Help! My child won't eat vegetables
"Finish your plate!" Who hasn't heard this when they were young? Usually, it wasn't about the potatoes with gravy or the tasty piece of meat, but rather the cauliflower, carrots, or Brussels sprouts languishing on the plate. Throughout time, children have refused to eat vegetables, which can be a significant struggle for parents and turn the evening meal into a real battleground. Of course, there are ways to help the little ones eat those oh-so-healthy vegetables. But how!?
The 'terrible two's'
When you think everything is going smoothly and you've managed to get your child to eat vegetables without any problems for the first 1.5 years, suddenly the toddler years set in. From about the age of 2, children develop their own will and learn a word that can drive parents to despair: no! Additionally, around this age, children's dietary needs change; their tastes change, but their appetite decreases because your toddler's growth slows compared to their baby years. The toddler phase lasts about 2.5 years, a period in which you need to find a balance between giving your toddler space to develop their own opinion and setting clear boundaries.
Bury the hatchet
Although food refusal peaks during the toddler years, older children can also struggle with eating vegetables. Dinner can become a real battle, especially if the focus every day is on the 'vegetable-eating' behaviour. This makes it an activity associated with negative emotions such as stress, frustration, or anxiety for your child. Not the most conducive situation for encouraging a taste for vegetables. Therefore, keep the atmosphere pleasant at the table, discuss the day, or tell a story so that the focus is no longer on the food. Getting angry or pushing generally backfires and leads to your child associating eating with negativity. If it really doesn't work? As difficult and contradictory as it feels, let it go!
Tips to get children to eat vegetables
Naturally, there are several ways to sneak some vegetables in. Vitaminstore has compiled a few tips for you:
- Use a large white plate instead of a small coloured plate; this way, a portion of food appears smaller. Research has shown that when a double portion of vegetables is served, up to 68% more is eaten.
- Place the vegetables strategically on the plate; close to your child so that little effort is needed to reach them.
- Continue offering vegetables that aren't liked; children may take 10 to 15 tries to get used to the taste.
- Involve your child in shopping and meal preparation. There are special wooden 'helper towers' you can place at the kitchen counter. This way, your child can watch the food being prepared and might even snack on some vegetables in the process.
- Purée the vegetables finely into a smoothie, soup, or (pasta) sauce.
- Cut 'chips' from courgette, carrot, or cucumber, or make other shapes. You can use cookie cutters for this.
- Create a picture on the plate with vegetables; a potato as the sun, green beans as grass, Pinterest is full of ideas.
- Make vegetable pancakes with courgette or bake cauliflower buns.
- In the shop, you can find pasta and pizza bases made from vegetables, or wraps made from peppers and beetroot, allowing you to create colourful dishes.
Written by: Noëlle van Seggelen
