1. Camouflaged Veggies
Get creative with how you serve your kids their vegetables. Puree carrots and add them to anything from spaghetti sauce to soup. Make veggie omelets with finely chopped bell peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Offer different dips to make eating veggies fun. Ranch is a favorite, but peanut butter or another dressing like honey mustard work well also. Hide vegetables in casseroles, lasagna and muffins for an extra serving or two a day of veggies.
2. Let Them Play With Their Food
Kids like to play with their food. Start by planting a vegetable garden together. Peas, beans, tomatoes and squash are easy to grow and delicious when fresh. Teach your children how to water and weed the garden. When it's time to harvest, show them how fun it is to eat fresh grown veggies right out of the garden. If there's any of the harvest leftover, plan a meal that you can cook together. Get your child involved with meal prep and cooking. He won't be able to resist eating something that he helped create from start to finish, and eating your vegetables fresh from an organic garden is one of the healthiest and most wholesome ways to do it.
3. Lead By Example
If you load your plate with nothing but french fries and steak, yet demand that your child eat his vegetables, you're probably going to meet some resistance and confusion. Suck it up and eat your veggies, too. Load your plate up with leafy green salads or other vegetables during meals. Keep snacking vegetables in the fridge. Baby carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes make quick and easy snacks for you and your kids. When your kids see you eating vegetables, they are much more likely to start eating their own veggies.
4. Don't Give Up
Try, try and try again. Persistence pays off when it comes to introducing your child to vegetables. When your child begins eating solid foods, keep a steady flow of new vegetables on her plate. You want to introduce as many new foods in the first several years of your child's life as you can. As your child grows older, she'll be less willing to try new foods. A young child might not even try a vegetable until it's been set in front of them a dozen times. Keep offering a small amount, encouraging them to take at least one bite. You never know what might become an instant favorite.
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