8 tips to get children to eat more veggies

Posted on Jul 31, 2017  | Tags: fresh for kids, kids, vegies for kids

Fruits and vegetables are important for every age group and most parents are diligent in ensuring small children eat these valuable foods. But once children start eating more packaged foods, fruit and vegetable consumption drops off.

Here are some helpful tips to encourage children to eat more vegetables

1. Children love sweet foods, so serve them vegetables that are naturally sweet like sugar snap peas, carrots, red capsicum.

2. Serve vegetables raw when possible – for example, carrot sticks, green beans, strips of red and yellow capsicum, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery, button mushrooms or asparagus spears. 

3. Stir-fry vegetables only until barely tender and allow small children to eat them with their finger.

4. When time allows present children with food that is fun to eat, by creating faces, make the vegetables a novelty.

5. Give your child the responsibility to choose at least one vegetable for that night’s evening meal.

6. Involve kids in the kitchen. Even a three year old can toss the leaves for a green salad.

7. Use the barbecue for vegetables such as corn-on-the-cob, baby mushrooms, sliced pumpkin or kumara, zucchini (sliced lengthwise) and cherry tomatoes on skewers.

8. Instead of telling kids to eat capsicum, ask them to taste red, green and yellow capsicum and tell you which one they think is sweetest.

Persistence pays off!

Studies show that if children take one bite of a vegetable but are permitted to leave the rest, on the eighth occasion, they’ll just eat it all.