June 28, 2011 Why Toddlers Don't Eat Vegetables
Want to know why toddlers reject vegetables? Most parents inadvertently teach them to.
No one does it deliberately, “Hey, we’ve got to stop this veggie-eating thing. It’s time to make sure Lucy loathes lima beans.”
But most parents don’t actively help their children cultivate a taste for vegetables. In fact, they teach their kids to prefer other kinds of flavors instead.
Here’s some counterintuitive advice: Don’t worry so much about vegetables. Pay attention to all the other foods you regularly feed your kids because therein lies the answer to veggie eating.
Instead of trying to get nutrients into your children, think about shaping their taste buds.
A recent study shows that when children favor foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt they typically don’t like natural flavored foods. Foods like vegetables.
Sadly, most “Child-Friendly” foods are high in sugar, salt and fat. This is true of sweetened yogurt, apple juice, Goldfish crackers, pizza, cheese and the list goes on.
From a nutrition perspective, these foods barely pass the parental “sniff-test.”
From a habits perspective, they’re a disaster. If you give your children a lot of sweet, salty, and high fat foods throughout the day then these are the flavors their taste buds will come to expect.
When it comes to feeding kids, most parents think of themselves as Nutrient-Providers and Detectives.
And this is how most parents get into trouble. Nutrient-Providers and Detectives look for foods that meet two criteria: they deliver the nutritional goods (at least minimally) and their kids will like them.
This approach ends up restricting rather than expanding, your kids’ palates because it encourages you to feed your children foods that have the same taste and texture.
You need to think of yourself as a taste-bud shaper instead.
Taste-bud shapers recognize that every bite of food influences their children’s taste preferences.
It’s just not the number of times your kids eat peas that determines whether or not they like peas.
What matters is the range of flavors your kids are exposed to throughout the day, and how those flavors compare to peas.
If you don’t consciously shape your kids’ taste buds to like vegetables you’ll end up teaching them to dislike vegetables instead.
Don’t believe me? Chart all the foods your kids eat for a couple of days, noting whether they are sweet, salty or full of fat. Go ahead. I dare you!
Then, start training your kids’ taste buds in the right direction by:
- Gradually wean your kids away from sugar, salt and fat. Read Ways to Wean Your Juice Fiend and Yogurt on the Brain!
- Temporarily add sugar, salt or fat to veggies so they taste more like the other stuff. Read You Catch More Flies with Honey and When the Less Nutritious Choice is Right
- Shift your children’s daily diet towards more fresh, natural foods. Read House Building 101.
- Use “Child-Friendly” Foods as occasional treats.
~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~
Source: Cornwell, T. B. and A. R. McAlister. 2011. “Alternative Thinking About Starting Points in Obesity. Development of Child Taste Preferences.” Appetite 56: 428-39.
Reader Comments (7)
Yes i think you are right as usual. We do blind tests with different kinds of apples or tomatoes or ice creams or crackers to try to get the kids to become more mindful eaters and pay more attention to the flavour and texture of what they eat. Besides it is fun. Can you taste the difference between a purple and an orange carrot? And, I too struggle with this one, can you put words to it? It is hard to describe taste!
Also, I was a picky eater as a kid. Well I still am in many ways, but now I get to pick myself and that makes it so much easier. It makes such a great difference to come to realize that I might love crispy, freshly picked snow peas almost as much as i detest the mushy, soggy ones that comes out of the freezer accompanied by cubed carrots and corn.
This is a subject that I regularly write on when looking to coach and teach my personal training clients and followers of my blog. You have a great perspective on this problem and I love your advice. I hear all too often from parents that their kids won't eat vegetables, but then when I ask them what they do give them it's no wonder why. With the rate of childhood and adolescent obesity going through the roof, this information is more timely than ever. You're helping a lot parents with this information I'm sure. Keep up the good work- Shane.
Shane,
Thanks for your kind words. I really think our national focus on nutrition has made parents stop looking at the habits that regularly eating certain kinds of foods fosters. We need to dial down a little of the nutrition "noise" and start thinking about habits.
Dina
Thanks for a great post, Diana. I just wanted to add that the adaptive mechanisms (rejecting new foods) you referred to at the beginning is how neophobia, not picky eating, is typically described in the literature. Once a child put a food in his mouth, neophobia is gone. Picky eating, on the other hand, is influenced by a bunch of other factors, and food parenting is among the most influential.
Terence M. Doveya,,Paul A. Staplesb, E. Leigh Gibsonc, Jason C.G. Halfordd "Food neophobia and ‘picky/fussy’ eating in children: A review" Appetite 50 (2008) 181–193
Natalia,
Thanks for clarifying this distinction. Most people in the public -- including pediatricians -- use the title picky eater to cover both picky eating and neophobia. But you're right; perhaps I should have been more specific.
Thanks,
Dina
another trick: try taking the kid to a u-pick farm or at least a farmstand or farmers market. Let them see the veggies growing on plants and have them try a few raw. This amazes kids - it's like magic to them! I too hate overcooked, mushy frozen veggies but love frsh raw ones. Check pickyourown.org to find a u-pick location.
Amy,
Thanks for the pick your own link. It's a great resource for parenting wanting that experience. I agree that fresh raw vegetables look and taste great, and it's good for kids to see where their food comes from.
Thanks for your comment.
Dina