Getting kids to eat vegetables is part magical transformation and part persuasion. I find the more I reason with my kids and give them scientific information about why they need different nutrients, the more willing they will be to try a new vegetable. Whether they helped grow it or picked it out at the farmer's market, having fresh organic and local produce certainly helps. We stay away from canned and sauced frozen vegetables, and go for fresh or frozen (in winter) things that we can eat with a little butter and salt.
1. Feed them nothing but vegetables and fruit for the first year of their life - in addition to nursing. They will develop a taste for healthy food if you make it fresh and feed it every day. They don't need meat and sugary snacks.
2. Keep feeding raw and cooked vegetables as snacks -- not sugary cookies or ice cream. Think tiny organic carrots, frozen peas and strips of red sweet peppers.
3. Bring out the veggies first at meal time. Start with a salad, and little bowls of different vegetables they can add on top. After the raw stuff, bring out a couple cooked vegetables. Potatoes, corn, spaghetti squash and beets.
4. Mix the new or bitter vegetables in with ones they like, like rutabaga with diced potatoes, or mash turnips with potatoes.
5. Dice them up small, mince onions tiny. If they're too tiny to identify, they're too small to complain about or pick out.
6. Or, leave them in bigger chunks. Accept that every kid will have a couple things they really dislike. My son hates mushrooms, so instead of no mushrooms, I leave them in large pieces he can easily pick out and give to ME! I don't force them to eat things they really hate.
7. Puree and add some vegetables to soups and vegetable patties. Again, if you can't see it you can't complain about it. I also dehydrate onions, celery and tomatoes, which can be whizzed in the blender and added to a quick stock made with onion and herbs. I never buy expensive broths, I just add water and cook. In a pinch, a vegetarian boullion cube adds flavor but also sodium.
8. Have fun and special treats like steamed artichokes, a half an avocado with lemon juice in the hollow on special dinner occasions. I talk about how they are special treats for adults but the kids can have some if they want. If they don't, act delighted. "More for me!"
9. Find out if cooked broccoli or carrots go over better or raw. Ranch dip? What floats their boat? Be flexible. Sometimes we have both cooked and raw so that whatever they like, it's there.
11. Combine logic with nutritional education - what vitamins are in that squash? What minerals do they get from salads? How many rainbow colors of vegetables can they count? Why do we eat them? Is there one from a leafy vegetable, one from in the ground, one that's red, one that's yellow?
It's a lifetime and kids need to be exposed to a lot of different foods before their food preferences are set in concrete. Trying, tasting and learning are fun -- don't make it a contest. The kids will lose because you can't force anyone to eat anything -- and they know it. they will be the poorer for not being able to eat so many nutritious foods.
One friend's son will only eat potatoes and corn. Nothing else in the entire vegetable universe. And that's just sad.
Pass the salad!
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