And we’ve all been there – the broccoli conflict, the carrot argument, the green bean squabble. And we parents like to encourage our toddlers to eat right, but we are never going to get them to eat those nutritious green veggies and we can only dream.
You’re not alone if your toddler doesn’t like his peas or squashes his spinach into a heap on the plate. A recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics says that 40% of toddlers are picky eaters and vegetables are almost always on the “no way” list.
And yet there are fun and easy ways to get your toddler to love their vegetables and, yes, meals can still be nutritious *and* fun!
we’ll explore some creative ideas to get your toddler eating vegetables. Food is play, and even cheating with extra portions is a simple method for becoming a vegetable superhero in no time. Let’s get stuck in – and get your toddler to get some greens, too!
1.Drink to Veggies: Meals are Artistry
We all know that kids are visual animals. And that bowl of veggies is just not as fun as a bowl of macaroni and cheese. Yet if you are imaginative, the ugliest vegetable can be a game-changing invention. Treat food as artwork – you the chef and your three-year-old the art critic.
Veggie Faces
Spread veggies in a smiley face or make animals out of carrots, peas and broccoli. A “veggie monster” consisting of cucumbers, olives and cherry tomatoes will have your toddler giggling as they eat.
Rainbow Plates
Kids are visual creatures, so have a “rainbow” of vegetables on their plate. And the more vivid the plate, the more curious they will be. You could play the game of: “Eat a rainbow today!”.
As a rule of thumb, children will happily eat when it’s in an enticing, fun format. Food presentation appears to be one of the biggest factors in children trying new foods (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/eating-behaviors), according to a paper in *Eating Behaviors* (2014).
2.Get Them to Help Out in the Kitchen
Kids like feeling like bosses! Allowing your toddler to help prepare food is an opportunity to provide him/her with a sense of agency and excitement around the food that is being served.
Your toddler can help with simple tasks, like washing vegetables or mixing a salad, even if he/she is too young to chop vegetables themselves.
Veggie Shopping Buddy
Take your toddler shopping with you and let him pick out vegetables. The more a carrot feels like it’s theirs, the more they’ll probably eat it.
Mini Chef: When you’re cooking with vegetables, have your toddler “help” by pouring into a bowl, mixing or topping it with a topping such as grated cheese.
In one experiment at Cornell University, kids were more likely to eat it – even veggies! (https://foodpsychology.cornell.edu). All about engagement and making happy connections to the dinner table.
3.Buy Vegetables Into Their Favorites
And sometimes the quickest way to get your toddler to eat vegetables is to sneak them into something they already love. No guilt in mash some spinach into a smoothie or grated carrots into a muffin recipe.
Smoothies
Mix in some spinach, kale or carrots to a fruit smoothie. It will be like bananas, strawberries or mango with the sweetness of bananas, strawberries or mango, so your toddler won’t notice vegetables.
Pasta Sauces
Mash carrots, spinach, or zucchini and put into pasta sauce. And they won’t even know they’re getting something healthy
Veggie Muffins
It is not hard to disguise veggies in muffins by grating zucchini, carrots or sweet potatoes. They’re also excellent as snacks.
And there’s even a term for this trick: “hidden vegetables”! When you included hidden vegetables in your children’s meals, according to a research study published in the *Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior*, vegetable consumption rose dramatically for those parents (https://www.jneb.org/).
They may not be keen on vegetables raw but if they refuse to eat veggies you can get their nutrition in, even if you combine them with something else.
4.Offer Veggies Early and Often
The more vegetables you give, the more vegetables your toddler will like. Indeed, research shows that repetition in the consumption of a food can make a child more accepting of it. A child may need 8 to 10 exposures before he is receptive to a new vegetable.
Grow Up Early
If your toddler turns away from a vegetable the first time, don’t despair! Continue to serve it in other formats – raw, boiled, as a salad, thrown into something else.
Use with A Favorite Dish
If they already like a dip (i.e., ranch or hummus) pair it with veggies. You can make the veggies seem like a treat, rather than a chore with the dip.
The researchers from *Appetite* (2012) showed that frequent exposure to novel foods (including vegetables) helped children to be more accepting of those foods (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/appetite). We just need to stay in the game!
5.Use Positive Reinforcement
Even a little compliment is a good thing sometimes. Then, good praise can get your toddler to eat that broccoli for the first time.
Give Them Praise
If your toddler takes a new vegetable, give them lots of love. You ate that whole carrot! Great job!”
Build an Energetic Reward Mechanism
Create a sticker sheet or reward mechanism, in which they get a little treat for eating a certain amount of veggies. All it’s got to be is a treat and not an imposition.
Positive reinforcement (when accompanied by variety in foods) was one way to get kids to eat more vegetables (https://www.jandw.com/).
6.Make Veggies an Adventure
If your toddler loves pretend or adventure time, why not make veggie time a part of it?
Veggie Explorers
Make dinnertime a “veggie trip”. Maybe the carrots are “jewels,” and the peas are “pirate gems”.
Follow-up
You might use a superhero story in which the hero is supercharged by eating veggies. For instance “Super Carrot” will get you going so you can jump, and “Spinach Man” will make you super strong!
Imaginative play at mealtime can make vegetables seem more like part of a world rather than mere food. Quite literally, studies published in the *International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity* find that using colorful words to describe nutritious foods can appeal to children (https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/).
7.Model Healthy Eating Habits
But it isn’t only what you tell your toddler, it is what you do. Children are very, very watching and if they can do it then so can you. If they’ll see you eating veggies and enjoying them, they’ll eat vegetables too.
Eat Together
Make mealtime a family time and everyone eats the same nutritious foods. : If they see you munching on a salad, then your toddler is more likely to try it.
Don’t Push
Don’t push your toddler to eat vegetables, as this is a bad connection. Instead, praise them when they exercise and eat good things.
Children tend to eat more variety of food when they see their parents eating it. You are more of an example, they are more likely to emulate you. ‘Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior* points out how role models are essential for raising healthy eaters (https://www.jneb.org/).
8.The Power of Variety
Maintain variety and add fresh vegetables every few weeks. If your toddler is bored of broccoli and carrots, time to play with it.
Explore New Foods
From sweet potatoes to parsnips, even a leafy green like Swiss chard or arugula, try new vegetables that will broaden your toddler’s taste buds.
Combine Cooking Techniques
Roasting, steaming, sautéing or grilling the vegetable completely changes its texture and taste. Roasted carrot might be a completely different thing from steamed carrot!
According to a research paper published in the *Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics* (2020), when children were served diverse vegetables, they became more likely to fall in love with them over time (https://www.jandw.com/).
9.Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
And, last but not least, no single tactic will be ideal for every child – and that’s OK. So don’t be scared to try things out and see what works best for your toddler.
This might be a trial and error exercise, but time, perseverance, and ingenuity is your shortcut to your toddler’s veggie-obsessed heart.
Conclusion
It doesn’t have to be a battle of the day to get toddlers to eat vegetables. And if you are creative and patient and have the right attitude, then you can make mealtime a pleasure ride.
These are all methods for getting your toddler to love veggies — from vegetable fun and toddler assistance in the kitchen, to positive reinforcement and healthy eating behaviors. So go ahead – make those Brussels sprouts into “the stuff”.