Children who don't like vegetables are not necessarily deliberately against their parents. There may be the following reasons:

Text/Jiang (child nutrition expert)

1 problems with vegetables themselves, such as vegetables being too old for children to bite; The food tastes strange, bad, etc.

2. the problem of parenting style, such as the limited variety of vegetables selected; Parents themselves don't like vegetables; Parents inadvertently made inappropriate comments on some vegetables, which affected their children's preferences.

In fact, vegetables themselves are delicious food. As long as parents can take appropriate measures to solve their children's problems, it is not difficult for children to like vegetables.

Solve the problem of vegetables themselves

◆ Similar substitution. There are many kinds of vegetables, including fresh beans, such as soybean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, cowpeas, lentils, edamame and peas. Rhizomes, such as potatoes, carrots, white radishes, lotus roots, yams, taro, bamboo shoots, etc. ; Stems, leaves and flowers, such as Chinese flowering cabbage, rape, spinach, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, Chinese cabbage, celery, asparagus, watercress, shepherd's purse, etc. Cucumber and eggplant, such as cucumber, wax gourd, towel gourd, pumpkin, bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, tomato and so on. If children just don't eat some vegetables, they can use similar vegetables instead, such as cucumber and wax gourd instead of loofah, shepherd's purse and spinach instead of cabbage.

◆ First stems, then leaves. Some children's rejection of vegetables stems from the experience of being stuck in the throat by vegetables when they were young. Therefore, you can cut the stem first and then cut the leaves. You can choose a variety with relatively little fiber, and pay attention to the smaller the cut, the better.

◆ Reasonable cooking. The purpose of reasonable cooking is to keep the unique color of vegetables bright and crisp and arouse children's appetite. The basic method is:

Cuan method

Wash vegetables such as cabbage, celery, lotus root and spinach. Boil it in boiling water for a few minutes, then take it out and make it salty, sweet and sour according to taste. This method can keep the tender and crisp characteristics of vegetables. In addition, pickled vegetables or shepherd's purse can also be used as stuffing for making wonton or jiaozi, which is acceptable to most children.

A combination of meat and vegetables

Some children don't like the taste of carrots, so they can cook carrots and meat together, which is not only delicious, but also beneficial to the absorption of carotene. It is also a good way to make vegetarian meatballs: mix minced meat with mashed potatoes and carrots to make meatballs, or make braised pork, which is very popular with children. In addition, braised pork and boiled vegetables, mutton and radish are all delicious dishes.

Solve the problem of parenting style

● Parents lead by example. Parents' habits of picky eaters and partial eclipse often affect their children, so parents should overcome the habits of picky eaters and partial eclipse as soon as possible, take the lead in eating a variety of foods, and help children develop good eating habits.

● Emphasize the benefits of vegetables. Usually parents should explain the benefits of eating more vegetables, and don't criticize so-and-so vegetables casually. Because children don't have the ability to judge independently, parents' words often become the basis for them to choose a certain dish.

● Provide a variety of options. Parents should consciously expand the range of family recipes, constantly increase the variety of vegetables, and often introduce new varieties, such as broccoli, asparagus, purple cabbage, cherry tomatoes and so on. At the same time encourage and praise children to try. This will not only enable children to get rich nutrition from different vegetables, but also develop good eating habits for children to eat diversified foods.

What if children don't like fruit?

Text/Jiang (child nutrition expert)

In fact, there are very few children who really don't like any kind of fruit. Some parents think that their children don't like fruit. In fact, they just don't like apples or bananas, but they don't rule out delicious fruits such as grapes, strawberries, oranges and watermelons, and they may prefer to drink fresh juice. Some children may not be interested in fruits for a period of time, especially when parents limit the types of fruits to apples or bananas. Therefore, parents should first ask themselves: "Is the variety of fruit provided to their children too monotonous?" "Does the fruit provided meet the taste of children?" If parents can correct the deviation and restriction of supply in time, I believe that fruit is not difficult to become one of children's favorite foods.

Of course, some children will have some symptoms when eating fruit, so we should pay attention at this time. For example, children with spleen and stomach deficiency and cold will have diarrhea after eating watermelon or pear; Children who eat oranges, lychees, bayberries or mangoes will have oral ulcers. Therefore, parents should understand their children's physique, know some knowledge about the cold and heat properties of fruits, and provide children with fruits suitable for their physique to avoid the above phenomenon. Even children with normal constitution should pay attention to matching different fruits, such as watermelon and litchi, kiwi and peach, apple and orange, which are more conducive to children's health. For children with poor spleen and stomach function, Chinese and western medicine can be required to improve gastrointestinal function first.

Some children who eat fruit may have allergic reactions, such as numbness of the lips, abdominal pain, vomiting, redness of the skin, wind bumps and so on after eating pineapple. This is mainly because pineapple contains bromelain, which is easy to cause allergic reactions. If peeled pineapple pieces are soaked in salt water in advance, the activity of this protease can be destroyed without causing allergies. Fruits that can cause allergies include oranges, peaches, apricots and mangoes. Allergic symptoms include: numbness of mouth, swelling of lips, urticaria, etc. Stop eating this kind of fruit immediately after allergic reaction.

Children like variety, so in addition to providing fruit prototypes, parents can also consider making fruits into dishes, such as fruit salad, shredded apple, strawberry and cucumber mixed with kraft sauce, milk banana slices, fruit soup and so on. You can also make strawberry jam and applesauce yourself; Yogurt mixed with fruit is a favorite after-dinner food for most children.

Generally speaking, eating fruits can start with breakfast, such as apples, bananas, kiwis and peaches, or drinking a glass of juice drinks, such as orange juice, apple juice or grape juice. Watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, pears and oranges can be eaten after lunch or dinner. However, it should be noted that the amount of fruit eaten before meals should not be too much, so as not to affect the intake of children's dinner. It is not advisable to eat a lot of fruit before going to bed, so as not to affect sleep; In particular, excessive intake of fruits may cause enuresis in children; Eating fruit with high sugar content may affect the health of teeth.

Parents should understand that we should not only provide children with fruits, but more importantly, cultivate children to develop the habit of eating fruits, which will be beneficial to their health all their lives.