How to Get a Child to eat Salad

It’s no surprise that children can be picky eaters. They may be turned off by color, smell, or texture of different foods. In an effort to get them to eat a balanced diet, it’s important to try to make food fun for them. While the airplane trick isn’t going to always work, there are other ways to get your child to eat a variety of foods. Here is how to get a child to eat a salad.

Things You'll Need

• Salad
• Salad dressing
• Whatever toppings your child prefers on his salad

Instructions

How to Get a Child to Eat Salad

1. Make salad seem like an interesting food. Don’t just sit a bowl of salad in front of a child and expect him to eat it. Let your child be involved in making the salad. Children usually like to help out in the kitchen and they certainly like to eat things they made with their own two hands.

2. Let your child decide which toppings he wants to put on his salad. Give him options of different kinds of salad dressing. Perhaps he wants to use ketchup or barbecue sauce. Don’t force the child to put toppings on his salad. Everyone has different taste. Let him toss in a few M&Ms if he wants to.

3. Create shapes: Instead of slicing cucumbers and tomatoes regularly, try cutting them up into some of your child’s favorite shapes. This will make the salad seem like an interesting food instead of a boring one. Have all of the toppings set out and let your child choose what he wants on his. Try to have colorful toppings such as bacon bits, cheese, croutons, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and even M&Ms, that's what he wants.

4. Praise your child: Once the salad is made, compliment your child on what a great job he did helping make the salad. Children like to be praised and it will help them feel like they have really done something important. If you build up excitement and praise while you’re making the salad together, more than likely the child will be happy to eat his creation.

Tips & Warnings

• Although you want your child to eat healthy foods, try not to resort to negative measures to get them to eat. For instance, don’t threaten to take away dessert if they don’t finish their salad. Instead, encourage them to try a little bit at a time and praise them for what they do eat.

• Always try to make foods fun for your child!