How to encourage young children to eat vegetables? Any good tricks that work?

Favorite Answer

Hello: You may want to start off by making vegetables in to a game. If your child is two/four years old or even a little older, you may want to place veggies on a plate. Like celery, carrots, things like that. You could try the counting game for ex--- after placing them on to a plate say okay let's count 1 2 (etc)... By pretending making a game out of it your child will see that it isn't such a horribble thing to eat veggies. You could also use things like making a dip for the uncooked veggies like for the carrots use Ranch dressing for the celery maybe peanutbutter get creative. For a moment, place yourself back in time and remember your experiences as a child. If you get down to your child's level it will help them to have fun and eat healthy.
Hope that this helps. You may want to try searching the Ladies Home Journal site for more tricks and tips.

Good luck....Show more

Try stir-frying your vegetables with some meat.
That way the meat can soften up that weird taste that children think vegetables have.
Start with the vegetables that can stay crisp or crunchy after
stir-frying. Keep the vegetables green or whatever their original color was.
This way the children won't get bored with the vegetables.

It worked great for me and my brother when we were little. Now, we can't live without vegetables.

I hope my mom's method will help....Show more

There are many "tricks" that work wonderfully. Some can also be good educational opportunities, such as vegetable gardening. A child who helps plant and tend the vegetable garden will be more likely to want to eat those vegetables, or at least give them a try, when they are served at the dinner table. Seeing the family enjoying the food that they helped grow will instill a deep sense of pride in your child.

Also, allowing your children to help both plan and prepare their own meals is another good way to pique their interest in vegetables. Although a young child should not be allowed to handle knives or get near a hot stove, you can still safely engage them in the cooking process. Let them wash the vegetables. Let them push the "start" button on the microwave or cuisinart. Let them be the taste tester. I have very fond memories of sitting at the kitchen table, gabbing with my grandmother and helping her snap the ends off of the string beans.

You might try sneaking veggies into dishes that you know the child already enjoys. For example, add diced mushrooms, green peppers, onions, or a combination of these to your spaghetti sauce. Serve hamburgers topped with a slice of tomato, onion, and a leaf of Romaine lettuce. Stir some canned pumpkin into your child's oatmeal. Make french fries out of butternut squash (see the recipe at hungry-girl.com). Baked potatoes can easily become baked sweet potaotes, which provide an abundance of vitamin A. Broccoli is a great addition to macaroni and cheese, while peas, carrots and corn nibblets fit very nicely into most casserole recipes and soups. If serving pizza, make it a veggie pizza. Some sneaky children will "eat around" the new ingredient; when this occurs chop the vegetable into finer pieces next time.

It's perfectly fine to use canned and frozen vegetables; they offer the same nutritional value as their fresh produce cousins -- just make sure that the manufacturer has not added other ingredients, like preservatives, butter, oil, salt, sugar, or corn syrup. A good rule of thumb is "The shorter the ingredient list, the better."

If your child is very young (age 3 and under), you might want to stick with small finger foods, like cooled boiled baby carrots and raw brocolli florets. Be sure to always closely supervise young children whenever they eat, to prevent choking accidents and to make sure the food does not wind up in the wrong body orifice. :)

A person's taste preferences will differ greatly over a lifetime. As a toddler, I loved to eat raw tomatoes yet hated most other veggies; now that I'm grown, the exact opposite it true. So be sure to expose your child to a wide variety of foods and don't be afraid to offer him or her the same food a few different times, prepared in different ways. A child who hates steamed broccoli may really enjoy raw broccoli. And one that hates corn one day may find it very tasty a year later.

When speaking to your child, try referring to each vegetable by its specific name. For instance, rather than saying "Please eat your veggies, honey" instead try saying "Mmmm... Have you tasted the carrots yet? They are so sweet!" This not only helps to build your child's vocabulary, it also prevents the child from lumping his/her likes and dislikes into a single category, becoming biased against the food before even trying it. If you simply call it a vegetable, the child's brain may respond with "I don't like vegetables" and the prejudice can be instantaneous.

Finally, don't pressure your child into eating foods that are not palatable. And never punish a child for refusing food or not cleaning his plate. Forcing food upon your child can lead to low self esteem and eating disorders. A child's eating habits can be a beacon to what is silently going on inside his/her body. For instance, the child might be physically ill, experiencing dental pain, allergic to certain foods, etc. Monitor your child's weight rather than his/her plate, and consult a physician with any concerns. It is perfectly fine to allow your child to substitute fruits in place of vegetables. Keep in mind that the vitamin A in a peach is no different from the vitamin A in a carrot. Children naturally tend to lean toward sweet (versus savory) tastes, and they often are more sensitive about food textures than adults. Respect your child's taste preferences. After all, sitting down to dinner with one's family should be a treat, not a chore -- even for a kid that refuses to eat his veggies....Show more

Put cheese on your vegetables. Kids love anything with cheese on it. You could also put some mushroom soup on your veggies too....Show more

For broccoli...I would cook it only until bright green and not real soft then I would serve it standing on end...my kids loved eating the little "trees"....Show more