getting kids to eat veggies

I told my littles ones they couldnt have the vegetable because it was too expensive and only for adults. It was a special treat just for me. The more I told them they couldnt eat it, the more they wanted to try it. Now they devour broccoli,cabbage, and asparagus. Try covering it in shredded cheese. Anything tastes better with cheese.

Seriously. Take it easy on yourself. Keep the corn, carrots, and basic salad available. Also fruits.

We did what I swore we'd never do... Bribe them with dessert (something small) if they eat their veggies.

Now they eat them (but we only give them a handful, but they're allowed to have more, of course).

I put a little (cooked) garlic on most veggies. I didn't have to bribe them. There was no dessert just because I wasn't raised with a nightly dessert so that's still odd to me. Dessert was special occasion stuff.

My kids hated hot dogs, nuggets, Mac n cheese (still will only eat real mac n cheese made with actual cheese), burgers, fries, etc.

We were pretty broke when they were little since I couldn't work. Having 3 kids within 17 months time (1 then twins) made child care out of reach lol. No junk food or fast food cuz we couldn't afford it.

We had a garden each year that they helped with and had their own plants too. There were things they wouldn't eat but who cares. They ate well enough.

The easiest way is to start them eating vegetables when they are infants. Veggies have always been served with every meal and they (Kids are 12 & 5) grew up eating a variety. My kids love salad and veggies. They will now even order broccoli instead of fries when we dine out.

Libby283 wrote: »

The easiest way is to start them eating vegetables when they are infants. Veggies have always been served with every meal and they (Kids are 12 & 5) grew up eating a variety. My kids love salad and veggies. They will now even order broccoli instead of fries when we dine out.

Yes, this. My kids were raised eating veggies starting as infants and as adults they both love most vegetables. The tricky part has been my two step kids who have been raised by a parent who doesn't really care what her kids eat. The younger one was easy because I just did what I always do and she likes veggies more than meat. But the older one prefers to eat mostly processed carbs always. I encourage him to help cook, ask his recommendation for the vegetable all the time, and even offer two vegetables at dinner. I request that he eat some of at least one of the veggies and he does - although he doesn't really love it. He just usually eats the one he hates the least. He understands that nutrition is important and tries to indulge me.

Francl27 wrote: »

Libby283 wrote: »

The easiest way is to start them eating vegetables when they are infants. Veggies have always been served with every meal and they (Kids are 12 & 5) grew up eating a variety. My kids love salad and veggies. They will now even order broccoli instead of fries when we dine out.

I tried that. I spent basically 2 years throwing away veggies they wouldn't eat...

Seriously. Same here, for at least one of my kids.

Look, kids just have different tastes. Only in the most extreme cases can a child's lack of love for spinach and Brussels sprouts be chalked up to poor parenting. Sometimes, the more you try to force a kid to eat vegetables, the more they reject them, so even if mom or dad had spent every second since the kid starting eating solid food shoving strained peas into the kid's face we might still be in the same spot, or worse.

I have 2 kids, both raised the same way, eating the same meals, all that. One loves vegetables of all kinds. Requests carrots instead of pretzels in his lunch, wants extra peppers on his fajitas, stuff like that. The other acts like nearly all vegetables that are not steamed broccoli or cucumbers dipped into ranch dressing will actually kill her dead if she eats them. That's just their differing tastes, I didn't insist my son eat his vegetables and carefully monitor his 5-a-day progress while completely ignoring my daughter's health and well-being and allowing her to subsist entirely on pop-tarts and chocolate milk.

All of that said, of course there are many ways to encourage children to eat more vegetables, including many in this thread. It mostly depends on what works for your kid and their personality and preferences. I, personally, take a kind of two-sided approach. First, I go out of my way to frequently serve vegetables that I know they'll both eat. I want to be able to encourage and praise them when they do happily eat a serving of vegetables, even if it's broccoli 4 times a week. Second, I go out of my way to frequently serve vegetables that I know they rarely eat. I'm strongly opposed to the idea of forcing a child to clean their plate, but I do insist that my children at least taste (one or two bites) everything I serve to them (or else no "treat" after dinner). They say a small child may need up to 10 exposures to a food before they can truly determine whether they like it or not. I make a big deal out of it if they say they do like it, so that I can encourage them to eat more of it and/or call that out the next time I serve it.

Also, kind of in general I make frequent reference to all the ways food and exercise make you "strong," and vegetables obviously play a large part in that. My kids both really want to be "strong," and love to have me feel their biceps muscles after each bite of vegetables (or meat, or whatever it is I'm trying to talk up at that moment) and ask if I can tell they're getting stronger. Finding an interactive way to encourage healthy eating can make a big difference.

Don't make a big deal of it. You choose what to make, the kid chooses how much and what to eat. I give choices, like i will get salad ingredients and each kid must choose 2 veggies minimum along with whatever else. No veggies is simply not an option. After the first few tries there's no argument and nobody's refusing to eat.

Kid A 'hated' greens, til they became optional in salad, and he 'hated' them less than tomato/onion/avocado. Now he chooses to put them in salad, sandwiches etc. He has also adopted broccoli as a favorite. Previous to the salad project he would only eat peas, carrot, corn and cucumber for veg. This is spectacular for a kid who would not eat anything but fruit, little veg, bread and cheese (not even chicken nuggets) until he was 5. Still hates potatoes though. His salad is regularly greens, grated carrot, olives, meat and cheese.

Kid B still 'hates' greens, but will devour tomato, bell pepper, snap peas and avocado like they're going out of fashion. Her salad is tomato, avocado, peppers, meat and cheese. Not much to it, but she eats it with no complaint.