How to Encourage Children to Eat Vegetables

One of the hardest things about being a parent can be encouraging your children to eat their vegetables. They come up with every excuse from, "I'm not hungry," to, "It looks funny!" It leaves you pulling out your hair. Before you go bald, try these steps to see if you can encourage your children to eat their vegetables.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Cook the vegetables just until they are tender crisp and bright in color. If the vegetables turn into mush then they have lost most of their vitamins and you probably would not want to eat them either.
2. Serve vegetables with every meal. If they become a familiar part of the meal the children are more likely to try them. They also will not feel like the vegetables are a punishment for something they did that day.
3. Place a bowl of raw vegetables and dip on the table before dinner is served. This is when your children are most hungry and more likely to try some vegetables.
4. Let your children help you prepare meals that involve a lot of vegetables. They will take pride in what they cooked and are a lot more likely to try it. They might even like it.
5. Sneak the vegetables in to the food. Make a homemade pasta sauce out of pureed vegetables, add shredded carrots to muffins and add chopped vegetables to soups. Any vegetables they will not normally eat are great to sneak in to their favorite foods.
6. Prepare pasta made out of vegetables. Most major grocery stores sell spinach and tomato noodles. They are colorful and they taste great too.
7. Eat your vegetables too! If your children see you eating your vegetables they will want to do the same.