Get Your Child to Eat Vegetables

Does your child dislike vegetables? If so, you've probably tried all sorts of things to get your child to eat vegetables. But children can be very picky eaters. If left to choose, many children would opt out of eating vegetables - except for the sweet ones. And that would not be good; vegetables are essential for good health. So how do you get your child to eat the vegetables you serve? Here are 10 tips you can try to get your child to eat more vegetables.

1. Try Different Cooking Methods

How excited would you be, if you had to eat the same food prepared the same way all the time? If your child is a picky eater, and he or she isn't crazy about a vegetable the way you cook it, try cooking it a different way. You can roast it, steam it, grill it, add it to soups, stews, or pasta. Change the way you cook it and see if your picky eater changes his or her mind about that vegetable.

2. Flavor Vegetables Differently

Go for seasonings and condiments. Try salt and pepper, garlic, lemon zest, cheese sauce, maple syrup--anything to get the child eating the vegetable. You can always wean the child off the flavoring or condiment later on.

3. Require One Good Bite

Next time you serve vegetables, require your child to take one good bite. That's all that's required. It often takes up to a dozen times of tasting a new food before it is accepted. Eventually, with only one taste at a time, your child may come to really like the vegetable.

4. Serve What Is Liked

Don't be against serving the one or two vegetables your child does like, even if it means every day for a while. He or she may grow bored with it and be interested in the new one that finds itself on the plate one day. In the meantime, he or she is still getting nutrients from the single vegetable.

5. Sneak It In

Some moms are successful at sneaking vegetables into stews, casseroles, sandwich spreads, gelatins, spaghetti, or baked goods. It may work for a while, but the down-side is that the child won't learn to appreciate the vegetable for what it is. He or she needs to see it served and needs to see you enjoying it. A vegetable needs to be recognized to acquire a taste for it.

6. Get Your Child Gardening

A child who participates in growing, watering, and harvesting a vegetable will have an investment in that vegetable. That personal investment and natural curiosity may be just what it takes to get him or her to eat it.

7. Get Your Child Cooking

There are plenty of kid-friendly recipes online and in cookbooks. Get your child cooking with you, and he or she will want to taste what is made.

8. Serve Veggies and Dip Pre-Dinner

When you are cooking and the smell fills the kitchen, have a plate of veggies and dip on the counter. Your hungry child may sample while he or she waits for dinner to be ready. You can take care of the vegetables before dinner happens and avoid the vegetable battle at the dinner table.

9. Make a Trade

You eat one bite of something that you don't care for in exchange for his or her one bite of a vegetable. Here is another exchange tip: for a positive reward for eating his or her vegetables, you could exchange vegetable bites for minutes of extended time before bed. This gets the child eating, and the vegetables become associated with a positive reward.

10. Create Names and Faces

Make up some creative names for your menu items, and decorate the plate in such a way that the child can't help but try the vegetables. Stand broccoli up like trees. Make a face in the mashed sweet potatoes. Build a log cabin out of the green beans. If vegetable-eating becomes fun, vegetables will get eaten.

Parents often give up too quickly on a vegetable and fail to see success. Give that vegetable another try using any of these 10 child-friendly vegetable eating tips.