A- Don’t blame the kids – its just their pre-historic self-preservation urges kicking in. “Babies are born with an aversion to bitter-tasting foods, such as sprouts, because they instinctively think they are poisonous,” says Dr. Gillian Harris, a consultant clinical psychologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. “When they become toddlers, they also develop neophobia – the fear of something new. In the days of the caveman, this would protect infants from eating anything harmful if they wandered out of their parents’ sight.” If parents want their children to eat greens, the best methods are to eat vegetables a lot themselves, serve the children with a food the children know and like – such as a favourite sauce – and never treat them as a chore or punishment.