Eat Your Vegetables!

I’m tired of going to restaurants with my son and reading children’s menus that go like this:

• Chicken Fingers and French Fries
• Grilled Cheese and French Fries
• Hamburger and French Fries
• Hot Dog and French Fries

What’s missing? Vegetables! (Leaving aside the argument that potatoes are technically vegetables–so is chocolate, since it’s made from cocoa beans.) I see this as part of a vicious cycle:

• People think children don’t like vegetables.
• People don’t serve children vegetables.
• Children never get exposed to vegetables, so they don’t like them.

My son loves broccoli. And zucchini. And carrots. And bok choy. And almost any other vegetable he’s tried. Granted, kids do have food preferences, and not every kid is going to like the same thing. But I think my son’s vegetable fondness was formed from four components, in addition to his own inherent tastes:

• Daily exposure. He gets a vegetable with all his dinners, and many lunches. I make sure not to give him the same kind too many days in a row. As with his toys and books, he seems to enjoy new things regularly.
• Good preparation. I cook 95% of his vegetables from fresh. (I do keep a bag or two of frozen ones for emergency shortages. I’m a realist.) I avoid anything cooked to death and canned. This means he gets vegetables with flavor and texture. If you think preparing vegetables takes too long, make sure you have a good (and sharpened) knife, and improve your chopping skills and speed by reading The Professional Chef’s Knife Kit. Also invest in a vegetable steamer– you can buy a cheap one at the supermarket (the kind that folds out like a satellite dish and fits into almost any small pot) and reduce the chance of overcooking. (Yes, you can still overcook in a steamer, but it’s harder to do.)
• Prioritized serving of his food items. Despite his love of veggies, my son is a pretty normal toddler, food-wise. He loves cookies, cake, and french fries, though we strictly limit these. Among the foods he normally gets, pasta (in all its forms) is pretty much his favorite. When I’m serving him pasta, I therefore put it out after the vegetables.
• A good example. My partner and I eat lots of vegetables, too. I see so many other moms eating junk, and then talking about how their kids are such picky eaters. Hello? This is not rocket science.

I worry, of course, that once he hits school age, the combination of peer influence and poorly-thought-out school meals may swing him away from such good habits. I can only have faith that by instilling good habits early, we can counter some, if not all, of that. I’m also heartened by efforts such as that of the Appleton Central Alternative School, which has partnered with Natural Ovens Bakery to offer a healthier school food program. We need to see more such initiatives.

Of course, some kids are just picky eaters, for whatever reason. The above hints are not meant as cure-all advice, but merely as ways of stacking the deck in favor of green and leafy. I hope they work for some of you.