Take the Hold of Your Child

Treating the taste buds of your child can be as tasking as training a snail. It involves immense patience and a bit of research too. But in my case, things were different. My first child was unable to breastfeed properly and hence we had to switch over to formula feed. This resulted in digestion issues and constipation in my little one. Also the development of immunity and brain were the cause of concern in my mind, as mother's milk is the source of IgA and DHA. I wanted my child to be the best, but how, without the supply of these basic nutrients? Thus I cleared up my mind and decided that what all has been lost shall be recovered from the diet later.
Now my job was to research on every fine nutrient and techniques to incorporate it in my child’s diet.

1) In my research I found soyabean, chia , flax seeds to be rich in linolenic acid which converted to DHA in body . Being a veggie I couldn’t include fishes, eggs and meat which are the richest source. However, I have now started with eggs and plan to give fish cod oil tablets as soon as my child learns to swallow tablets.

2) When my child turned 8 months, I started rava porridge and ragi milk porridge alternatively, in which I added smashed almonds, soyabean and munnakka. This is a daily routine breakfast till today (only change being wheat milk porridge now).

3) In the milk I replaced sugar with jaggery for iron. I also started munakka roasted on a pan and with a touch of black salt, to help maintain proper digestion.

4) Dal, rice and roti and liquid vegetable curries became the staple diet of my child when he was around 1 year old. So to incorporate veggies I included green leafy vegetables in the dough and made roti. Also, I mixed the fried vegetables like bhindi, potatoes, cauliflower either in the dough or mashed it in his khichdi. This helped a lot in developing his taste towards different veggies and he started picking them up from the khichdi and eating them.

5) To help boost up his immunity I started 2 spoons of honey daily. Free time munching foods are never chips or chocolates or noodles. But are nuts, Chikki (groundnut+ jaggery), homemade laddoos (thanks to chota bheem) or homemade aloo-sabudana chips.

6) In between meal hunger pangs can also be quenched by colorful salads (onion, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, carrots etc.) This helps introducing veggies before fruits. Fruits being juicy and sweet are ever welcomed by children.

All in all what I learned from my experience is, introduce things you want your child to have for lifetime, early before he starts judging its taste. Never reward your child with things you don't prefer. After all you are the one who knows it all about your child.