Mamta,I am from Delhi. have a request,pls make a section for healthy kids recipes that are easy to make and attracts kids to eat. my kids just run away from food. they love to munch on chocolates,chips,fried namkeens etc that ate not good for health.

Hello Sneha

The most important question for me is how old are your kids? Are they of an age when they can/should feed themselves? Generally speaking, from toddler onwards, they should be able to eat family foods, not special meals.

Instead of giving you recipes, I can only tell you what I would do under the circumstance, to encourage them to eat. There are a few simple things you can do, without being regimental or without pulling your hair out, trying to think of special meals for them. If you like, I will tell you. Let me know.

Mamta

hi mamta

i have a 18 months old daughter. she just runs away from food especially indian chapati and vegies. she like spicy kind of food. any recipes that are good for health too.

or as u have mentioned pls tell me the circumstances that can help her feed better. thanks

hello Sneha

See here: Baby/Todler foods for recipe ideas. Below is general principles of feeding young children. Some of it is for a little older children than yours, but you get the general idea!

1.Always remember that you are the parent and in charge, not the other way round.

2.Children often follow what they see, not what you tell them to do. So get them to sit and eat with the family. You and your husband must set an example. Let them eat at the same table as you, with you, same food as you, as far as possible.

3.Make sure that their food is not too hot/spicy, take their portion out before adding chillies and garam masala etc. Introduce one new food at a time. Eat good foods, don’t pander to their unreasonable demands. Don’t give in to their whining, it will stop if it does not bring any reaction from you.

4.Anything they do not like, e.g. a fruit, vegetable, a new dish that you have made, ask them to eat a small portion only. If they finish it, they get a treat of their favourite food/sweet after the meal. They will learn new tastes in this way. Children are very good at understanding how far they need to push mummy before she will give in. so, don’t get into an argument with them, they will win every time, hands down. If you give in to their whining, you are teaching them that this is how they can push you around.

5.Do not give them sweets, chocolate, namkeens, ice-cream, cakes and biscuits etc. too often, that is junk food, lovely though it tastes. Give it as an ‘earned’ treat for finishing their meal, being well behaved and so on, not to get them to be quiet. Give them other treats too, like visit to a park, you reading them extra 15 minutes of bedtime story etc., if they eat their meal properly. Set a portion of junk food of their choice they can have each day, no more. Don’t keep these things lying around in the house, within their reach, they will pester you for them if they can see them and wear you down until you give in. Children are a lot stronger than you are at these games. Tell your family and friends that if they truly love them, they should not buy these things for them. Ask your husband to follow the same rule, otherwise they will play you against each other, “daddy lets us eat it, why don’t you etc.?” When I was working as a school doctor many, many years ago, mums often used to ask me to tell their children not to eat sweets/crisps or drink coca cola etc. because they are bad for them. “They will listen to you”, they said. When I asked them where were they getting these things from, they admitted to buying them, ‘because they had a tantrum in the shop’ etc., thus rewarding bad behaviour! My answer was always the same, “if you bought it for them, knowing that it is bad for them, then please don’t ask me to tell them not to eat it”. It is hard enough for us adults to stay away from tasty foods that are bad for us, how do you expect them to? You are the one who has to decide what is healthy for them, what to stock in the house, they don’t know this.

6.Before making a change, parents need to sit them down and explain to them what they are going to do from now on, so they know what to expect and the change in household policy ;-)!

7.Set an approximate time for breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, dinner etc. Children, specially small children, respond well to. If they know that they get a fruit at snack time plus a potion of say crisps/chips/cake, they will get used to it in time.

8.Don’t let them eat and watch T-V. Let them learn to enjoy mealtimes and the foods they are eating.

9.Another thing that works for children is to involve them from an early age in preparing the food, setting the table, filling water in everyone’s glass, preparing salad, make dough, rolling out chapatties, making cake, a fruit salad etc. depending on their age. Give them a lot of praise for a job well done, always. Children thrive on praise. This way they will learn a job as well take pride in it. We adults tell them off for being bad but don’t very often praise them when they are good.

10.Last of all, you do not need to be overly strict about it, occasional breaking of your rules should be okay and allowed, we all do. Do not make meal time an unpleasant experience for them that they learn to hate.

Good luck and best wishes. :-)

Mamta

Mamta thanks a ton for your help and guidance!

just want to know-is it safe to feed almonds to 18 months old child? whats the best way to feed almonds? i have tried this twice but she didnt like the taste and spitted- soaked overnight the almonds, crushed them with sugar and gave her. as people say almonds are good to improve speech in children :)

As long as your daughter is not allergic to almonds and as long as you give it in a form that she can eat, she should be fine. Young children can sometimes choke on small nuts, so ground should be fine. If your daughter doesn't like the taste, don't give up, new tastes take time to learn. You can always add it to her milk, yoghurt (dahi) or other foods. The paragraph below is from a section called 'healing foods' that we are trying to write for this site;

"Amonds are considered very good in Ayurveda. They are a rich source of protein, calcium, antioxidants, folic acid,vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, copper and monounsaturated fat. Almond fat lowers LDL cholesterol and protects the heart from coronary heart disease. In India, they are considered to be a good brain food. During our school and college years, my mum used to give us 5 almonds each morning, soaked overnight, peeled and then ground on a stone. Their oil is used as a carrier oil in aromatherapy, mixed with other more potent oils. Because of their oil content, almonds can go ‘off’ if not kept in cool conditions. Store in the fridge or freezer.