5 tricks to get your child to eat vegetables

By MiNDFOOD

5 tricks to get your child to eat vegetables

Every parent knows that mealtimes can be a battle, and encouraging your children to eat healthily can be tough. Here are five simple tips to help boost your kids’ vegetable intake.

Get your child involved

If your child helps with planning and cooking family meals with vegetables, they’re more likely to want to eat them. You can let them have a say in the vegies you buy at the market, and allow them to help out with food preparation (arranging the vegetables on a pizza, for example). If you’ve got the space in your yard for a vegie patch, you can even get them to help grow their own vegetables, so they can have a taste of their own produce.

Make them look fun

Young children are often visual eaters, so a great way to encourage them to eat more vegetables is to make them look appealing. Cut them into shapes, arrange them into faces or favourite objects or animals, you can even use a tiny amount of food dye to make them bright colours. The only limit is your imagination! 

Hide them away

Do your kids love spaghetti bolognaise? Or maybe they’re fans of tacos, or pizza? Whatever their favourite meal, it’s easy to sneak in some extra vegetables. Finely dice some carrots or zucchini and blend into pasta sauce, or boost a taco filling with some beans. This trick is an oldie but a goodie – and it really works.

Be a role model

Monkey see, monkey do. Your child will learn most of their food habits from you, so the best way to get your child to eat vegetables is to enjoy them yourself. If they see you piling your plate with vegetables, they’ll probably want to copy you.

Reward good behaviour

Creating positive experiences around food can help reduce picky eating tendencies. If you reward your child for eating their vegetables (or trying a new one) with a treat like a sticker, they will associate the vegetable with that reward and may be more likely to eat it in future.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Print Recipe

You may also like

BECOME A MiNDFOOD SUBSCRIBER TODAY

Let us keep you up to date with our weekly MiNDFOOD e-newsletters which include the weekly menu plan, health and news updates or tempt your taste buds with the MiNDFOOD Daily Recipe. 

Member Login