Help! My child doesn't like vegetables. How do I encourage healthy eating?

There is the standard recommendation that you need to let her help pick and prepare them so she will like them. Children sometimes take as much as thirteen tries to like a new food, so keep serving those veggies. Mixed veggies are especially hard to like, as well.

make a healthy ham burger for your child. put some veggy in it some pine apple, tomato, onions etc.. im sure even you will love to eat it...

I think the most important thing is to teach by example. She wil do what you do. There are ways to make veggies a litte more interesting. Like, make little stick men out of celery and carrots, or smile faces on sandwiches etc. Have fruit and veggies out and available all the time.

I can understand your feeling very well. My son doesn't like vegetables, too. Therefore, I make mashed potato with my son. Since we make it together, so he is interested in it and eat it. So perhaps you have to cook the vegetables with your son and perhaps he will think it's delicious. I love China

I find that as parents you have to live by example. I let the children help me prepare dinner and I tell them all about the health reasons for eating a balanced diet. For example they like eating carrots to improve their night vision and cellery to keep their body clean (it is a natural diuretic). I show them how I can eat my vegetables up and enjoy them, I also show them that sometimes I eat vegetables that aren't my favourite ones because they are good for me. Kids do go through stages of not eatting somethings, don't be too worried, just be consistant and keep telling them how great it is to be a healthy person. My son is a fussy eater and we got him to eat more variety by telling him that he is like a car and food is his fuel and if he wanted to grow up big and strong he would need all types of food. We also had the one teaspoonfull rule, 'you must eat one teaspoon of the food, chew and swallow, and if you don't like it you don't have to eat the rest but you still must try it next time because our tastes change and you may grow to like it'. This took the pressure off him to eat or not eat, and put the ball in his court. He also had to clear the uneatten food off his own plate from age three and had to rinse it too. I guess what you have to teach them is how to be responsible for their own health, eatting all types of food, vegegtables as well, is just a small part of a bigger picture.

Hello, My oldest was the exact same way - she was very picky and still is a little picky. First of all what I found is that if I allowed my child to dip raw veggies such as celery and carrots into ranch or something of the like she was more likely to eat it - and she was way more likely to eat it if other children were doing the same. It's amazing what kids will do if they see others doing it. Also - I did have to find ways to camoflauge veggies into dishes she would regularly eat - make it unoticeable. Thankfully she always like salad (perhaps because of the dressing) so she got some veggie intake there. I believe it is something they will outgrow. She was pickiest around the age of 3, but now she is almost 5 and she is at least willing to try new things! I also found that she liked the taste of chicken boullion - so whenever I steamed veggies, I would put a little of that in there and she liked that taste more than just fresh veggie flavor with salt & pepper. Hope this helps!

cook carrots, cool them, blend them with orange juice, or raspberry or cranberry, they eat them without knowing most kids love fruit juice lol and the kid thinks they have won blessed be

One big, easy way to get them to actually eat vegetables is to serve the vegetables to them first and then add the meat or the other foods that they like. When they don't have other foods on their plate that they like, they'll actually eat what they want, especially when they are hungry. Serve drinks a few minutes after they eat to prevent them from filling up on drinks. Once they've dug in, you can serve a few other foods to ensure they are actually eating some of their vegetables. It may take awhile to stick but they will eat them when they are really hungry.

Elliott will eat just about anything as long as it's dipped in ranch dressing, cottage cheese, yogurt, or ketchup. You might try offering her a choice of one of those to dip stuff in. I also really agree with the poster who said to give her two options and let her choose between them. I almost always let Elliott pick something for each of our meals. Then if he doesn't want it when it's on the table, I tell him, "Remember, you wanted those yummy carrots!" or whatever. He will usually eat at least one or two more bites. I haven't had much luck with hiding veggies, because then stuff tastes weird to me, or at least feels weird to me when I eat it. I think Elliott picks up on the fact that I think something is different, because he then just picks at his food, even if I eat all of mine.

I believe a good way to get kids to eat their veggies is to start from a VERY early age, if they try & like things at a young age then they're not really likely to have a change of taste over night. I have found that far too many parents insist on giving their kids sweeter items & fruits from the beginning but that's where the problems start - you just really have to push the veggies & stuff for as long as you can, before you introduce the sweeter items. Try adding extra vegetables in with a spaghetti bolognes, maybe make some vegetable soup where everything is pureed & she cant see the chunks! I don't know if kids outgrow those phases, especially if the parents allow them to no eat things for a long period of time. You simply put the foods you WANT them to eat & tell them they cant have anything else until you've seen them eat so much of whatever it is. Either that or you can use the 'no dessert until your plate is clean' thing - that tends to work, especially if you have their favourite dessert sitting there or cooking! My sister in law is now almost 19 & was never made to eat anything, she'd always have a sparate meal served up for her so she didn't have to eat what everyone else was having. At this age she will not eat most vegetables & i think that was a biad mistake on my MIL's behalf. You can always try extra vitamins & there are some 'juices' with added goodies in them but still - try the bribes & stuff first & even the threats - anything to get her to eat & hopefully she'll come to realise that the foods she's been avoiding, aren't that bad after all! Good luck!

You didn't say how old she is. Here are some things I have done with children. If old enough, include them in the food preperation, even when they are small.It makes them feel important. Find tricky ways to include vegies, like mincing them up into sauces to put on pasta or cut them in cute shapes. Do things like pretend she is giant and broccoli is little trees, Make a game of it. Make them a reward. My mom used to cut up fresh carrots and make a special little pile of them just for me. She made it a reward, something good, like she was giving me something extra special. It is a matter of being creative. Try fresh vegies with dips. Even fruit with dips. Make her think it is something special.

What I did with my kids with all foods was to fix a healthy dinner each nite. When they didn't want to eat certain foods, I made them take at least 3 bites and then they'd either finish the rest of the food on their plate or I'd let them have an alternative. Gradually they developed a liking for many foods. Also having ranch dressing as a dip for some veges did help. The ranch dressing actually helped one of my girls develop a liking for meat. I have 4 kids and it worked with all of them. Good luck to you.

most kids like baby veggies like baby corn for instance and cut up carrots and raw veggies with a dip she likes and let her dip her veggies into it, most kids like that a lot. cucumbers and carrots and other raw veggies are so good with a delicious dip of some kind.

You didn't mention how old your child is. I am assuming that she is less than 5? At that age, harping about good health is pretty much a waste of your time! However, there are some ways to get them to eat healthy snacks. My kids liked raw baby carrots, apple slices, and celery filled with peanut butter. Another way to change their way of thinking is to clear out the snack foods that are unhealthy. Only give them options of healthy food. Also, give them choices "do you want an apple or an orange?" Don't ask them what they want, give them the options!

try going to the book store or library and finding a book about hiding vegetables in kids food. jerry seinfeld's wife came out with a book about that a few months ago. she was hiding vegetables in all sorts of kid friendly foods like mac & cheese and chicken nuggets. i think her name was jessica seinfeld. another woman came out with one like that too.

I have 5 children and the best thing, the only thing you can do is just keep putting it in front of her. I have a couple kids like that. I'm not sure how old she is but from the age 2 - 3 they just don't eat, not sure why but they don't. My 2 1/2 year old eats, mash potatoes, pot-tarts and pot pies. If I had more information I might be able to help more. Can you write to me so we can talk?