Proven Ways To Get Kids To Eat More
Vegetables!
Go from this.......
to this! (Well done stock photos, well done.)
1. Set an example
By far the best
predictor of a child’s eating behavior is the eating patterns of their parents.
If vegetables and healthy foods are relegated to an afterthought in your
household, it’s tough to expect your kids to take to them. Kids eat what
they know, and they won’t ask for a special meal if they do not know it is an
option.
2. Get them involved
Children are more
invested in a meal if they help with its preparation. Taking your kids with you
to the farmers market or grocery store and letting them pick one or two things
to cook for dinner can make them far more excited to eat it later. Better yet,
start a garden and teach them how to plant and harvest their own. Letting them
clean carrots, snap beans, mix the dressing and set the table gives them a
sense of pride and makes them more enthusiastic and cooperative at meal time.
3. Enforce the “one bite rule”
Research consistently
shows that children who have initially rejected a food must be exposed to it at
least 8-10 times for the food to be accepted. Many parents have had success
with the “one bite rule,” requiring the child to try at least one solid
mouthful of a rejected food whenever it is served. After enough exposures the
food will be more familiar to the child and usually they begin to rate it more
favorably.
4. Don’t force them to finish
One bite is different
from finishing your plate. One of the biggest misconceptions among parents is
that forcing their child to eat a food she doesn’t like will get her to change
her behavior. However, fighting and punishments create a negative meal
experience, and the child will learn to associate food with the bad feelings.
Negative food experiences have the opposite of the desired effect and actually increase
picky eating tendencies. Require one bite, but try not to start a fight.
5. Reward good behavior
On the other side of
the coin, creating positive food experiences can decrease picky eating
tendencies. Research has shown that rewarding a child for trying one bite of a
rejected food makes it easier for them to try the food. They are also more
likely to rate the food positively in the future. Rewards can be as simple as
saying “thank you for trying that” and “good job” to something more substantial
like a sticker on a rewards chart or an extra 10 minutes of playtime/tv/video
games.
6. Understand their values
Children don’t see the
world as adults do, and as a result they have very different values. They could
care less about health—most kids think they’re invincible—so telling them a
food is healthy is unlikely to get you very far (and can often backfire). On
the other hand, most children feel limited by their size and wish to be bigger
and stronger. Explaining that broccoli “helps you grow” is therefore more
effective than, “it’s healthy” or “because I said so.” For older children, understanding what sport, athlete, or celebrity
their interested in can be extremely helpful. Many athletes and celebrities
post how they eat on the internet, and you will find that many eat mostly
vegetables and meat and cut out the other junk. When your teen understands that
their heroes eat this way to be better at their sport, help them think more
clearly and do better in school, they will be more inclined to want to change
how they eat.
7. Offer diverse food colors
One thing you have
working in your favor is that children like colorful foods. You can expose them
to more colors by adding more vegetables to their plates. While adults tend to
like flavors mingled together, children often prefer them separate. So you may
have better luck making separate vegetable dishes instead of a big, mono-color
casserole.
8. Use flavors, like garlic and
bacon
There’s nothing wrong
with adding additional flavors to vegetables to make them more appealing to
children. For a picky child, the most important thing is that he gets
comfortable and familiar with the rejected food. If that means serving it along
with something you know he’ll enjoy, like bacon, that’s fine. I encourage you
to use ingredients that are as close to real food (minimally processed without
strange chemicals) as possible, but children can handle a few extra calories,
especially if it helps them learn to enjoy spinach.
9. Keep at it
Some children will be
more difficult than others, and will require more effort and patience. It’s
important to realize, however, that the habits they develop at a young age will
remain with them long into adulthood. For your sake and theirs, it is worth
solving picky eating problems as soon as possible. Continue to set a good
example, create fun, positive experiences around food, let them help in the
kitchen, enforce the one bite rule and do anything else you can to keep exposing
them, in a pleasant way, to the healthy foods they reject. Your persistence
will pay off in the future with their continued good health!
yours in health,
dr. samantha boldt
