How to Prepare Fruits and Vegetables That Children Do Not Like
Children often profess a dislike for anything healthy, such as fruits and vegetables. The trick to getting kids to eat a "yucky" food is to start when they are young, make it fun to eat, disguise it or to present it in an attractive way. Fruit can be easily hidden in desserts, but hiding vegetables or making them appetizing can be a challenge. There are, however, some easy techniques which can make food fun and stop the daily battle at the dinner table. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Grinder or food processor
- Melted chocolate or chocolate pudding
- Flavored yogurt, cream cheese or sour cream for dipping
- Toothpicks or lollipop sticks
- Fondue set
Instructions
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If you eat fruits and vegetables with your child she will be more likely to eat them too. Start to introduce vegetables into a small child's diet before introducing fruit. Toddlers can easily handle canned baby carrots; these small vegetables are hand-sized, somewhat sweet and relatively soft to chew on. Bananas are a good first fruit to introduce; they can be cut into medallions and are not overly sweet. Choose bananas that are ripe, but still firm. The most important thing is to model good behavior by showing kids that you like a variety of fruits and vegetables. Eat them in front of the child at snack or meal times.
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Vegetables cut into sticks are easy to hold and dip, Serve a plate of cubed fruit or vegetables while cooking meals. Stick toothpicks in the cubes and serve with a dip. Start with a basic dip of flavored yogurt or cream cheese and gradually introduce other more flavorful dips. If you must, you can start with chocolate pudding for dipping fruit. Nutritionists suggest serving kids a plate of vegetables right after school. Children are usually more receptive if they are actually hungry. Involve kids in food preparation — washing, careful chopping, grating or choosing the dip for greater acceptance.
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Adding pureed vegetables to a meat loaf mix is a good way to hide them. Disguise food by grinding it or making a puree and adding it to sauces, soups and other foods. Any kind of squash, onions and cubed tomatoes can be added to spaghetti sauce, meat loaf, meatballs or even pizza sauce, and be untraceable, except for the added flavor. Start small and then as the taste becomes familiar allow the food to show. The goal is to eventually have the child know that the flavor he likes comes from a particular vegetable.
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Getting your child involved in growing her own vegetables will instill a love of fresh produce. Introduce your child to gardening. There is something about growing your own carrots which makes them more appetizing. If you do not have a yard you can start a container garden. Carrots grow very easily, and you can keep starting new sets every couple of days. Allow the child to pick them when they are quite small to thin them out. Radishes, tomatoes and beans are also easy container or garden vegetables for children to grow.
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Tips & Warnings
Learn what tastes your child truly dislikes. A child's sense of taste is very individual and changes with age. Learn also what tastes and flavors he does like and serve those foods often.
Involve children in preparing meals. School aged children can chop fruit and vegetables safely with supervision and even little ones can wash produce.
Make food interesting and fun and show your child that you like healthy foods.
Take kids grocery shopping with you and show them where the food comes from.
Make lollipops out of bananas cut in half, dipped in chocolate and frozen as a treat.
Avoid making meal times a battlefield; forcing or cajoling children to eat something they really do not like could set them up for an eating disorder. Do not make food acceptance an emotional issue. If at least one bite of a given food is mandatory, allow the bite to be a small one — a few peas or one Brussels sprout. Accept defeat graciously then try a different food.
References
Resources
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