Nurture The Future Prenatal and Family Nutrition
Connect with us here
  • Home
  • Services
    • Nutrition
    • The Whole 9 Months
    • Babywearing Education
    • Groups
    • Upcoming Events
    • Registration
    • In Case You Missed It
  • Contact
  • Articles
    • Pregnancy
    • Infants
    • Children
    • Families
    • Nutrition
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Snacks
    • Treats
  • About
  • What People Are Saying
  • Blog

Hiding Vegetables For Kids: Good or Bad Idea?

3/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Mothers often wonder, and books and web pages often disagree about whether you should hide the veggies on the plate in the hope your child will eat them without noticing.  But as a Registered Dietitian and a Mom, my answers are the same: you should not.

Having a toddler means there will be power struggles day in and day out. So a main focus of my work with feeding babies through to kids and teens is to take the power struggle out of food.

I always ask parents how they’ d feel if someone hid something in their food. I know I’d be upset! I like to empower kids with choices of what they eat.

Here are a few tips when it comes to kids and vegetables:

·      Parents choose what is served for dinner, then kids choose what they eat from the foods offered. Let’s say the meal is chicken, rice and broccoli. The kids can eat as much of they want of any of those foods. If they are not choosing the broccoli that’s okay. Really. Keep offering vegetables with every meal, but remove the pressure of having to eat them. If the rest of the family eats their veggies and there’s no pressure, your kids might surprise you and choose a broccoli. If they choose a broccoli they shouldn’t be pressured to eat it. Just allow them to do whatever it is they need to do – the focus for parents is removing any kind of pressure. For example they need to try a bite, if they try it they have to finish it, everyone else is having it so that means you need to as well, etc.

·      Involve kids. Let them help choose the vegetable(s) that goes with dinner that night. Let them choose something new to try at the grocery store this week. Let them help prepare the vegetables for dinner that night. Kids love to grate, cut, wash, pull out of the fridge, etc. Depending on their age and ability.

·      Don’t hide any vegetables. Making a pureed soup? That’s great, but still tell your kids what’s in the soup. Everyone, including kids can have preferences. They may or may not like certain vegetables and that is within their right. I’m sure most parents can remember being forced to eat something themselves as a kid that they didn’t like. Let’s stop repeating that behavior for our kids.

·      Grow a garden. Having your kids choose and plant a vegetable garden can peak their interest and actually help increase their vegetable intake. If they  have seen the food grow over time and have actually helped with the process they often want to try the end result. Remember container gardening works for this or going to a community garden or a you pick.

·      Try different forms. Try offering cooked, raw, roasted, grated, cubed, etc. Providing different forms for the vegetable to be eaten in can be a real hit. Try putting vegetables in smoothies and baked goods but always tell them the vegetables are in there.

·      Be a role model. When kids see everyone else in the family eating, and enjoying vegetables and the pressure is removed from having to eat them they often will try. Be sure to include vegetables with every meal and snack. Making an omelet for breakfast? Throw in some veggies. Load up that sandwich at lunch with veggies and have some veggies and homous for a snack. Try having a salad on the side with dinner and incorporating a rainbow of colour with your veggies in the meal.

·      Presentation matters. Try serving meals with the makings in different bowls in the centre of the table. Everyone can pick and choose what they want. Try using little containers to put cut up veggies in with hummus for a snack at school or on the road. You don’t have to make vegetables look like various characters and elaborate pictures like you see on pintrest but presenting them with a little thought can go a long way with your kids. Some families find that using catchy names with their kids gets their kids to want to try them ie/ trees instead of broccoli, etc. Also, the more colour the more appeal it has – for everyone.

As with everything with your kids it’s about building trust. Removing the power from eating or not eating vegetables is so important. Don’t deceive them about vegetables being in a dish. If it is a pureed soup and it has different vegetables in it and your kids enjoy it, they may not even realize that they like certain vegetables or that they are eating certain vegetables if they aren’t in the know. In fact, it can even backfire ie/ they won’t eat those veggies again just to spite, or they don’t eat those veggies because they didn’t know that they like them.

In the end as long as you are giving them the option to try to eat the vegetables in their own time it will happen. Don’t lose patience, and don’t lose hope. If they try it and don’t like it it’s fine to spit it out. Just teach them a polite way, but that can encourage them to try more. It takes 15-20 times of trying a food to decide that you actually like it so it might take a lot of spitting it out before they know whether they like it or not.

Biggest advice for parents- don’t worry! It won’t be like this forever. When people are really concerned I end up working with them as a family to look at different ways pressure can appear and power struggles happen. We go through their diet so that I can reassure them that they are getting the nutrients they need or point them to other ways to get the nutrients as they are going through the process of learning about eating vegetables. Kids have a different eating pattern than adults and this is normal.

By taking the pressure of having to eat vegetables and making them something to be enjoyed many parents are surprised by the results this has on their family.

Concerned that your kids aren’t getting what they need because they don’t eat vegetables? Wondering how to empower your kids to eat more vegetables? Contact Jill, Nurture The Future’s Registered Dietitian at [email protected]

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Jill Wallace, RD, CH

    Mom, Registered Dietitian and Chartered Herbalist writing about nutrition. Have a topic you want to read about? I would love to hear your idea. Email [email protected] 

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Children
    Families
    Infants
    Nutrition
    Pregnancy
    Recipes

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.