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Troubleshooting a Preschooler's Eating

Not enough vegetables and fruit

Troubleshooting a Preschooler's Eating As kids get older, they tend to accept new foods more easily. I've noticed that Hayley, who is nearly six, has become more adventurous in the past year. There are strategies to improve nutrition while you are waiting for your child to be more accepting of a wide range of foods. Here are some of the most common roadblocks to good nutrition, and some simple solutions.

Your Child Won't Eat Vegetables
Most likely texture and/or taste are the main turn-offs for a vegetable hater. Don't expect vegetable avoiders to chow down on strong-tasting choices such as Brussels sprouts and spinach, no matter how you disguise their flavor with butter or cheese. Unless your child is a toddler who needs softer foods, soggy vegetables may not fly with him, so cook vegetables until they're crisp-tender. Include vegetables as part of soups, casseroles, and meatloaf. Offer vegetable juice instead of fruit juice. To make vegetables more interesting, serve them raw with cheese sauce, yogurt dip, or with salad dressing. Pair up peanut butter or hummus with raw or crisp-tender vegetables and count yourself lucky when they eat that combo. (I am so desperate to get more vegetables into my children that I count hummus and peanut butter as part of their daily required vegetable intake. After all, they are made from plant foods.) Don't count French fries or potato puffs as a vegetable, however. Sure, they start out as potatoes, but by the time manufacturers are done with them, they supply far more fat and far fewer nutrients than in their original form.

Your Child Won't Eat Fruit
Kids usually prefer fruit over vegetables, so your problem may be one of limited intake versus all-out rejection of this food group.

She may not sit and eat an entire banana or pear, but perhaps your preschooler will accept fruit on her cereal, as part of a smoothie, on top of frozen yogurt or ice cream, or baked into cookies and quick breads (she'll never know!). Serve a fruit puree or applesauce instead of syrup for dipping waffles or pancakes. Bake with applesauce or pureed prunes, bananas, or peaches in place of half the fat in recipes for quick breads, including muffins and pancakes, and in cookies. Shredded zucchini and carrots add texture and color to homemade baked goods. Assemble a fruit/cereal/yogurt parfait in a clear plastic glass for breakfast or snack; it's attractive and enticing. Frozen fruit is novel and may encourage intake. Four-year-old Hannah, who is fickle about fruit, likes to nibble on frozen melon and peaches. I serve Hannah cereals such as Raisin Bran, where the dried fruit is built in. Hayley loves frozen blueberries on her breakfast cereal, and I rely on them when fresh blueberries are out of season. Kids love to dip their foods, so try cubed fruit with yogurt dip to encourage consumption, or make simple fruit kabobs to pique their interest. Juice is an easy resort for fruit avoiders, but limit it to 6 ounces a day (4 ounces when your child is eating other fruits and vegetables).

Preschoolers Fall Short on Produce
You know that few kids clamor for apples and bananas and even fewer pester their parents to prepare spinach and broccoli. But the extent of youngsters' produce avoidance is astounding. A report published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that out of 168 preschoolers observed over a five-day period, none ate the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables. The children in the survey ate far more fruits than vegetables, which is encouraging, unless you consider that fruit juice was counted as a fruit serving. Still, kids seem to prefer fruit over vegetables, which offers hope for pumping up kids' consumption of disease-fighting nutrients, particularly antioxidants. Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture Research Center on Aging at Tufts University tested the antioxidant power of dozens of fruits and vegetables. Here are the most potent of the lot based on their research. As you can see, most of them are fruits.

• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Kale
• Oranges
• Plums

Not enough milk and meat; too many sweetsYour Child Won't Drink Milk
Milk is among the most calcium-packed foods going. And milk contains vitamin D. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium after digestion and fosters its deposition into the skeleton. Despite milk's many benefits, skipping it does not necessarily make for dietary disaster.

Perhaps presentation is the problem. Some kids do not like to drink a plain glass of milk. Hannah drank only chocolate milk for about a year and a half, yet had no trouble accepting milk on top of her breakfast cereal. Disguise milk as chocolate or strawberry; make your child a fruit smoothie with milk; or prepare hot chocolate, pudding, and condensed soups, such as tomato, with milk instead of water.

Kids who shun milk can make up for lost calcium with other dairy foods such as yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese. Fruited yogurt supplies about the same amount of calcium as milk, while plain yogurt supplies about a third more. One and a half ounces of hard cheese such as cheddar, Swiss, or Havarti equals eight ounces of milk for calcium, while cottage cheese contains half as much of the mineral unless fortified with added calcium. Calcium can sneak into foods that won't evoke a fuss from kids. Cheese pizza and macaroni and cheese are calcium-packed bid favorites.

Calcium-fortified foods, such as orange juice, soy and rice beverages, and cereal can make up for missing calcium from dairy foods. (To maximize calcium absorption, purchase brands of juice with added calcium citrate malate. Check the ingredient list.) Tofu processed with calcium sulfate helps meet calcium needs, too; a quarter cup provides nearly as much calcium as 4 ounces of milk.

If milk allergy is the reason why your child does not drink milk, then he or she must avoid all dairy products to head off reactions.

Your Child Won't Eat Meat
Children often reject meat and poultry for their texture; tougher cuts of meat may prove too difficult to chew. Sneak lean ground beef or ground 100 percent turkey or chicken meat into spaghetti sauce, tacos, and burritos for greater acceptance. Should you worry about your non-meat eater's nutrition? That depends. Meat packs protein, but so do plenty of other foods. Eggs, milk, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, tuna fish, legumes, and nuts make up for missing protein in a meatless diet, but not for the lack of iron and zinc, which are critical to your child's cognitive development and his overall growth. The likes of beef, pork, and chicken are particularly rich in iron and zinc. Fortified breads, cereals, and other grains contain zinc and iron, but your child may need a vitamin/mineral supplement if he completely avoids meat.

Your Child Eats Too Many Sweets and Other Junk Foods
Don't keep the likes of cakes, cookies, donuts, ice cream, or salty snack foods in the house. That doesn't mean you must deprive your little one of treats, however. Offer healthier alternatives such as mini-muffins, graham crackers, animal crackers, fig bars, and gingersnaps. Popcorn, pretzels, and flavored rice cakes topped with peanut butter or hummus are kid-friendly snacks, too. When my children crave something sweet, I make my own trail mix by combining semisweet chocolate chips, raisins or dried cranberries, and nuts (this snack is for children four and older, given the risk for choking in younger kids). If you don't mind whether they have the real thing, purchase just one treat every few weeks or so and dole it out judiciously. But don't use snack chips or cookies as bribes or rewards. Instead, include them as part of meals and snacks, and stay low key about it. When kids get wind that you think certain foods are special, they start blowing their value out of proportion.

Your Child Drinks Too Much Fruit Juice
Serving juice between meals can wreck your child's appetite. Offer water or milk instead when your child claims to be thirsty. Cap your youngster's juice intake at 6 ounces a day, diluting it with water to extend his juice allowance.