Get Your Kids To Eat Veggies…Really!
Are you having a difficult time with your child eating their vegetables?
It can be puzzling how a child who has liked plenty of vegetables from the time they were just starting baby foods, turns around one day and thinks all vegetables are “yucky”!
Soon kids realize that no matter how much they push their peas around on their plate, they just won’t disappear! Then, they try to get the family dog to eat their food only to find out that it’s not the most fool-proof plan either!
Now, as parents, what are we to do?
Our children don’t know how important it is to eat vegetables; it’s our job as parents to impart this wisdom upon them. Hopefully, we do so in a way that allows them to keep such healthy eating habits with them throughout life.
The question is: How do we do this . . . with success? As with most issues, the “Almighty Parenting Guide” seems to have left out the section with all the “right answers.” Unfortunately there is no one perfect solution so the best we can do is consider all of our options and choose the right one for our family.
Here are some suggestions from parents who’ve been there:
Make up fun names.
You might consider re-naming vegetables to make them sound more fun to eat. For example, instead of green beans, you could call them “greener beaners”. Broccoli is always a favorite as “little trees”. At some point, you might want to tell your children the real name of the vegetable, so they aren’t ordering greener beaners when they’re 30.
Cooking vegetables in different ways
Even with adults, sometimes it’s not the food – it’s the preparation. You might find that your kids like to eat raw carrots with ranch dressing, but they don’t like cooked carrots. Grilled vegetables sometimes go over better than steamed vegetables. Of course, we don’t want to get into the habit of running our kitchen like a restaurant, but the point is that if kids know that vegetables can be prepared in different ways, perhaps they will be less likely to swear off a vegetable after one experience with it.
Hiding vegetables
Hiding vegetables in other foods that your kids like seems like a sure-fire way to get them their suggested daily serving. For example, you could chop up squash and zucchini and mix it in with macaroni and cheese. This option might not help our kids find a love of vegetables in the long run but is a quick fix to get them the nutrition they need to be healthy.
Include your kids in the process!
Kids love to help! Take advantage of this fact. Giving kids ownership of what they are eating might prevent them from focusing on the “healthy” side of dinner. Another bonus, these cooking skills might just stick with them, so that when they are in college they aren’t relying on the same meal over and over as their sole source of nourishment.
Shannon Miller is the most decorated American gymnast in history and is the only female athlete inducted into the U.S. Olympics Hall of Fame – twice! Her tally of five medals at the 1992 Olympics was the most won by a U.S. athlete. At the 1996 Games, she led the “Magnificent Seven” to the U.S. Women’s first ever Team Gold and captured Gold on the Balance Beam for the first time for any American gymnast. Launching her company Shannon Miller Lifestyle: Health and Fitness for Women in 2010, Shannon is now a highly sought-after motivational speaker, advocate for the health and wellness of women and children and a proud partner of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. As an Olympian, wife, mother and cancer survivor, Shannon is dedicated to helping women make their health a priority. Her memoir It’s Not About Perfect: Competing For My Country and Fighting For My Life publishes April 21st! Please visit http://www.shannonmiller.com/ for more info on her upcoming book and other projects.
If you’d like to read about more ways to get your kids getting more interested in their meals, take a look at these other articles.