Posted on: 05.04.2016.
Most children do not get the recommended amount of vegetables in their daily diet. Try as they might, parents often have a hard time convincing kids to eat this important part of a balanced diet. However, getting kids to eat their veggies does not have to be a daily battle. Your earnest efforts may be met with little success but it is not impossible to get your kids to eat vegetables.
Succeeding at this challenging task requires consistency and persistence. Just as your kids are persistent, you can be too. There are many creative ways to introduce new vegetables and reintroduce those that have been rejected in the past.
Follow these ten tips to get your kids to eat veggies willingly and without a fight.
Kids often have food issues because it is one of few things in their lives that they can control. Get your kids involved by taking them to a farmer's market or a pick-your-own farm and let them choose a vegetable. You can also bring them along to the grocery store and have them pick a new veggie.
Let the kids wash and peel veggies with your supervision or help. Show them how to slice, cook and flavor them. The kids can even help to whip up a dressing or dip for the vegetable and to set the table for the meal.
These activities give your kids a sense of pride and feeling of accomplishment. It also invests them in the meal and makes them more likely to try the food. Knowing that they helped choose it, prepare it and serve it makes them more excited about eating it. For an even bigger impact, consider starting a small vegetable garden or growing a pot of, for example, tomatoes or onions. Show them how to plant, care for and harvest their own veggies.
Children see the world differently and have different values from adults. Arguments about how vegetables are healthy won't get you far with little kids. Instead, try encouraging your kids with statements like "vegetables help you to grow strong muscles" instead of "it's healthy." Knowing a certain food can help them grow might entice kids to try some new veggies.
Sometimes a little silliness inspires your kids to try a new veggie. Make fun arrangements or shapes out of cut veggies, such as faces or rainbows. Making the pieces in miniature sizes also makes eating veggies more child-friendly. Try creating a mandala pattern on the plate, as kids love colorful and fancy presentations.
Give names to the veggies, like Bobby Broccoli. Choose colorful vegetables, including surprise variations like orange bell peppers and purple carrots. Relate these vegetables into fun things that your child already loves and make eating them into a game, such as pretending you're Peter Rabbit visiting the farmer's garden and nibbling on all the carrots. You can also use cookie cutters or mandolins to cut veggies into fun shapes for the kids.
Make eating a positive experience. Reward kids when they try a bite of a food they rejected before. A happy face sticker is a fun incentive for little children. Doing this delivers a positive association with that food.
Young children don't follow logical thinking patterns and arguing with them or punishing them for not eating their vegetables will just create stress for everyone and will result in a negative meal experience. The kids will associate the vegetable with a bad feeling. Such negative experiences could actually increase picky eating.
Stick with offering only one new food per day. Young children may feel overwhelmed if they get an entire plate filled with foods that they do not like or don't even recognize. Serve the new vegetable along with other foods that are familiar, including one other vegetable that they already know and like. For example, you could serve orange bell peppers as a topping on pizza.
Some kids don't like the idea of mixing foods or having foods touch each other, but your child may be willing to experiment with a new flavor. You could also set up a variety of bowls and let kids do their own toppings on an individual sized pizza, taco or salad. Let them use the tongs or spoons to scoop up a portion and try it out. They may be more willing to try a new food when they get to pick it and put it on their own plates.
Forcing your children to eat vegetables now may cause them to avoid eating it when they are adults. It also won't get kids to change their behavior. Avoid making your kids clean their plates or eat a large serving of a new food. Start with a taste, even just one bite. Ask your child to try just one mouthful of the food each time you serve it with a meal. Children may need to be exposed to a new food for at least 8 to 10 separate tries before they get used to it and its taste and will eat it willingly.
Relate the new food to other first-time experiences that your child has had, such as their first time riding a bike or the first day of school. With each time you serve the vegetable, it gets more familiar to your child and they will be more likely to accept it as a part of their meal and eat it.
If at first your child won't eat a vegetable, consider preparing it a different way. Cooked snap peas may be mushy, so serve them fresh. Cooked carrots may taste too strong. Try roasting or steaming them to get a flavor and texture that your kids like better. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of vegetables and lessens the intensity of their flavors. You could also drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle with cheese before you roast the vegetables.
You can also cook and puree vegetables and add them as an ingredient in your family's favorite spaghetti sauce or soup. Consider serving some healthy dips like Greek yogurt flavored with ranch for fresh veggies. Hummus is another healthy dip that could make raw vegetables more appealing to your kids. Baby carrots, snap peas, pepper strips and cucumbers are mildly flavored vegetables that are fun to eat as a finger food along with some dip.
Make healthy eating and vegetables a part of your own dietary habits. Keeping vegetables as the central part of your lunch and dinner shows kids that they are what everyone is eating and that there is no other option. Kids tend to model the same eating habits that they see you doing, so let them see you eating plenty of healthy vegetables too.
Eat veggies when your kids are watching. Let them see you choose veggies and hummus as a snack over a less healthy option like potato chips. When your kids see you reaching for vegetables, fruits, whole grains and low-fat proteins, your kids will be more willing to make those choices as well. If you strongly dislike most vegetables, let your kids see other important adults in their lives eating a variety of veggies. Your kids may listen to their aunt or grandma better than their parents.
You can also sneak a few extra veggies into your favorite family treats. Try adding shredded zucchini or pureed spinach into chocolate cake or brownies. White beans can be cooked and added to cookie dough. Muffins can be made with pureed pumpkin, sweet potatoes or shredded carrots.
You can also make frozen treats by pureeing sweet potatoes, mixing them with plain yogurt and orange juice and freezing them into ice pops for hot summer days. Try making smoothies too, such as blueberry spinach smoothies or avocado, banana and strawberry smoothies.
Keep trying new foods and rejected varieties. Kids' palates change as they grow and they might have to try a certain veggie lots of times before they like it. Some children will be pickier than others and will take more effort and parental patience. Invite your child's friend over for dinner and let them see the friend eating new veggies. This good peer pressure may encourage them to try veggies too.
The eating habits kids develop at young ages will remain with them as they grow up. By solving eating problems as soon as possible, you can help to set your kids up for a healthier future. You can also continue to be good a example by creating fun and positive dining experiences and letting kids help to shop for and prepare the food.
Staying persistent, maintaining a simple one-bite rule and frequently exposing kids to new and rejected vegetables can all help to enjoy a healthy variety of vegetables and can lessen the frequency of dinnertime battles between you and your kids.
