My Toddler Used to Eat Vegetables

My toddler used to eat vegetables…and then he stopped.

Makes you want to tear your hair out.  I know because I’ve been there.

Actually, we’ve all been there.  We’ve all had our once-happy-veggie-eaters turn into no-I’m-not-gonna-eat-that-and-there’s-nothing-you-can-do monsters.  It’s one of the most common frustrations parents have.

Well, there is something you can do.  Read on.

Many scholars believe toddlers have a natural impulse to reject foods because it keeps them alive.

Here’s the theory:

Toddlers are particularly vulnerable to eating poisonous foods because of two conditions: their newfound mobility frequently puts them out of momma’s protective reach, and they have a natural desire to put things into their mouths. Making toddlers reluctant to eat unfamiliar foods is Mother Nature’s way of solving this problem.  

I don’t buy it. 

1) This theory can’t explain why a child would reject a familiar food; one they've learned is not poisonous; one that’s already been cleared for consumption by mom.

2) Anyone who has ever been around a toddler knows these kids will put anything into their mouths—as long as it seems dangerous, weird, or something that would freak their parents out.  Dirt. Flowers. Legos.  But healthy vegetables? No way.

Here’s what I think (and it’s backed up by research).

Toddlers reject vegetables because other things taste better.

Of course control, developmental and personality issues also play a role. But answer this: How long after your child started eating solids did you switch from plain Cheerios to Honey Nut Cheerios?  

Or start serving up Brown Sugar Cinnamon Oatmeal instead of plain oatmeal? 

When did you trade in your child’s plain yogurt for vanilla, blueberry, or those delightful yogurt tubes? Introduce apple juice? Goldfish crackers? Chicken nuggets?

Around the time your child started rejecting vegetables?

Baby Food is bland, and it all—fruits, vegetables, cereals—taste basically the same.  In comparison, toddler food is full of flavor.  In fact, it gives kids a "flavor-hit."

Researchers recently discovered:

Kids who eat foods high in sugar, salt and fat—the basic “Child-friendly”  diet—end up seeking out these kinds foods in order to achieve a “flavor-hit.”  They’re going for the high!

Child-friendly foods may seem bland and boring to you, but these items are loaded with sugar, salt and fat. And kids like them!   Read The Truth About “Child-Friendly” Foods.

That’s probably why the old standby, pasta with butter and parmesan, is such a success:  Think salt and fat.

“Flavor-hit” foods train your kids to like junk (corn chips, not corn; cheese puffs, not cheese, and strawberry ice cream, not strawberries).  "Flavor-hit" foods never taste like broccoli.  (But they do taste like french fries!)

In other words, the basic “child-friendly” toddler diet trains your kids’ taste buds away from vegetables.  

The way to increase vegetable consumption—or to stop the downslide— is to consciously manage the flavors you feed your kids.

Don’t think about nutrients as much as flavors, and don't overload your kids with sugar, salt, and fat.  That was the message in my post Why Toddlers Don’t Eat Vegetables.

The reason is clear: Research shows that when kids eat a diet filled with sugar, salt, and fat they want more of these flavors.  It’s a self-perpetuating cycle, and manufacturers are happy to oblige.

Here are some posts to get you thinking about proportion and flavor:

• Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!
• 10 Ways Improving Your Kids’ Snacking Will Improve YOUR Life. 
• Training Tiny Taste Buds

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

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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.

Update on July 5, 2011 by Dina Rose

P. S. If you like my blog, please take a moment and vote for me as a Top Mommy Blog.  Just click on the button above my photo.  Thanks.  Dina

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.

Why Kids Have Bad Eating Habits

I offer apologies to the woman I saw feeding her grandson at Panera last week, but what I’m gonna say ain’t pretty.

If you want to know why America’s children have such bad eating habits you only have to look at what this well-intentioned woman taught her 4 year-old grandson about food and eating.  Then multiply what I observed by the millions of kids in country.

All over the America, in the name of good nutrition, adults are:

• Pushing kids to eat high fat, high sugar, and high sodium foods.
• Teaching kids to think unhealthy foods are healthy. 
• Encouraging kids to snarf down extra calories, and cheering them on when they overeat. 

No wonder the obesity rate among the nation’s preschoolers has doubled in recent years.  

When I tell you what this woman did you’re going to think I’m crazy.  It’s going to seem benign.

She: (1) ordered macaroni and cheese with a blueberry yogurt for her grandson’s lunch; and then (2) told the boy he could have a cookie if he finished his pasta.   He chose a Flower Cookie.  And skipped the yogurt.

I’m not saying the boy shouldn’t have eaten this meal. I don't want to live in a world without mac 'n cheese! But if we're going to feed our kids this kind of crap, we should be a little more conscious (and honest) about the lessons we're teaching.

Lesson 1: To prefer high fat, high sugar, and high sodium foods. 

In one meal this active 4 year old consumed:

• 100% of his daily sugar
• 86% of his daily fat
• 79% of his daily sodium

Don’t think it’s the cookie that’s messing up these numbers. By itself, the macaroni and cheese provides:

• 18% of the boy’s daily sugar (Not bad.)
• 51% of his daily fat (Really?)
• 66% of his daily sodium (OMG!)

There is mounting evidence that "hyperpalatable foods" -- those with just the right amount of sugar, fat and or/salt – stimulate our appetites and can be addictive.

Lesson 2:  Unhealthy foods are healthy.

By offering the cookie as the reward for eating the macaroni, this grandmother was positioning the pasta as a healthy dish—a claim that’s hard to justify.

Compared to the Flower Cookie, Panera’s mac ‘n cheese has:

• 50 more calories
• 9 more grams of fat
• 860 more mg of sodium

And even though the macaroni and cheese has 13 more grams of protein, and a lot more calcium than the cookie, it’s hardly a healthy dish.

It would  have been better to tell the boy that both the macaroni and the cookie were treats.

Lesson 3:  Snarf down extra calories.

We can never know for sure if this boy would have finished the macaroni without a little encouragement, but I doubt it...otherwise, why would he have needed the incentive?

Calories consumed: 890 or 59% of a 4 year-old’s daily allotment

• Macaroni and Cheese  -   490 calories    
• Cookie   -     Approximately 400 of 440 calories (The boy left a few bites)

After the meal the boy called his mother to brag: He'd eaten all his macaroni and earned a cookie.

Lessons clearly learned!

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

P. S. Don't think that leaving the yogurt behind was the nutritional mistake.  In 2 meager ounces, the Organic Kids Yogurt Blueberry Flavor packs a 10 gram, 60 calorie punch.  Read Yogurt vs. Coke.

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Sources: Computations based on USDA Intake Pattern Levels for moderately active/active 4 year old boy (1520 calories per day); Panera Bread Product Nutrition Information accessed 6/17/2001

Kessler, D. A., MD, 2009. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. New York, NY: Rodale; Nestle, Marion. 2011. http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/06/sedentary-work-and-obesity-another-view/. Accessed June 17, 2011;