Your children are what YOU eat!! Nutrition for the pregnant Mum

The old saying you are what you eat is true in many ways but did you ever wonder why so many children "don't eat their vegies"?

Its true sometimes they just don't like carrots or peas or some other type of vegetable but there is now evidence to suggest that what you eat while pregnant strongly impacts the tastebuds of your unborn child.

A child's tastes are developed at an early age, consider the following:

Q If all you ever fed a child during the first year to 5 years of life were raw foods and loads of fruit and veg what would happen when you feed a child McDonalds?
A You probably said they would love it.  Well that's not entirely correct. Studies show that children who eat a diet low in artificial additives, sugar, fried foods, salt etc don't actually like those types of foods.

If your pallette is geared to eating sugar, salt, fat (the bad kind) as your staple diet then anything else will taste foreign.
On the flip side if you eat a diet low or completely avoiding the foods above then you probably won't be able to stomach them.

So, when considering what you should eat during your pregnancy its not just your body you are taking care of you are shaping your child's own nutritional habits for the future.

Tip: If you struggle to enjoy vegetables find a way to spice them up a bit; add herbs, roast them, make a casserole with other flavours you love and that way you can hide the taste you don't like.

Tip for your child who eats solids: If you don't like bland veggies i.e. plain pumpkin, carrots and beans then don't serve that to your child. Add herbs or again serve in a soup or casserole (blended for under 8 months).