For anyone who has ever raised kids (or had nieces or nephews they had to babysit), we all know that kids can be so finicky when it comes to what they want to eat.
Phrases like “Eat your vegetables!” have become a virtual mantra among parents who are trying to raise their kids to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet.
Watch this kid try a lemon!
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Video credit: Rumble
Unfortunately, a lot of what is good for the body does not necessarily taste so great, at least to a child’s taste buds, leading to a seesawing battle on the dinner table of what gets eaten or not. Fortunately, over time children tend to outgrow their finicky tastes until their preferences for food stabilize upon reaching adulthood.
Still, the name of the game when one is young and ignorant is exploration. And in this hilarious video, a little boy gets his first-ever taste of lemon thanks to his mom and it’s his clear from his reaction that the experience was anything but enjoyable for him.
It’s a given that children tend to prefer sweet food but if one wants to introduce new flavors to their children, it’s best to offer a variety of them but not all at the same time to avoid overwhelming the young one’s taste buds. One can begin exploring the toddler’s preferences for taste from six months and beyond and it can be quite a hilarious adventure along the way.
A study by Dr. Mennella and her colleagues which came out in the scientific journal PLoS One in 2014 states that “the sudden innate rejection by babies of the bitter taste (such as that of vegetables, but also of certain medications that it is sometimes essential to give the child) protects them from the ingestion of poisons, since many bitter compounds – although not all – are toxic.
In childhood, the risk of accidental poisoning is greater (children put almost anything in their mouths).”
The study’s authors add that “the taste of candy and aversion to bitter tastes reflect the basic biology of children.
This characteristic must be taken into account in order not to think that a child should be fed all the foods that an adult administers to him. However, sweet flavors should not be associated directly with sugar, as sugary foods are not recommended for babies or children.
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The authors continue by saying that “babies or children who eat larger amounts of sugary foods have a greater predisposition to consume such foods years later, something that will increase their risk of suffering from chronic diseases related to high sugar intake.”
Replaced!