by Ellen Page

Created on: November 06, 2010   Last Updated: February 13, 2012

Vegetables are a vital part of a balanced diet, they provide children with nutrients which enable them to grow and develop. However, a lot of parents struggle to get their children to eat their veggies. Children can be fickle little things, some won’t touch a vegetable and some that liked them yesterday, don’t like them today. So how can you get your child to eat their veggies?

Here are a few tips to get your child to eat vegetables:

• Encourage healthy eating early on

Healthy eating should be introduced from an early age. Offer a diverse array of foods to ensure your child is getting a balanced diet, which will prevent fussiness, as a child that is offered a variety of different foods is likely to eat a wider range of foods. This can be encouraged by following a healthy balanced diet yourself, as children learn by example. Serve the same meal for all the family, and include vegetables as part of your evening meal. Try to vary it by offering different vegetables, to introduce your child to as many different veggies as possible. Serving veggies often will allow your child to become familiar with them.

• Get them involved

Get your child to help create a menu for the commencing week, allow them to suggest meal ideas so you can compile a menu together. As well as helping to decide on meals, give your child the opportunity to select the vegetables that they would like to try in the grocery store. Veggies are great as snacks, or they can be incorporated into the meals that your child has chosen. Get your child involved with the preparation and cooking, younger children can help with simple tasks such as washing veggies and mashing them up, and older children can help to grate or chop them. Children are more likely to sample food that they have helped to chose and create.

• It’s all in the preparation and presentation

Food needs to look appetizing to tempt little taste buds, presentation is imperative when serving a meal, it needs to look tasty and exciting to appeal to a child. Don’t overcook veggies as they become bland and lose nutrients. Brightly colored vegetables can make an attractive meal. Also try different cooking methods if your child is not overly keen on the texture, and serve them differently to try and get them interested. Vegetables can be boiled, baked, roasted, steamed or even fried to give them a different appearance, taste and texture, so try experimenting.

• Make veggies fun

A plate

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