How to Get More Fruits and Vegetables Into Your Child's Diet

Many parents endure a daily battle with their kids to persuade them to eat their fruits and vegetables. If your child hates fruits and vegetables, here are some ways to sneak them into their meals and snacks.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Start your child’s day off right with a fruit smoothie. All you need is a blender, some low fat yogurt and some fresh or frozen fruit. Most kids like the taste of bananas, peaches and berries when they're blended into a smoothie.

2. Serve vegetables with dipping sauces. Your child may turn his nose up at a plate of steamed broccoli, but if you serve it with some cheese sauce your child may try it. Cherry tomatoes or carrots dipped in low fat ranch dressing are often a winner with kids.

3. Sneak veggies into sauces. You can add shredded carrots or squash to a tomato sauce. And recipes like meatloaf or meatballs can hide all kinds of veggies.

4. Serve fruit with a slice of pound cake or ice cream. Kids love dessert, so use it as away to “bribe” them into eating some fruit. Serve cake or ice cream with the stipulation that your child must top it with fruit. Sliced strawberries, bananas or blueberries go great with pound cake. Add a dollop of whipped cream on top. Your child may also enjoy a dessert of bananas dipped in chocolate sauce.

5. Visit a salad bar buffet. A salad bar can be great place for your child to try new veggies and salad toppings. Steer your child over to the fresh veggies like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. Try to avoid the area of the salad bar with the bacon bits, cheese and croutons.

6. Keep trying. It takes children an average of 10 tries to develop a taste for a food they don’t like. If you put a plate of veggies in front of your child every night and require him to take at least one bite, chances are within 2 weeks he will willingly eat it. Of course, your child may never like the taste of Brussel sprouts.

7. Check out books like “Deceptively Delicious” by Jessica Seinfeld or “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lupine. These books offer clever strategies for adding fruit and vegetable purees to kid-friendly recipes.

[marias23]

on 11/22/2009 Take a look at "The ABC's of Fruits & Vegetables and Beyond" for a book that will help get kids to have a friendly attitute towords these important foods. Teacher approved and used.

[nicoyle]

on 8/5/2009 Very good suggestions in your article.

[MommyBear]

on 3/18/2009 My daughter (as well as myself) loves dipping her veggies in different healthy sauces. She finds it fun, like a sauce buffet. :) 5*****

[CrunchyMama]

on 5/13/2008 Only one problem with the sneaky chef mentality... you may make "healthy" mac & cheese and brownies, but you are still teaching your kids to eat mac & cheese and brownies, and when they move out of your house, who sneaks the goods stuff in? It seems better to just teach them to eat fruits/veggies! I like the other suggestions in this article; I just have my doubts about those cookbooks.