There’s a lot about getting kids to eat their vegetables. The question is, what’s the best approach. Should you sneak veggies into your kids food? Or trust that in time, they’ll get on board.
Plenty of folks say, “heck, yes”, get veggies into your kids however possible. Indeed, entire books are devoted to the subject, offering surreptitious ways to work vegetables into everyday dishes. On the flip side are plenty of parents, along with food and nutrition experts, who are opposed to such practices. Vegetables need to be up front and center, they proclaim, otherwise kids will never learn to accept them at face value.
Should you sneak veggies into your kid’s food?
Although I’ve been known to stir pureed carrots into my mac cheese and have worked chopped kale anonymously into more dishes than I can count, I tend to be a more ‘up front and center’ kind of a cook. I wonder what kind of a message it sends if healthy foods need to be camouflaged. Plus, it’s tough to get in adequate amounts of vegetables when hidden within another dish.
That all said, there’s no harm in a little of both. Have the bowl of veggies and the green salad on the table, but toss those dark leafies into the chili when the kids aren’t looking.
On the “serve ‘em naked” end of the spectrum, here are a few tips that may help your kids embrace their vegetables:
8 Ways to Get Kids to Eat their Veggies (without having to sneak)
• Provide options
Try for at least a couple of vegetable dishes at dinner, say a salad and a plate of broccoli, or pasta with asparagus and veggies and dip. Offering choices may up the chances that a child will go for at least one of them.
• Let kids choose
Take kids to the market and let them have a say in what vegetables you make that day or week. Invite them to choose something new, stick with an old favorite, or maybe both.
• Get your kids cooking vegetables
Give children jobs in the kitchen related to the salad or vegetables, such as making a salad dressing or grating cheese over roasted cauliflower.
• Serve veggies first
I’m always surprised by how quickly the kids can down a plate of vegetables set out before dinner when they are good and hungry.
• Garden
Growing and harvesting a couple of vegetables is a great way to up the interest.
• Eat them yourself
Let your kids see you eating and loving a variety of vegetables.
• Don’t push it
Put the food out there, encourage them to try it, then leave it alone.
• Be patient
Some kids take time (a long time) to adopt new foods. Those of you with veggie-averse kids might take comfort in this article in Yoga Journal about one mom’s trial (and triumph) with her picky son.
