One of my challenges as Primary Caregiver to two young kids is shoving enough nutritious food down them each day to keep them healthy and growing. And I think I’ve worked out now that it’s all a matter of packaging.
For instance, (ignoring my version of the food pyramid for a moment) we all know that your typical healthy diet should include some vegetables. Okay. And we all know that most kids believe that vegetables are the foulest substance in the known universe. But there are exceptions. Potato is a vegetable (well, just) and hot chips are made of potato.
So will my kids eat chips? Absolutely – what kid wouldn’t? Will they eat mashed potato? Not really, no. It’s not on their list of detestable food items that must be removed before it contaminates everything else on the plate, but they won’t take more than a nibble. It’s the packaging. It’s not chip-shaped. So far, no amount argument that "it’s the same stuff that’s in chips" has worked.
Will they eat tomato? No way. Tomato sauce on things? Yes. To my utter surprise, they’ll even happily eat (or is it drink?) tomato soup.
Fish? I don’t think so, not in its natural (but cooked) state at least. Fish fingers? Yep. Even fish fillets, as long as they have the required batter and/or breadcrumbs on them.
In case my mum is reading this, rest assured, they haven’t caught scurvy yet, but the experimentation continues…
