How Do You Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies
Oct 29, 2008
Filed under
Fitness
Despite our son’s rather challenging food allergies, my wife and I have had it easy as parents. In the four-plus years since our daughter’s birth, we’ve been to the emergency room just once. There have been no scary choking moments, no broken bones, no serious bouts with the flu.
Both our kids sleep through the night and take naps (they’ve even been known to request them). And they eat their veggies—or at least they did until recently. Four-year-old Elise, who would eat peas, corn, green beans, and carrots as a toddler, began putting up resistance around age 3. She now eats only green beans and refuses to try anything new.
And 21-month-old Graeme has recently entered the veggie Olympics, turning carrot slices into discuses and peas into shot puts. (Thank God for the new dog.)
I’ve read lots of advice recently on how to get kids to eat veggies. Of course, there are entire books written on the subject, and controversies over books—most famously, Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.
With Elise, we tried some of those tricks and sneaked green, healthy things into food she’s willing to eat—zucchini into muffins, squash into spaghetti sauce. We even convinced her that vegetarian corn dogs have real meat.
Not everyone’s into the deception thing. Blogger Tanya Steel, author of the new book Real Food for Healthy Kids, argues against hiding veggies. She recently offered up suggestions for getting picky kids to eat their greens.
• Serve kids veggies first; hungry kids are more likely to eat them
• Use examples, like the Olympics, to reinforce good eating habits
• Be a role model and eat your own veggies
(Speed-food maven Rachael Ray also serves up some tips in the September issue of Health magazine.)
The problem is, we’ve tried all these suggestions with little success. Graeme’s too young to understand the correlation of Olympic dreams and a diet rich in green beans. Elise is outsmarting us with the argument that she doesn’t want to be an Olympian.
I’m pretty frustrated, and that’s where you come in. How do you get your kids to eat their veggies? I’d like to hear. Post your suggestions in the comments field below, and I’ll share Graeme and Elise’s favorite solutions in a few weeks.
No Comments