10 Tips to Get Fussy Kids and Picky Eaters to Eat Their Vegetables

If you have fussy kids or picky eaters who refuse to eat their vegetables, sometimes it's hard to make sure they get a balanced diet. Vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. But some kids refuse to eat their vegetables. Try these tricks to get your fussy kids and picky eaters to eat their veggies.

1. If you have a garden, plant a vegetable patch when you do your planting. Include your children in the purchase choice of vegetables or seeds. Then encourage them to help you with the planting, watering, maintaining, weeding, and harvesting of the plants. Make it a fun experience. When the vegetables are ready to harvest, the kids might be more willing to eat their vegetables and be less fussy or picky if they have contributed to and been involved in growing their own vegetables. They will take pride in what they have grown.

2. When you're preparing vegetables for a meal or snack, include your children in the preparation. Even very small children can help with things like washing the vegetables, putting them in a pan or arranging them on a plate. Older kids can help with cutting up vegetables. Most children like to be involved in things. Getting them to help in the preparation of the vegetables they are expected to eat may help your picky eater be more willing to stop fussing and give it a try. It helps to make them feel more in charge of the situation and more grown up.

3. Trick your picky kids into eating vegetables in ways they won't even notice or that are less obvious. When you make sauces, like spaghetti sauce for instance, make sure you prepare it with fresh vegetables but mince or dice them up and mix them into the sauce as it cooks. You can also hide them well in casseroles. Make homemade breads and muffins using grated up fresh vegetables in the bread or muffin mix. The breads are usually sweet and this disguises the vegetables that are ground so fine that they won't notice they are eating vegetables. This is another way to sneak those veggies into the foods they eat.

4 Make eating vegetables a fun experience for your fussy eaters. Create interesting creatures or shapes made out of fresh vegetables. Get the kids involved in creating the creatures that they are going to eat. You can look up ideas for the creations online or in books if you can't think of any yourself. But if you get the kids involved, they are sure to create some interesting vegetable creatures that they might be more willing to eat.

5. Fresh vegetables taste much better than frozen, canned, or jar vegetables. If you can get fresh vegetables instead of those options that taste difference between fresh vegetables and processed vegetables may mean the difference between a fussy or picky kid not eating their vegetables and eating them.

6. Use a reward system to get fussy kids or picky eaters to eat their vegetables. Try not to get them in the habit of getting a sweet reward for eating veggies. Pick a small reward that is not food related. For instance if your picky eater eats their veggies, they get to watch a special show, get to go for a walk, go to the park or having a story read to them.

7. Be willing to compromise a little bit if you want your fussy eaters to eat their vegetables. You may have to start with just a few bites to get them to eat any vegetables at all. That may not be all the vegetables you want them to eat, but it's a start. Then work your way up from there. Make sure you praise them when they actually eat them.

8. Make a little vegetable chart to put on the refrigerator or on a bulletin board. Turn eating veggies into an adventure. Every time your picky eater eats their vegetables and/or tries a new vegetable, mark it on the chart.

9. Make a tasty dip for fresh cut vegetables. Some children are much more willing to try their vegetables if you serve them up as veggies and dip. It makes it more fun to eat that way and feels like a treat.

10.Practice what you preach. Children often imitate their parents or older siblings. Make sure those picky kids they see you eating your vegetables and enjoying them too. If they see it's something pleasurable to you, they may decide that they want to try it too.

If you start children off at a very young age getting used to vegetables and a variety of foods, it becomes second nature to them. If you coddle a fussy eater and let them get away with not eating the foods they don't like or aren't willing to try, their taste palates will never expand. Then you will have a constant battle. The more variety they have and get used to in their food choices and consumption, the less fussy the child will be. Try some of these tideas to get your fussy kids and picky eaters to eat their vegetables.They might help.