So I was right all along to reject broccoli! As a small child I hated the stuff on sight. Now a research study in the USA has discovered that children instinctively are wary of eating plants, much to the dismay of their parents, who cry out that: ‘Greens are good for you!’

The supposition is that children are hard wired to treat plants with extreme caution as they could contain potential hazards such as toxic substances, thorns or other hazardous materials. Plants have evolved a number of important defensive strategies to assist with their own survival and it would appear that infants have co-evolved to recognise this. So until a child learns  that a plant is ok to touch and even to eat then it is being extremely sensible and ensuring its own survival.

Good old evolution was there well before books on parenting! So why is it that we so often ride roughshod over our instincts and the  instincts of our children. Perhaps good parenting is more about sensitivity to the possibility of evolutionary strategies than the latest glossy book on parenting!