How To Sneak Veggies Into Food For Toddlers
Like all other leafy food items, most toddlers tend to dislike the very sight of veggies. Some even consider it as punishment and burst into tears, sighting any traces of it. However, as parents, you know better than that. Children are supposed to eat all the food groups in equal proportion for growth, aren’t they? There are quite a number of approaches many parents use to get their children to eat these veggies. Continue to read as you learn more on How to sneak veggies into food for toddlers
The most common among them would be to pull out commands and attach punishments. In these instances, these toddlers probably hate the parents for it.
Instead of the disagreement and use of force, sneaking veggies into your toddler’s food is optimal. Yeah right! That seems like the move of a supervillain; it sounds underhanded.
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However, come to think of it, the toddler gets to eat veggies without knowing. It saves you time; the toddler is happy; the toddler gets the necessary nutrients. Everyone is good. If you consider all of these things, it’s a necessary evil.
Perhaps, you are still not convinced of using a method as underhanded; maybe the importance of eating veggies to babies would outweigh any doubt. Of course, it would! It would be on a triple scale.
Why does my toddler need veggies?
Don’t ever make the mistake of ditching veggies just because your toddler hates them. The only condition that warrants ditching veggies is in the instance of an allergic reaction. However, vegetable allergies are rare in toddlers. Now that you know, let’s dive down into the benefits.
1. Vegetable Helps Strengthen The Body Immunity
Vegetables contain vitamins and antioxidants that help to strengthen the body’s immunity, especially for toddlers. In addition, they are responsible for protection against a wide range of infections. A very popular class of antioxidants would be phytonutrients.
2. Vegetables help in the regulation of the digestive system
The vegetable is important to the digestive tract in both grow-ups and toddlers. The reason is because of its fibre content. This may look just like a surface function. However, it is important for growth regulation, obesity control, and preventing regurgitation.
3. Veggies are instrumental in sugar level control
Sure, the organs of a toddler are still developing. They need the assistance of a healthy diet if they are functioning optimally. This also applies to the sugar regulatory mechanism of toddlers. Your toddler needs veggies as part of sugar level control.
4. Vegetables also control minerals for growth
Some minor minerals that are often neglected in the conventional baby diet are often found in veggie varieties. These mineral elements happen to be very important in physical and especially neurological and cognitive growth.
5. Mom secret, it reduces how much food your toddler eats
This is a secret for mothers (wink). Vegetables (and all kinds of fibres) have a way of filling up the stomach even when the toddler has not necessarily overfed. So, there you have it, mom! A few veggies may save you a couple of food. In another sense, it helps you control your child’s food consumption rate if you noticed it’s getting too much.
How do I sneak vegetables into my toddler’s food?
So, let’s cut straight down to the chase; the secrets arts of sneaking vegetables into a toddler’s food. If what you want to achieve is maximum stealth, then try any of the methods below.
Hide The Veggies In Baked Food Items
Toddlers most times cannot resist deliciously baked goodies. As a parent, identify what baked food your child likes the most, and then take advantage of the excitement. You can hide a variety of veggie that does not have a very strong flavor or add a type of vegetable that has a similar flavor to your baked vehicle. That way, your toddler eats the veggie without detection or objection. Vegetable types suitable for this would be cabbages or carrots
Add Vegetables Into Your Smoothies
Toddlers do enjoy a good smoothie blend. As a parent, this is the perfect opportunity to sneak veggies into your toddler’s stomach. Add a considerable amount of veggies into your smoothie mixture and blend together.
Be sure not to give yourself out; don’t allow the taste of the veggies to overcome the primary components of the smoothies. Veggies like spinach are perfect for this sort of cover.
Noodles And The Trick Of Sight
You can make veggies into noodles perfectly by cutting them accordingly and cooking them along with noodles. This method is especially effective for considerably younger toddlers.
First, however, make sure to pick up the right type of veggies. For example, you can try carrots or something close to that. The reason is simple, you don’t have to mess up the taste of the food, or the child would show the same reluctance you are trying to avoid next time.
Make Pancakes But With Vegetable Ingredients
For older toddlers that love pancakes, you could use their excitement to have a bite of pancake as a means of feeding them veggies. When mixing the ingredient for your pancake, you could add a few veggie ingredients.
If done right, you could even create a new unique that your toddler would fall in love with. Doing this does not give you out anyway. This is because the child does not get any sight of vegetables. They may even request you make the same type of pancake in the future, and with that, you’ve smashed your goal.
Cheese is the perfect disguise
Cheese is often a perfect food to cover up for many veggies in a mixture. In this case, however, the veggie has to be made into a light puree. Whatever funny color the mixture produces, it would only pitch a little scepticism in your toddler. You can blame all that on the preparation of the cheese. Trust the cheese to perfectly almost conceal the taste of the vegetables.
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Conclusion
Apart from worrying about sneaking, you also need to find a balance between the taste of the veggie and the food vehicle. You could also be bold and make salads. After all, it is a type of food.
It is better to take any of these approaches than force toddlers to eat vegetables. You don’t want to create hatred of veggies in them, do you? Finally, it would help if you also augment the veggies with fruits.