Getting kids to eat vegetables is quite a feat! Every parent knows that it’s no easy business to befriend children with broccoli or okra. That’s why parents need all the help they can get to get their children to eat vegetables. If you want your children to eat some awesome vegetables and enjoy them, then you need a strategy. We’re here to offer a bit of guidance by presenting you 10 ways to get kids to eat vegetables. Read and take copious notes, because there must be at least one or two of our tips that will work on your child!
10. Set an Example
The most important thing you can do to get your child to eat vegetables is to eat and enjoy vegetables. Your child learns from you and, if you don’t like or eat vegetables, then they’re not going to ask you to cook them a nice broccoli gratin. If your child doesn’t like vegetables in general, don’t blame them. Ask yourself what you did for them not to like vegetables and then try to fix it.
9. Introduce New Vegetables Slowly
Take small steps, it’s the best way to get your child to like vegetables. Always introduce one new vegetable at a time and don’t make a fuss about it. Just tell them what it is and try to answer any question they might have. Prepare that vegetable the best way you can. If at first they don’t like it, try to cook it differently. If they still don’t like it, don’t give up completely. Simply put it aside and try again in a couple of weeks or months.
8. Don’t Force Them to Finish
Telling your child to polish their plate is a horrible thing to do that encourages obesity. A child’s stomach is tiny and they should not be forced to finish their food when they say they’re full. If you’re not listening to your child then who are you listening to? They won’t starve, so there’s no need to worry about that.
7. Puree Veggies
Just look at those vegetable purees and tell me they don’t look beyond yummy! Pureeing is one of the greatest ways to get kids to eat vegetables! Just steam or boil a handful of vegetables, puree them, and add whatever spice you think your child would enjoy. They’ll get all the benefits those great veggies have to offer and they won’t have anything to object to when it comes to shape, size or color of the veggies. It’s pure genius!
6. Fruit Smoothies with Vegetables
Smoothies are a close relative of pureeing, thus they’re also pretty awesome. Children will always enjoy a nice, delicious and sweet fruit smoothie. What child doesn’t like a strawberry and banana smoothie? What you can do to make that even better, is sneak in a small vegetable in there. A floret of broccoli will pass unnoticed in any fruit smoothie, trust us! Or you can just make them a green smoothie and call it the Green Monster, that could work, too.
5. Make Vegetables Fun
Another way to get your child to love vegetables is to make vegetables fun and fun to eat. You can try to make funny faces with the veggies or create characters or villains that your child would want to eat. If that doesn’t work, you can always create elaborate stories about vegetables or get a book that you and your child would enjoy.
4. Use Dips
Vegetables and delicious. Vegetables dipped in hummus are spectacularly delicious. Try having plenty of healthy and yummy dips available on the dinner table and encourage your child to dip vegetables. You’ll see that in no time, they’ll reach for vegetables on their own. And besides, who doesn’t love hummus?!
3. Get Them Involved in the Cooking Process
When children are given attention, they blossom. If you involve them in the cooking process they’ll surprise you. Let’s say you teach them how to make a vegetable pie. They’ll take so much pride in it, that they’ll pretty much devour the thing. Let your kids join you in the kitchen if you want them to start loving good and healthy food.
2. Cut Back on Junk
Kids should not eat junk food, but if they are eating it, you should wean them off it as soon as possible. It has been proven that consuming junk food will change a person’s appetite and make them crave more junk food. You’ll never hear someone, child or adult, craving an apple after they’ve had a large pizza and Coke. Cut back on your child’s junk and you’ll start seeing some real changes in their appetite.
1. Educate Them about Vegetables
Does your child know what ketchup is made from? Does your child know how a tomato plant looks and smell? How about beans? Do they know where they come from? If not, then you should better start teaching them about vegetables, because only through education, will children become friends with vegetables.
What other ways to get kids to eat vegetables do you know? Care to share them with us? Use the comment section below, we’d love to learn more about how to get kids to eat vegetables!
Leave a Reply