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Say the word ‘VEGETABLES’ and what do you get? Retching noises or a child making faces, probably.

Not with my son, though. In fact, he might even go berserk if you don’t hand him his vegetables fast enough. He’s also a fan of fish, fruits and other healthier options like yogurt and crackers.

What did I do to keep him on a healthy diet? Well…

First, I breastfed.

Breast milk not only changes in composition as the baby grows older, it also changes in taste according to what Mommy eats. A baby is then exposed to different tastes early on as opposed to a baby reared on formula which tastes the same, unless you change it. Plus, formula is often sweet, which predisposes a child to sweets. And few vegetables are sweet.

Then I offered mashed fruits and vegetables as first solid foods.

I mashed potato, sweet potato, and chayote. I mashed apples, bananas and pears. When he could have meat, I boiled the meat with squash and pureed these together, and served it as thick soup. I’d even ground onions with it. All the fruits that he pointed at, or that I read for him off a book, I bought so he could sample them. Well, except dragon fruit.

But I only fed him small portions.

I would make a big casserole of pumpkin soup but I would only feed him a little of it. I didn’t push for him to eat heavy meals because his small stomach would never be able to handle it. I fed him more frequently instead.

And I made sure to offer variety.

If it’s stir-fried cauliflowers for lunch, then it’s fish in broth for dinner. For dessert, he can have a probiotic drink, a glass of juice or yogurt. Or he’d have apples one day and mangoes the next. Snacks are usually low-sugar cereals or crackers. But if he wants apples with his cheese, then so be it.

I just made sure what’s offered at home are all healthy.

90-95% of the time, that is. So yes, he’s given options of what to eat that is available — but we certainly don’t act like short-order cooks for him. We did have to stop having junk food at home. Cake and ice cream aren’t junk food but since they’re not everyday fare, we allow him all he wants when we do have them. Visits to fast food restaurants also have us ordering pasta or chicken instead of burgers and fries.

And we make sure we eat healthy in front of him.

On days when he’d refuse to eat properly, we’d let him be. But we’d also make sure to make lip smacking noises over the healthy food we were eating. We’d rave about the food, and even sometimes pretend to be fighting over the last piece.

And we don’t fuss over ‘bad’ food.

We have made it clear to close friends and family that we prefer him eating healthy. But we let him eat an occasional hotdog or two, even at home. We also allow him to eat chocolates, especially if he sees us eating some (we just don’t get to eat a lot of it anymore). If others offer him candy, we let him have a piece provided he’s already eaten his main meal. If a friend ordered fries and he wants some, we give him some with ketchup for dip. Oh and we do order pizza at home.  Making a big deal out of not-so-approved foods will just make him want them more so we’d rather not reinforce the taste for extra salt.

But we do fuss over him eating well.

Raves, and other reinforcers, usually follow vegetable bites. “Are you eating vegetables because dinosaurs eat them? Cool, you’ll be as big as one in no time!”, “Very good darling, you finished your milk, now your teeth and bones will be stronger!”

My son is only two, so yes, we do tend to exaggerate still over the praises. So far, however, we have kept him on a healthy diet so I’d say, we’re doing great by him.