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"I eat my peas with honey. I've done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife."

This "silly" little rhyme has more to offer than just a brief giggle. The old school of parenting dictated (for the most part) that children should eat all vegetables presented to them, whether they liked them or not.

Thankfully, "No dessert until you've finished your spinach" is not the only way to get a child to ingest the full compliment of nutrients his body needs. It's a lot easier to persuade a child to eat healthy if he has choice, and if vegetables are made a little more interesting.

Eating peas with honey not only keeps them on the knife (and fork!) it also makes them infinitely more enticing to a small child. I can think of no rational or logical reason for honey to be excluded from peas if the combination appeals to the child. I wouldn't choose to partake of the concoction myself mind, but I see no harm in the entertainment value and excitement for the taste buds of someone who fancies the flavor.

Honey, for example, does nothing to diminish the nutritional value of the peas; in fact, honey brings with it, its own share of nutrition. One of the objections from a parent of the "old school" may be: "But he can't eat his peas with honey forever. He needs to learn to eat peas on their own." I don't see the necessity for this, but the great thing about children's taste buds is that they naturally go through a myriad of changes.

One month a child may love broccoli and turn his nose up at carrots. The following month it's perfectly possible that he will insist he doesn't like broccoli (he may even be certain he never did) but, having tasted carrots again, declare that he likes them. It's most likely that, as he gets older, the child will taste peas without honey, and will discover he likes them, especially if you reduce the amount of honey over time.

There is usually a fairly wide variety of sources of a particular group of nutrients, which makes it unnecessary to insist that a child eats a specific vegetable. For example, if a child currently doesn't like the taste of peas (with or without honey) he can get the same nutrients from other green vegetables like green beans, spinach or broccoli. If he's going through a phase of finding carrots offensive, similar nutrients can be delivered to his body in the form of pumpkin or sweet potato.

Here are a few ideas for getting your picky eater to eat healthily:

1. Bear in mind that nothing has more of an

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