Sweet tooth Baby

sabriya

I have a 16 month old, and since we are living right now with her doting grand parents, she is only partly raw, though vegan. Before we moved here, she used to loovvvvveeee green smoothies. Now, the only way I can get her to eat greens is juicing them with something sweet. She goes bonkers for sweet fruits, especially if they are juicy! But I worry that she should not be having so many sweets. I heard on the discovery channel(so it MUST be true, wink, wink) that babies crave sweets legitimately, cause for some reason there body needs it (forgot the reason). But I just feel so guilty that she is not getting enough greens. Mommies? What do you think?

Justine

How does she do with finger foods? My 14mo(also vegan, but not raw) is very insistent on feeding herself, so I will give her a plate of cut or cubed veggies and let her play with it. She eventually gets some in her mouth. You could get a dicer and cube up the veggies all to the same size, then mix them with cubed pears and green apples. That way she has a mix of sweet fruit and savory veggies and she will never know what she gets next, As for green smoothies, go ahead and mix in some apples or bananas to add sweetness.

I see no reason to limit whole fruits for a toddler, but I would limit fruit juices. My main goal is to offer a variety of colors for fruits and veggies. I try to have some red, some green, some blue/purple, and some orange/yellow each day.

sabriya

Thanks Justine, that is a great idea, with just putting a variety in front of her, especially since her attention span is …..hmmmmm…. She will pop the veggies in her mouth before she even realizes it!! The tactics we parents have to resort to!