. A second way to entice your child is to make sure that the plate is prepared for colorful foods. My girls love sweet peppers, I sometimes cut slices of sweet peppers as a snack or sauteed in a meal. If their plate is fun to look at, they will be engaged in discussing what foods are on the plate and more interested in tastes and texture.
An important note to take is to not give up if your picky eater does not accept his/her fruits and veggies at first. Try frequently and make sure that you lead by example 😉!
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