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I heard the author give an interview on the radio, and she discussed, in particular, a recent study that was done with babies from 6 months, to 18 months of age, in which researchers gave infants foods, and combinations of foods that were, by many accounts, totally disgusting.  The researchers also, apparently, created pretend “non-foods” out of edible ingredients, like (and this was an actual example), material that looked and smelled a heck of a lot like poop, but which was actually constructed from an ingenious combination of sardines, peanut butter, olives, etc. (ok, I’m not sure what the exact ingredients were, that went into making fake poop, but probably something along these lines).  Anyway.  The upshot of the experiment indicated that it isn’t until the age of 18 months, that infants start to develop food preferences, and up until 18 months, our tastes are astoundingly malleable.

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I have to say, that this has always been fairly obvious to me.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t get such a cultural disparity in terms of the kinds of foods we eat–and what a disparity there is!  Breakfast in North America looks a heck of a lot different from breakfast in Japan, and so on.

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And yet, I still come across those who promulgate the idea that children have specific “kinds” of tastebuds, and that it is a universal fact that small humans somehow can’t handle eating green cruciferous vegetables, or moroccan olives.  Ridiculous.  We, the parents specifically, teach our children exactly how to react, how to approach, how to interact with food, and which foods in particular are “gross” and which are good.  I often hear parents say to, or about,  their one-year-old, “Oh you won’t like that, dear!”.  And it is so sad to me!  Because no, with that kind of attitude, she probably won’t.

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My kids eat salad with every single meal, and they love it!  Because it is served with every single meal, and has been, since they were born and saw their parents eating it, and then was served to them from 6 months of age and onward.

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It must be said that sometimes kids forego foods, not because the taste is necessarily unpleasant to them, but because the food itself might be unwieldy.  This can be the case with big-leaf salad.  What I often do, is actually cut up the leaves and vegetables into quite small pieces–that way it’s easier for little ones to take a bite, it increases the surface area for a delicious dressing, and it also makes a denser salad, so they end up consuming more of the good stuff.  You might want to try it.

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For lunch today, we ate a delicious spinach & snow-pea salad.  The spinach was the first of our local New Brunswick crop (if you live near Fredericton, Real Food Connections is our beloved grocery store!), and snow peas that were probably sprayed with all manner of horrifying pesticides and flown in from a country far far away, and then marked down to 50% off at the big-box grocery store where I sometimes trawl for discounts.  Anyway.  I added some grated cheese to the mixture, and toasted almonds, and hardboiled eggs from our chickens, and splashed a bunch of dressing.  It was totally delicious, and the kids loved it, and it took me all of 6 minutes to throw together.

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So, the secret, in a nutshell, to getting your kids to eat salad?  Serve salad at every meal (even breakfast), eat it and love it yourself, and don’t make a big deal about it.  They will follow!

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Spinach & Snow Pea Salad

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A whole lot of spinach leaves, cut quite small

A whole bunch of snow peas, or beans, or something else green or of another colour–cut quite small

Boiled eggs, however many you would like

Almonds, or something else like almonds

Cheese, if you like, grated, if that feels good

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Dressing:

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Minced garlic

A splash of Balsamic vinegar

A couple of tablespoons of Almond Butter

A couple of splashes of apple cider vinegar

A couple of tablespoons of maple syrup

A bit of water if the above tastes too intense

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If anyone knows the title of the book I was referring to up there, please let me know!  My mind is blank…The interview happened on the CBC, so I’ll try to track it down.  But it certainly sounds like an interesting book, no?!

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And in other news, I am actually getting closer to being able to share with you my really special food-and-kids-related project!  It’s happening, that’s for sure, and I’m going to be making some changes on this website, so that things are better and more streamlined.

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I’m also going to be putting out a weekly little newsletter/roundup, so pop your email into the signup box at the top of the page for thoughtful, interesting attachment parenting stuff.