Getting Kids to Eat Vegetables

Forget the tricks and bribes. Ken Haedrich reveals the best ways to get your kids to eat their veggies.

Launch Gallery

by Ken HaedrichFebruary 1998from issue # 13

Getting kid to eat vegetables is a conundrum . Battles over food can create stress in an otherwise peaceable household . And in an attempt to diminish the combat , parent may give in to a youngster who simply refuses to eat “ what ’s salutary for him . ” I ’ve looked at this quandary up close , and have spent the better part of my adult life history manipulate for my own four vegetarian kidskin , so I have some suggestions for parents cooking in a veggie - hostile environment .

First , have it off that all the tricks and good recipes in the world will do you picayune good unless you adopt the correct attitude . Gauge your own attitude quotient by taking this quiz :

You , a veggie lover , have prepared a stunning meal featuring an regalia of fresh and toothsome veggies that would make Martha Stewart green with invidia . Now , the fruits of your labor are spread opulently before your gathered clan : delicately steamed Asparagus officinales spears glistening in Citrus limon juice and butter ; fragrant , roasted new potatoes flecked with fresh Rosmarinus officinalis ; and a kaleidoscope of crudités with a savory dip . Then your eight - year - honest-to-goodness lets fly that he would rather have a bowl of Indian corn flakes . How do you answer ?

The gospel of good food is a risky one to advocate to kids , but there ’s no doubt it ’s authoritative to get . If we ate only for taste we ’d eat Boston Cream pie all the time ( or possibly apple pie if we ’re vegans ) . In food for thought , adipose tissue carries flavor , and sweetness is a best-loved taste , hence our aptness to run through sweet , eminent - adipose tissue foods . But eating food with lowly nutritive value deprives us of those nutrients we need by displacing healthy foods . That leads to the age - old ordination to run through your vegetables — or you wo n’t get any sweet .

countenance kids make love about the grandness of sound eating , but do n’t shove it down their pharynx . One day they ’ll be the ones responsible for for their own well - being , and they need the noesis and skills to make salutary determination about solid food .

Kids have a processed texture detector . Mushy and slimy are two important words in a kid ’s vocabulary of texture . If a veg does n’t make it past a child ’s built - in texture sensor , forget it . ( And do n’t even guess about commingling solid food with different textures ; keep that corn whisky off from the mashed potato , and both away from the greens . ) Here are a couple of representative : Most of my kids like strips of raw bell pepper . But the same ace who ’ll wipe out them raw will treat sautéed capsicum pepper plant with utter disdain . Or take sautéed mushrooms . Here ’s a food none of my kids will eat because it ’s too slimy . On the other hand , if I purée those sautéed mushrooms with stock to make mushroom-shaped cloud soup , the kid are in heaven .

Legions of minor like raw vegetable with dip . Cucumbers , broccoli , cultivated celery , carrots , and sweet pepper are some of the most popular choice . And of row , the right dip hit all the difference in the world .

check out for size faux pas . When you could envelop your finger around your veggies , as you could with crudités , and nibble off what you like , size of it is not a headache . When it hail to cooked dishes , fork - and - spoon foods , physical sizing matters . And the younger the child , the more it weigh .

envisage you ’re five years sure-enough and quite contented with the bowling ball of vegetable soup your ma just placed in front of you . You err in your spoonful and fish out a piece of Brassica oleracea italica , not just any piece but a mega - floret . You move the spoonful toward your sass and quickly calculate that , even at maximum aperture , there ’s no way this baby is going in whole . Such is often the fate of little kids live in the human beings of adult foods .

I make Christ Within of the situation , but I think the Too - Big - Veggie Syndrome is a hit block for kids , and when the veggies are cut too big , fry lose interest without bothering to say why . When they do , it ’s unproblematic to conclude they do n’t wish Brassica oleracea italica . Whereas the truth is they ’re just intimidated by the sizing . With cooked vegetables , I cut for the untried person at the table . And if that ’s not feasible , I do a separate portion for the littlest ones .

As I say earlier , I have n’t always been master of the calm retort when one of my kids posits that a sure veggie I ’ve lovingly ready looks like something the dog institute in . But if we listen cautiously , we can do a lot to remove the obstacle between a nestling and a mint of vegetables . Here are a few tips that might serve you :

Cook with your kid . To kids , cooking is one of those mysterious adult things . Involving children in the process of cookery colligate them with the food . ensure they ’re supervised , and start with cutting and mixing element .

Basic is often good . I’ve seen one too many article suggest that if we dress up broccoli to look like Rangifer tarandus , or Madonna , kids will eat it . Veggies do n’t call for to be cute to be practiced . A pat of butter , a clinch of stinker succus , and a sprinkle of salt will dish up you comfortably .

outride in season , when possible . It ’s somewhat darn hard to rust only what ’s in season . But a lot of the “ fresh ” vegetable we get at the supermarket can be fairly tasteless , and we ca n’t blame kids who find them underwhelming . In wintertime months , lean toward storage veggie like stem and squash rackets and those that travel well like kale .

suffice lots of vegetable , and often . small fry are bind to eat when they ’re thirsty and tie up to peck among a phone number of different vegetable dish .

Grow a garden or visit a farmer ’s marketplace . This also gives kids another palpable connection to their food . Your own love apple or green beans always savor best .

Try jest at . Roasting focus sweet and spirit and can be done successfully with most vegetable .

And if at first you do n’t win , do n’t lose hope . If a child does n’t care something at age five , it ’s not needfully a continuing condition . My two older tiddler love tomatoes now ; a few old age ago they would n’t sit down at the same table with a chopped tomato . Tastes change .

Fine Gardening advocate Products

Involving children in food preparation and cooking is a sure way to boost the likelihood they’ll try new dishes.Photo/Illustration: Scott Phillips

Corona ® Multi - Purpose Metal Mini Garden Shovel

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchase through links on this land site , include Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising program .

Planting in a Post - Wild World : Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

The Crevice Garden : How to make the perfect home for plants from jolting places

Get our latest wind , how - to articles , and instructional video sent to your inbox .

Signing you up …

How to Get Kids to Eat their Vegetables

Getting Ready to Garden

How to Start a Kitchen Garden

9 Reasons to Start a Vegetable Garden

link up Fine horticulture for a free pursue springy webinar boast Dr. Janna Beckerman , a far-famed plant pathologist as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technical managing director …

When I spotted a particular sand dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few months ago , I knew I was in difficulty . With a delightful people of colour pattern …

When we only prioritise plants we require over plants our landscape penury , each season is filled with a never - end tilt of chores : pruning , pinching , lacrimation , treating , remediate , and fertilizing , with …

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re probable to trip on something , but because you might be dive - bombed by a pair …