Carb crazy kids?
Wednesday’s VegKids: Many kids go through phases where they will eat pasta, bread, crackers, rice, tortillas and cereal in abundance, but turn up their noses at nearly anything else — even anything in, on or over those beloved carbs. Solution: Begin to put small amounts of healthful toppings, spreads and vegetables on or in those favorite carb-based meals — and I mean small(barely noticeable) amounts: Vegan Parmesan on the pasta, a few kernels of cooked frozen corn and carrots mixed into the rice, less than a spoonful of hummus on the tortilla. When you find a few of these add-ons that your child will eat, begin to add more of those. Then expand to other healthful additions such as tomato sauce on the pasta (again, lightly at first), small tofu chunks on the rice, or a couple of bananas or strawberry slices in the cereal. Advance incrementally.
Because most carbs are rather blandly colored, color may be one of your child’s hindrance to trying other more brightly colored foods. So first go simply with colored fruits and veggies such as peeled apples, bananas, celery, corn — nothing outlandishly purple or bright green! Build up to those challenges.
And one final rule on carbs: Simply do not introduce white bread to your child. The taste- and texture-stunting nature of bleached white breads turns kids away from whole grains like nothing else.
(adapted from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids, Chapter 7).
