From year to year, parents face the same problem, familiar to everyone as the world, but that doesn’t make it any easier: the child flatly refuses to eat vegetables!
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And it would seem that now in supermarkets you can find such a variety of them that our parents could only dream of for several decades. That’s just because of this, the child’s desire to eat impartial foods does not increase at all. It would seem, how to be? After all, vegetables are an indispensable source of vitamins and minerals that a child’s body needs so much during the period of formation and maturation. Not everything is so tragic: fortunately, experienced parents who have encountered this problem not for the first time, as well as nutritionists who specialize in baby food, are happy to share little secrets that helped to accustom the child to the type of food that is not the most attractive for the child.
How to teach a child to vegetables
Let us immediately clarify that the approaches are not universal, since each child requires an individual approach, and something may not work, but something may not work right away. Nevertheless, you should not stop trying if it didn’t work out the first time: believe me, the result is worth it, and both you and your children will appreciate it after some time later.
1. Be an example
First, nutritionists advise parents themselves to become a living example for the child. For a baby, especially in the very first years of life, the family is someone worth imitating, an example of behavior. Therefore, if there were no vegetables on your table when you were born and, on the contrary, only cereals, cereals, flour products and sweets were always present, then do not expect your child to start eating vegetables just because there is a plate with them in front of him. Probably, on the contrary, he will refuse the dish, because he will not understand why he should eat it – they say, mom and dad do not eat, then why should I? And this needs to be changed. Add vegetables to your personal diet if you haven’t already.
But a plate of vegetables is still important and should always be on the table if you want to teach your child to eat them. If you start forcibly “shove” vegetables to a child, in addition to unwillingness to eat them, he will also have rejection. Then you will make a big mistake, and it will be even more difficult to retrain him. Often, because of a banal interest, a child wants to try something new, try to be the same as adults, and in this way you can instill a love for a previously hated carrot or cabbage, for example.
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2. Add game elements to the process
Secondly, the advice is still quite well known when a child, starting to eat vegetables, “plays” at the same time, that is, you make the process interactive. When going to the grocery store, let the kid lead the process: choose vegetables to your taste, take those that he likes, and then offer to cook something together. Curiosity can prompt you to try what he has prepared and whether it is tasty. You can also lie down to make some vegetable smoothies: for him, this is often a very involving process, which often works.
Try adding vegetables to other foods that are familiar to the child and will not cause rejection. Tomatoes, pickles can be added to pizza, zucchini to spaghetti, carrots to a casserole known to a child, for example. But it is important to remember that it is imperative to do this openly, and not hide the ingredient in the dish and try with all your might to convince the child that he should eat it, otherwise the effect may be just the opposite.
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On the dinner table, a plate of vegetables, however, can lose to all other products known to the child. Therefore, it is important to offer them when it is not yet time for a meal, but you want to “chew” or “nibble” something: you probably remember your mother visiting your room with chopped fruits and vegetables. To satisfy hunger or kill a worm, a child can try what you brought him, and then a vegetable plate can be made into a good habit and a healthy snack.
3. Don’t give up
And finally: remember, the main advice is not to give up and not stop trying, even after a bad experience. Influencing whether or not your child will ever want to try vegetables often depends on the largest number of factors: the type of vegetables, their temperature, visual appeal or taste preferences – there are a lot of them. However, one will definitely work – and the problem with vegetables will be solved and forgotten forever!
Author: Olga Prokopenko