The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids - M.s.j., Dana Villamagna [14]
Vegan Voices
Keep trying foods. My daughter didn’t enjoy avocado or bananas as a baby, but now that she’s three they’re among her favorite foods.
—Jessica, New York
This, too, shall pass. Meanwhile, it’s worth the effort to encourage your picky eater to expand her food horizons a bit and meet her nutritional needs by practicing the three C’s: choice, control, and creativity.
Choice
Offering your child many choices increases the chance she’ll find more foods she likes to eat. If your child really balks at eating what you’re serving everyone else in the family at dinner, offer her the choice of one or two sides that are simple, nutritious, and easy to make. If she’s old enough, encourage her to make one of them herself to share with the family.
Control
Put the greatest possible amount of control over your picky eater’s diet in her own hands to avoid further heel-digging. For example, take her grocery shopping to the most well-stocked health food or veg-friendly grocery store in your area and let her pick out five new vegan foods she agrees to try this week. Or if she’s truly not hungry at certain times of day like breakfast or dinner, encourage her to eat a snack-size meal at that time but give her the freedom to eat as much healthy food as she wants when she does feel hungry.
Many kids, even picky eaters, will virtually gorge on food when they get home from school. Be sure lots of healthy options are on hand—stock at least one or two that contain a good balance of the major nutrient groups, like protein, fats, and carbs—and give her the control to feel her hunger and satisfy it.
If it’s a toddler who seems to be living on air lately, be assured that these little explorers sometimes go through phases where they’re too busy learning about the world to slow down and eat much. Focus on high-calorie, high-nutrient drinks like fruit and soy yogurt smoothies and the favorite foods she will eat, watch her bladder and bowel output, and see her doctor for a weight check if the nearly-no-food fast lasts more than a couple weeks or if you’re otherwise concerned.
Creativity
Celebrate the power of this final C to get your picky eater out of her food funk. Bring her into the kitchen to choose a recipe that appeals to her and help her create a culinary masterpiece. For younger kids who are still impressed by fun finger food, cut sandwiches, fruits, and veggies into fun shapes like hearts, stars, and triangles.
That’s So Vegan
The Vegan Lunchbox blog (www.veganlunchbox.blogspot.com) continually delights with amazingly creative lunchbox creations that may impress your child so much she’ll forget about being picky at school lunchtime or at home.
If your tween likes books, take her on a trip to the nearest bookstore and let her pick out one or two fun, beautiful, new cookbooks that interest her. After she has a chance to look them over, head to the grocery store for a tween-led shopping expedition. Then, help her prepare the recipes she’s selected. She may eat better than you’ve ever witnessed when choices and control are combined with the most powerful C of all: creativity.
Finally, unless your child has a more serious eating challenge (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 8 for signs of eating disorders) most picky eaters will favor at least one reasonably healthy standby in each basic nutrient category: protein, complex carbohydrate, fat. If that’s veggie nuggets, be sure to always have some in the fridge to include with her dinner when what you’ve made for the family is unacceptable to her picky palate. If your child likes whole-wheat bread but doesn’t want to put anything on it, make or buy the most nutrient-packed bread. If she’ll eat nut butters directly from a spoon but not on the bread, give her the spoon and let her eat the bread plain.
In a few years, when she’s calling from college to tell you about the fantastic hummus sandwich with sprouts, avocado, and roasted