Not all toddlers eat cheerios and Goldfish crackers

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted May 2nd 2006 @ 9:19PM

kids eating With a new little niece around, I am becoming more and more aware of what little babies and toddlers eat. Cheerios and goldfish crackers always seem to the be the snack of choice, and dinner-time foods are always finger-foods like chicken nuggets and peas. However, kiddies around the world don't eat the same way. Heck, growing up in a Korean household, I'm quite sure I was wrapping up little balls of rice in nori and spilling soy sauce all over myself. If you've ever wondered what a two-year-old in South Africa is eating, check out this list:

Japanese toddlers may not be eating sushi, but they do lunch on egg-flavored rice with broiled fish or seafood and miso soup with tofu. It's no wonder that Japan has the longest average lifespan, with the types of foods that are introduced into the diets as such a young age.
In South Africa, kiddies eat toast thats been spread with a touch of Marmite, a concentrated yeast spread that is a by-product of the beer brewing process.
If it's Marmite in South Africa, it's Vegemite in Australia, spread on Ryvita crackers
Danish and Swedish kids eat meatballs and lots of other meat and potatoes. Sweden has the world's highest consumption of ketchup, which kids put on to disguise anything that looks healthy.
In India, children eat khidchi, a spicy rice and lentils porridge.
They even list kids in Korea! Korean kids eat lots of kimchi, which is probably how they build up such a tasty tolerance for spicy foods. They also eat gim-bahp and bibimbahp.

Filed Under: Vegetarian, Trends, Lists, Ingredients
Tags: america, asia, australia, beef, breakfast, condiments, dinner, eggs, europe, fish, food, food and drink, food and wine, grains, India, indian cuisine, indian food, japan, japanese cuisine, japanese food, kids food, KidsFood, korea, korean cuisine, korean food, marmite, meat, poultry, shellfish, south africa, south asia, spices, vegemite, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-03-2006 @12:24AM Robyn said... Cool! It's neat to know that as a fourth-generation Japanese American baby I ate a lot of the same stuff that a kid in Japan would eat.
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5-03-2006 @12:04PM BG said... It's actually spelled khitchri (This is your friendly frequent blog reading Indian trying to be helpful).

My mom made like 10 lbs of khitchri last week, because my parents and uncles and aunts were reminiscing about the good ol' days, and it came up. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't eat anymore after the first couple days.

They ate it all. And a second batch. My relatives stopped by every evening, and they'd eat it and laugh and joke around. I swear, it was like some sort of euphoria enducing drug for them.
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5-06-2006 @8:33PM D said... Much to my suprise after raising a child who will eat sugar straight out of the bad, my 2.5 yr old loves her vegetables. For instance, I made her a cheese burger yesterday, and she ate the tomato off the burger and left the rest. Go figure.
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