5 of 29

Write now Article Tools

How often have you given your child vegetables at dinner time only to find them being pushed around their plate or worst still being thrown on the floor or hidden under the chair cushion or in a pot plant?. Here are some great little tips and tricks to get your kids to eat vegetables.

Make a big pot of vegetable soup, puree it up and then add some alphabet noodle shapes. With a little luck your kids will be too busy spelling words, or looking for the letters in their names to notice all the veggies they are eating in the soup.

Add grated carrot, zucchini and chopped mushrooms to hamburger patties. I did this recently to bulk up a small amount of mince that I had and the kids loved it.

If you can't make them eat vegetables, make them drink it. Pour some vegetable juice over ice and add a straw, a cocktail umbrella or a stick of celery and watch them drink it up. Your kids may not get as much fiber as eating the entire vegetable, but getting them to drink their vegetables is better than not getting any vegetables in their system.

Offering them a plate of raw vegetables with some ranch dressing to dip them in? Many kids who don't care much for cooked vegetables will eat them up if they can dip them. Just grab a bag of baby carrots some celery, snow peas and some cucumber. Arrange them on a plate with a little bit of ranch dressing or any other dip on the side.

Take it a step further and let your kids create artwork with their vegetables. Offer raw vegetables in different colors and shapes and encourage them to make a vegetable collage on their plate. Before you know it, you'll find them sampling their "art supplies".

Let them help themselves by putting vegetables out like a buffet. Put out some lettuce, some sliced tomato, slices of cucumber, shredded carrot, mushrooms, small pieces of broccoli and anything else you can think of. Let them choose what vegetables they would like and they will be more likely to eat them.

Get them involved in the kitchen especially when it comes to cooking. Ask them to wash the vegetables, if they are old enough let them cut veggies (under your supervision of course), let them help you stir, or anything else you can think of that would be age appropriate. You'll be amazed at how proud they will be of their finished product. Believe me, they'll try just about anything if they made it.

If everything else fails, hide the vegetables in other food. Add grated zucchini and carrot to spaghetti sauce. The kids won't even notice it.

Cook some carrots with your potatoes and mash them up together for some special orange mashed potato.

Make carrot cakes and muffins, what kid can resist a muffin?

A little bit of creative thinking goes a long way when you are trying to get your kids to eat their vegetables. Hopefully some of these tips will work for you.

Learn more about this author, Rachel Suesskow.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about How to get kids to eat their vegetables?
We want to hear your view. Write now!