Our older son R never went through what I deem the “Ketchup Phase.” You know about the Ketchup Phase? It is the period most children go through when they decide that everything, yes everything, tastes better with ketchup on it.
I remember watching our niece, who is about 5 years older than R, pour ketchup on everything on her plate. SPH and I looked at each other and said, “our kids will never do that!” Ha! While we may have successfully averted ketchup obsession with R, G is now asking for ketchup on many foods. (Isn’t it amazing how children can humble our once haughty judgments of parenting?)
Here’s the thing though: while it might disgust us parents when we see our children dipping their green beans and orange slices in ketchup, it is, after all, a vegetable based dip, and I have yet to come across an adult who is ketchup obsessed.
So while G satisfies his palate curiosities with his ketchup dipping, we’ll try and encourage trying things without ketchup, but also keep things in perspective too. In the meantime, I am thinking up ways I can use this ketchup fascination to my advantage, perhaps developing a recipe that uses ketchup in some way to encourage him to try a new food or such.
It was to this end that I stumbled across this article on Yahoo!Green about alternative uses for ketchup. Now excuse me while I go throw a couple ketchup packets in the freezer (see item #5).
SPC
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