Do you struggle to have your kids eat salad or vegetables? Sure there are ways that you can trick them into eating it or bribe them, wouldn’t it just be nice if that enjoyed eating them?
Here’s some tips on things you can try to encourage healthy vegetable eaters in your home:
- Role model, Role model, Role model that’s you Mum & Dad. They look up to you and need to see you enjoying salad & vegetables first.
- Serve up a small plate of salad before putting anything else on the plate such as chicken or pasta. Once the salad is all eaten you can move onto the next part of the meal.
- Try lots of different salads and vegetables, they may not like tomatoes, that’s ok, there are plenty of other vegetables carrots, cucumber, corn, asparagus, spinach leaves, snowpeas. Try steaming, roasting, boiling, fresh cut.
- Be consistent, you may have very little eaten at first, just keep putting it out there – ask them to just eat 2 or 3 pieces. Over time the plate will go by itself.
- Vegetable patch, grow your own vegies or visit a friends vegie patch, if they can see and be involved in the growing process they will certainly be eager to eat the fruits of their labour.
If all else fails:
- Make funny faces using salad or vegetables
- Skewer the vegetables for kebab vegies.
- Grate the veges and hide it in your risottos or pastas. Over time make the pieces of vegetables larger till they become accustom to eating it in larger whole like pieces.
- Super powers, yes tell them it will give them the super power and muscles they are looking for like Dora or Spiderman to grow big and strong 😉
With my 4 year old, 3 year old & baby it hasn’t always been a perfect salad eating home, now we have plain salad regularly and it is all eaten except for a little tomato. You will get there and it is rewarding to know they are eating as healthy as possible. It’s also great when you can make up a wrap with lettuce leaves, cucumber and sliced meat that it is all devoured rather than dissected and only the cheese consumed.