Vegetables are an essential part of a varied, healthy and balanced diet. It is important that your child eats vegetables daily so that they remain healthy and develop normally. One of the biggest challenges parents face is getting their children to eat vegetables. This is sometimes because they don’t like the taste, texture, or colour and occasionally because they have choked on a particular food when they were younger and this has developed into a phobia. Here are some tips on how you can get kids eating vegetables.
1. Start As You Mean To Go On
It is important to introduce a wide range of vegetables from the start. This can be done even in the early stages of weaning your child as vegetables are ideal for mashing or pureeing, and you can experiment with different combinations. They are also fantastic finger foods when your child moves to the next stage.
2. Set an Example to Get Kids Eating Vegetables
Children mimic their parent’s behaviour If they see you eating a variety of vegetables daily, then they will see this as being the norm and follow your lead. If they only see you eating junk food, then vegetables will become an alien concept that they are unwilling to eat. Try to eat together as a family as much as possible so that they have the chance to emulate your eating habits.
3. Make It Fun and Involve Them in Cooking
Making mealtimes and the food that is served can help the meal to seem more appealing. One way of doing this is to turn the food into fun pictures. For example, top a pizza with cherry tomatoes and slices of pepper arranged into the design of a face.
Children also like to be involved in the cooking process and if they have made the food their selves or helped to prepare it, it can make the vegetables served more appealing.
4. Grow Your Own
Seeing the whole process of the creation of vegetables, from seed to serving on a plate, can make the food seem interesting. If they get involved in this process, they will feel pride in what they have achieved. It is also a great way to educate children about how plants grow and the sources of different food types. I have tried growing my own veg, with some success. My children loved growing their own food and eating it.
5. Disguise the Vegetables
If you are really struggling to get your child to eat vegetables and want them to benefit from the nutrients, then you can disguise the vegetables. One way is to dice them up very finely in foods like casseroles, chilli con carne or spaghetti bolognese.
6. Make a Soup to Get Kids Eating Vegetables
Soups are also a great way to disguise the vegetable content as they are usually pureed, and soup is easy to make in either a pan or a soup maker. Similarly, making homemade pasta sauces with ingredients such as tomatoes, peppers and onions is a good way of disguising what their meal contains. There are some excellent soup recipes on our sister site, Super Souper Ed.