4. Exposure to different style of cooking

Since we are Chinese, of course, the mainstay of our diet is Chinese food.  Hence, for babies, porridge is the default weaning food. (I mean rice porridge, not oatmeal!)  Apart from Chinese food, I also expose my children to different style of cooking, e.g. Italian, Indian,etc,  at an early age.  This means that they are exposed to different ingredients and even herbs and spices too.  For really young babies, I may not give pasta yet, but I will use Italian herbs in porridge.  You can check out some of my porridge recipes.

You will find that babies who are learning to take solids are quite open to try different flavours.  So this is the time to give them the exposure and get them used to eating all kinds of things (not withstanding the need to introduce food at appropriate age).  I have come across children who are brought up eating mainly porridge - and very plain ones too - and their diet are seldom varied.  These children usually grow up to be very unadventurous eaters and only stick to their familiar diet.  It can be a problem for you if you want to eat out and all your child wants to eat is the porridge he is used to!  Furthermore, this also means that your child is not getting a well-balanced diet.

So remember this : one way to bring up a non-fussy eater is to start young.  Expose them to all sorts of food.  I mean healthy food.  Not junk food.

5. Do not make unnecessary assumptions

One of the most common assumptions is this : babies are not able to eat certain food.  For instance, leafy greens and celery (which a lot of adults hate).  Some people think that leafy greens are tough to eat since it is fibrous. So they assume that babies will not like it and will not be able to handle it.  This is a mistake.  Babies can handle most food as long as you serve it to them in the appropriate form.  For very young babies, even leafy greens can be pureed.  For slightly older ones, the leafy greens can be chopped into very small pieces and cooked soft.  If you assume that babies cannot handle such vegetables and you do not introduce them to vegetables when they are young and open to all kind of flavours, it should not come as a surprise that they will not like to eat them when they are older.

Both my boys are able to eat most vegetables.  Yes, including commonly hated stuff like broccoli, eggplant and celery.  My eldest boy likes Hong Kong kailan, which has an enormous (but very crunch and sweet) stalk, much to my mother-in-law's amazement.

Another common assumption is that young children are not able to take spices, especially chilli hot stuff.    Think of Indian children, for instance.  They grow up with all kinds of spices and don't seem to have a problem with it!  So yes, introduce stuff like cumin, tumeric and ginger.  For an older child, slowly introduce chilli hot stuff.  Start with something mild, like just some pepper in the food.  In fact, for my older children, if they insist on eating something that are really very hot, I will not hesitate to let them try it after giving them prior warnings.   I find that if it is something tasty, even if it is a little spicy, they are happy to eat them.  They just drink plenty of water with it!  Challenge their tastebuds but not torture them.

6. Persistence

What if you introduce something and your child does not like it?  Yes, babies do exhibit certain preference too, even though they are relatively open to trying new things.  My advice is to persistently introduce that particular food but do not force him to eat it.  Forcing him to eat it through fuss, tantrums and tears will only make him associate that food with bad feelings.  You should try to introduce the same food again the next time, and again, and again.   It may not be the next meal.  You can wait for a few days before trying again.  Chances are, he may have forgotten that he does not like that food!  Try different ways of cooking also. Slowly 'teach' your child to eat it.

This principle of persistence applies to children of all ages.  But for older children, you have to give them a bit more room for food preference.  If it is a new food, I do insist that my boy at least try it first before saying he does not like it.  In fact, sometimes I try to make him try it a few times.   Everyone has some food preferences, including you and me.  Your child will eventually develop his own food preference.  As long as it is not excessive to the point of him being a fussy eater, and you know that he genuinely dislikes that food and it is not out of some other behavioural issues,  I think it is fine.  We have done our part in introducing them to a wide variety of food and 'teaching' them to eat all kinds of food when they are younger.  As our children grow older, as parents, we need to learn to respect their choices and preference and food preference is one of them.