I don’t know about you but I am at my wits end trying to get my kids to eat their veggies. They used to like them at one point, but lately it seems like there is no way to get them to eat them.
I always put baby carrots in their lunches and every day when they come home there they are in every one of their lunch boxes. What to do? So I try at dinner but all I get are sour faces and turning of heads when they are offered vegetables.
I talked to the kids’ pediatrician about this and he told me that 9 out of 10 kids don’t make the daily requirement as far as eating enough veggies to get their required daily nutrition.
Although this made me feel good that I wasn’t doing worse than anyone else, I was still worried about them.
He also told me that tomatoes (aren’t they fruit?) and white potatoes (this includes chips and fries) made up more than half of the veggies that kids four to eight years old ate. I have to tell you I was totally floored, but knowing that my kids wouldn’t eat vegetables, I understood
According to the CDC kids end up with less than half the number of veggies that they need and, surprisingly, this does not vary by income or race.
According to a poll of parents, they reported that it was harder to get kids to eat vegetables than it is to get them to clean their room. Here are some suggestions and tricks I used to get my kids to eat more vegetables.
Name the veggies
I got to thinking how do marketers sell things to kids? They give them a name, so why couldn’t I do this? Once I started calling Brussels sprouts “hero buttons,” and my pea’s power pods my kids couldn’t get enough of them.
Shop with your kids
When you go grocery shopping let them pick out the fruits and vegetables. If you find it difficult to take the kids on the entire shopping trip just take them to get the fruits and veggies, I have, then they are more likely to eat them if they pick them out themselves. Encourage them to smell the produce and admire the colors.
Cook with your kids
A month ago I asked my daughter to make the green beans after I cooked them you know – add some butter, sprinkle on some seasonings – while I worked on some other dishes.
At the table my daughter insisted on eating the green beans because, as she put it, “I made them.” Now the other kids have all been begging to take a turn “making the veggies.”
Institute the “no thank you bite” rule
Tell your child he has to take a bite before vetoing something on his plate. My husband and I figure as long as our son is tasting the food, he’ll eventually get comfortable with it.
Bribe with dessert
Don’t want to finish what’s good for them? No problem; no dessert. This may not the healthiest way to get them to eat vegetables, but it worked for my husband and I with one of our kids who just wouldn’t eat them. Thing is, desserts are his soft point.
