Raising healthier children - the early years.

Anyone with a preschooler in the house knows just how quickly their 20/20 hindsight revealed the simplicity of feeding an infant. Ensuring a nutritionally sound diet for children who are beyond the breast milk and pureed carrot phase gives a whole new meaning to the words "time to eat." Throw in factors such as the year 2 independence streak, a preponderance of fast food and junk cereal ads, the revelation that everyone in the world does not eat alike, and the tendency of other people to feed your cute little darling whatever they please, and keeping a toddler healthy and happy can seem an insurmountable challenge.

What enables parents to persevere is an abiding love and care for their children and the recognition that, just as in any other aspect of childrearing, eating for health offers a vital opportunity for parents to model and encourage the development of lifelong good habits.

As children grow, the tendency for them to be cared for by adults other than their parents increases. The toddler phase is a good time to reemphasize priorities for those around you and to help friends, relatives, and caregivers realize you mean what you say.

Most people are fairly receptive to parental wishes about what to feed or not feed an infant, but once a child begins walking and doing all those cute 2- and 3-year-old things, some feel a need to "treat" that child with candy, cookies, and other low- or nonutrient foods. It is important to help significant others in your child's life understand what you consider an acceptable food, what can be given on occasion, and what you do not want your child to have--period. Provide a wide variety of snack suggestions and be sure to help with meal planning and preparation when all-day or overnight situations occur.

Send along healthy snacks to your preschool or day-care provider and be sure to supply a box of your child's favorite crackers or dried fruit for times when sugary snacks, refined foods, or any dairy products your family has chosen not to eat are served.

When the opportunity to help with a school cooking class arises, volunteer your enthusiasm and energy--and your imagination. My husband had wonderful kinder-cooking experiences introducing our 5-year-old's classmates to carob chip banana muffins and a renovated kid's favorite--veggie nachos with tofurella cheese.

In all your interactions with caregivers and schools, keep your attitude courteous and helpful, but please stick to decisions you feel strongly about. Realize that if you are inconsistent about what you say you believe, both your children and those around you will feel--and rightly so--that what you say is not important. They will also then feel it is unnecessary to make the extra effort to support you.

One of the givens about the 2- to 5-year-old age span is that there are no givers. Tastes change, and the baby who ate everything may now decide zucchini is projectile vomiting material. The "veggie munching champ" of the year will pitch a minor fit over a salad--and make a major liar out of you as you rave to grandma about his good eating habits. To deal with a preschooler's changing tastes and growing independence you need a degree of flexibility and a large measure of firm guidelines.

1. Implement a "one taste" rule. Tastes mature; you never know when yours will change and you will come to love a previously disliked item. Our philosophy is that it would be a shame to waste three years not eating cabbage when it could have been a favorite.

2. If the item still gets a thumbsdown after the taste, let your child leave it for that meal. We let our children leave one food item per meal (e.g., onions in a stir-fry) but not all of one food category (e.g., all the vegetables or the whole salad). This gives them some say in what they will or will not eat yet helps to expand their tastes and ensures they are eating from all essential food types.

3. Don't make separate meals for your children (unless the adults have favorites such as hot curries that may be too spicy for children's tastes). One of my workshop participants couldn't understand why her children were having so much trouble adapting to a healthier way of eating.

Upon discussion I found that at the slightest "new food" complaint, she would make a peanut butter and honey on white bread sandwich for them instead. When she tried these suggestions, the results were much more encouraging.

And last, but not least, my 4-year-old's favorite food tip

4. Serve snacks. Because children's stomachs are small and their rate of activity generally high, it is a good idea to provide a light midmorning and afternoon snack. Healthy suggestions include fresh fruit, unsweetened juices; whole-grain crackers; unhydrogenated, unsweetened nut butters; whole-grain, low-fat muffins. frozen juicicles; all-fruit leathers and other dried fruit; and, when a child is old enough to chew them safely, popcorn, natural corn chips rice cakes raw almonds, and veggie sticks.

Brenda Wollenberg is a freelance writer and mother of four active children in Edmonton, Alberta.