by Cristina Mohr

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: February 22, 2009

When my child was a toddler, he would eat vegetables with no never mind. When I heard other mothers complaining of their kids not eating vegetables, I thought I had it made. Until he started becoming more aware of his sense of taste. I had lost my veggie eating monster!

For a while there, getting my son to eat his veggies was a nightmare. Anytime I would give him a meal, he'd ask if there are "green crunchies" in it. If there was so much as one veggie, he'd refuse to eat the entire meal. Missing out on all of those necessary nutrients concerned me so much that, for the longest time, I couldn't concentrate on much else.

So what's a worrisome mom to do? . . . Everything she possibly can!

I started by renaming the veggies to make them sound fun to eat, like calling broccoli trees and cauliflower snow trees, carrots were drumsticks, peas were frog eyes, celery was alien legs and so on. This concept work for a little while, then it was back to the drawing board.

I then found and created some tasty vegetable snack options that I thought he might enjoy. "Celery boats" fulled with peanut butter and raisins was a good one for a while. He got bored of it in a few months, though. Then again, he recently grew back into eating them. (Which goes to show that so long as you have a variety of effective tools, just switch them up once in a while.) I, of course do the veggies and dip, I let him chose whether he wants ranch, peanut butter, caramel or some other kind of dip with them. Although, this is another tool you'll want to switch up once in a while because your chid can grow bored of it. "Bug Salad" (bean salad) and "WormSlaw" (coleslaw- make sure to add raisins in it!) are good ones for boys.

I decided to get my son involved in growing a vegetable garden. I thought that perhaps by seeing how produce grows would give him a sense of participation enough to want to eat what he picks. Getting your child in the garden is actually a valuable teaching lesson for multiple reasons with the science of plant growth and giving them the knowledge of where food comes from. Giving children a hands on experience gives them joy in what they're learning. My son loves to plant, play in the dirt, he loves to water and check how the plants are doing. Make sure you teach them how to tell when the produce is ready or they'll pick it too soon. You'll love the excitement on your child's face when he or she sees the first grown vegetable! Make sure you let them pick it. As my child is carrying the veggies

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