Juicy appetizing fruits and vegetables are the most wonderful gift of mother nature. The fact that they contain many valuable nutrients, everyone knows. Therefore, it is not difficult to guess how to feed a child so that it grows better. Offer more vegetables and fruits in any form! However, the problem is how to persuade the children to eat them.
Instincts. The child has a more developed sense of taste than vision and hearing. From the first week of life his taste sensations are "trained". The sweet child reacts positively. Salty, sour and bitter do not give him special joy. From the first days the child must be self-sufficient in nutrition. If he does not want to eat, you should not force him to feed. In young children, the innate survival instinct, which manifests itself not only with starvation, but also with excess feeding. As it is often rightly said, the body knows what is best for it.
Nature instead of chemistry. This motto should become the main thing for parents when choosing food for a child, if they want it to grow better. The ideal option is to grow vegetables and fruits on your own private plot. If this is not possible, give preference to products marked "environmentally friendly product". When supplementing very young children, try to buy products of world famous companies with an impeccable reputation. The responsible companies of the field for growing vegetables and fruits are away from industrial centers and transport routes, so that they do not have any contact with "chemistry". The chemical composition of the soil on which they grow, as well as the seeds are carefully selected and analyzed. The "children's" plantations do not use pesticides and herbicides. Fertilizers are used exclusively of biological origin, weeding is performed manually, and "useful" insects are attracted to fight pests - for example, ladybugs. All this is done for the sake of the impeccably clean quality of the product.
Food allergy. The first child's allergen is food. Only after some time there is a reaction to inhalant allergens. Food allergy most often occurs in children 2 to 3 months old. The product group includes the following most allergic products:
- Citrus: lemon, lime, orange, mandarin, grapefruit.
- berries: strawberries, strawberries, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes.
Of course, everything depends on the individual sensitivity threshold of the child. The allergy can be even on an apple or carrot. After eating, allergic foods can cause diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence and a rash. Sometimes the symptoms are accompanied by difficulty breathing, runny nose and cough. Symptoms of food allergy manifest from half an hour after taking an allergen up to three days. Thus, when you see signs of vulnerability to allergic reactions, you need to expand the child's menu and once a week gradually add a new component of the diet. It is best to use products with the lowest risk of allergy for baby food. The safest dishes do not contain gluten, milk, eggs, soy, preservatives, dyes, synthetic flavorings, sweeteners or sugar. Safe products can be mixed with products potentially causing suspicion of allergy, reducing the likelihood of a negative reaction. For example, you decided to add carrots to your diet for the first time. In order not to "baffle" the young organism with unfamiliar food, you can mix carrots with a product already familiar, for example - with potatoes. At the next stage, carrots can be replaced with pumpkin, leaving the potato - provided that in the previous week there were no signs of intolerance or food allergy to carrots. When the body is used to a combination of pumpkin and potatoes, the following new component can be added to them. For example, a bird. And so on. Suspicious foods should be excluded from the diet for a period of at least one year.
Step by step. Home-made juices and mashed potatoes are not always the best solution when it comes to feeding young children. Even if they are grown according to the traditional rules of organic farming. It's all about the right or wrong selection of varieties. It's no secret that different varieties of apples have different concentrations of substances, such as acids and sugars. Not always on our own plot of land we grow the least allergenic and sweet varieties of plants. So when feeding, you need to monitor the reaction of the child, even on household products. It is possible that you will have to switch to finished products. Manufacturers of baby food for decades studied the most suitable varieties of vegetables, fruits and berries. They ensure that their products are very soft to the taste and does not irritate children's delicate gastrointestinal tract. The most sweet varieties with a low acidity content, with a high content of vitamin C, valuable macro- and microelements are selected for cultivation. As for vegetables, the child gets used to taste better if you start to feed a small amount of puree together with breast milk.
Pleasure in many ways. Joint food intake serves not only to quench hunger. This is a real ritual, designed to spend a good time with the whole family. Feeding a child should not be associated with a "fight" for each eaten spoon and be based on negative emotions. The child is not an animal, he can not be trained. It is important to feed the child with a pleasant atmosphere. By introducing new products (especially after the milk diet), you should understand that it takes time for the child to get used to the new taste, smell and texture of unknown foods. If he does not want to eat all the soup or juice at first, parents should show patience and give him smaller portions of new dishes, but more often. This problem and the methods of solution are also relevant for older children. It is also important to maintain a constant diet and not allow regular snacks. After all, there are so many other ways to give pleasure in life, not related to delicious food.
Not only adults eat with their eyes. Our children also pay close attention to the color of food, the attractiveness of packaging, on cutlery, plates and bottles used for their feeding. So, in order to improve the children's appetite, let's beautifully arrange cups, spoons, plates. This will attract the attention of young researchers, and the time of eating will become an exciting meal. Although there is a saying that they do not play with food, but it is morally obsolete. Especially in relation to young children. This helps not only to feed them, but also stimulates the development of the child. After a while, lovely pranks during a meal develop a greater degree of freedom in children. In addition, they will quickly and with pleasure learn new dishes, even if not the most delicious, but useful. In the early years, you should not require the child to have good manners at the table, because applying such rules is too difficult for him. Let the baby even eat food with his hands, but with an appetite.
Art of design. If a child does not like certain vegetables and fruits, this is not the end of the world. Instead of disturbing him while eating, it's better to show your imagination next time. You can resort to small tricks - to cook the same products, but in a different form. It is not necessary to mask vegetables under child's favorite dishes. You can decorate the table with artistic carvings from fruits and vegetables, which please the eye and excite the imagination. This method of decoration came to Europe from Asian countries, where it has a 1000-year history. Initially, exquisitely sliced dishes enjoyed the noble people. But is not your baby a little prince or princess? Of course, this art will have to learn. In the Kingdom of Thailand, for example, this discipline is even included in the national school curriculum, from primary school to universities, and is optional. The first mention of the artistic carving of vegetables and fruits came from China, and refers to the times of the Tang dynasty (618 - 906). But the real boom of complex patterns of carving from the gifts of nature fell during the reign of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279). In the fourteenth century, thanks to the popular Lei festival, masterpieces left the palace gates. The art of carving became popular among the middle class. To date, fantasies from fruits and vegetables not only emphasize the taste of dishes, but also provide fantastic beauty of decoration of tables.
Of course, parents do not have to try so hard. But to show a little bit of fantasy is definitely worth it. For beginners it will be difficult to decorate the carvings with gifts of nature. Therefore, we recommend starting the practice with "big forms". For example, with watermelons, papaya, melon, pineapple, zucchini, pumpkin. Their huge size and soft, juicy flesh leave a huge space for creativity. Then you can go to a more complex material: apples, radishes, carrots, peppers, cucumber, green onions. Masterpieces, as a rule, can be decorated with greenery. To create beautiful compositions you will need a set of special tools. The main tools are knives for cutting vegetables and fruits, with thin, serrated blades and a round handle. These vegetable and fruit sculptures, of course, will bring joy to the child, will stimulate his curiosity and appetite.
Feeding a child so that it grows better is not a trivial task. During the first months and even years, the child's diet needs to be made more diverse. Unusual design of dishes and new tastes will help to form proper habits in food. Participation in the preparation, preparation and decoration of food is much more interesting than passive feeding of the child.