Writing -- Baby Talk: Eat your greens

The following article featured in a weekly column on parenting in the Women on Wednesday supplement of The Evening Echo, one of Ireland's leading regional daily newspapers. It appeared in the 18 August 2004 issue.

Our little one has decided to take a more hands-on approach to food and the result's aren't pretty! There was a brief period - when the twins started to get more food into their mouths than on the floor and before the baby started helping herself - when mealtimes at our house started to border on the civilised again, but no more.

Of course the twins, who are rank amateurs in the art of using cutlery, insist on lending a hand in the development of their little sister's eating skills. While undeniably amusing this can be incredibly messy.

I shouldn't complain really. We're lucky that our three all have great appetites and eat plenty of good, fresh food. Some parents I know have real trouble getting their children to eat enough of the right kinds of food, but it hasn't been a problem for us… yet.

Recently the twins have begun to boycott anything green. They're eating with their eyes: its the colour, not the taste that seems to bother them.

"What's that dad?" one of them asked just the other day, eyeing a yellow vegetable with suspicion.

"It's courgette," I replied.

"Oh." She tried it. "Mmm, I like yellow courgette Dad… I only don't like green courgette." I tried to explain that they tasted the same, but it didn't do any good.

Getting the girls to eat their greens is proving more and more difficult. They're refusing staples like broccoli and spinach that they used to enjoy and the only way we can get them to eat anything green these days is by whizzing it up in a batch of vegetable soup. I guess children's tastes change, and I'm hoping this is just a phase and that they'll eventually grow out of… but I'm not convinced it will happen any time soon.

There are, of course, endless recipes, books and websites offering reams of advice on what you should and shouldn't feed your children and on how to get them to eat it. Everyone accepts that it's important to establish healthy eating habits early in a child's life, but when you run into problems where do you start? Apparently, a good place is with other children the same age.

Research by a team at Bangor University in North Wales shows that peer pressure is an incredibly powerful factor in influencing young children's eating habits. Unfortunately this usually has a negative effect… eating green leafy vegetables is hardly the norm with three and four-year-olds. But if you can find a friend who wolfs down his broccoli and cabbage start inviting him for tea and lavish him with praise when he eats his veggies… apparently your children will get the idea and follow suit.

The team at Bangor, led by psychology Professor Furgus Lowe, has discovered that making healthy food look "cool" can cause an astonishing transformation in children's eating habits. They produced a video with animated characters called the "Food Dudes", fruit and veg chomping heroes who battle the evil "Junk Food Junta" to make the world a better place.

Giving children positive messages about healthy food is reinforced with rewards such as Food Dude stickers and hats when they eat up their greens. "It works extremely well" said Professor Lowe in an interview with a UK parenting website. "The reason why kids don't eat fruit and vegetables is, to a large extent, down to peer pressure and advertising, which creates a culture that's very negative about fruit and veg. We aim to change the culture, so that it becomes a trendy thing to do, then you get all that peer pressure on your side.'

Which sounds great… so when are these Food Dudes coming to Ireland?