Get Your Toddler To Eat His Veggies - Start Habits Early
July 9, 2007
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Vegetables are good for you, so why won’t your child eat them? Most vegetables are not naturally sweet like fruits so kids tend to shy away from them. Here are a few suggestions to get your toddler to eat his veggies.
Kids can’t turn their nose up at what they cannot see. If your child likes eating hamburgers, slide a few vegetables into the mix before you make those patties. For toddlers, vegetables with a mild taste are best to start with. Add them to the hamburger meat along with seasonings and other ingredients. Adding ketchup and mustard or a piece of cheese will disguise the taste of the vegetables.
If your toddler likes macaroni and cheese, jazz it up with some diced cooked carrots and some baby broccoli florets. After the veggies are cooked, add them to the cheese sauce for your macaroni and cheese. Your child may see a bit of green and orange, but mostly they will see noodles and cheese sauce.
Try adding diced veggies to your spaghetti sauce. The tomato sauce will hide the vegetables from view. Your child won’t even know that you’ve added something extra. They may mistake them for pieces of meat in the sauce.
Muffins and breads are another way to get your child to eat more vegetables without them knowing it. Zucchini bread is delicious and sweet. You can’t taste the zucchini at all. Whip up a batch of orange carrot muffins for breakfast one morning. You can also add sweet potatoes to breads and muffins for a healthy breakfast item.
Sweet potatoes can also be cut into the shape of French fries. Children who love white potato fries will love the sweet potato fries. Slice a sweet potato into sticks, sprinkle with a bit of salt and bake in the oven.
When you are trying to get your toddler to eat his vegetables, introduce one vegetable at a time. It will help you find out which ones he likes better than others. If he has no problem eating the vegetable without resorting to trickery, this is a good veggie. The sweeter vegetables like sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots are accepted better than some of the other vegetables.
To avoid problems with vegetables at an early age, feed your toddler vegetables before introducing any type of fruit. Because fruits are sweeter, your toddler may never take a liking to vegetables if they are not offered to your child first.
Conditioning children at an early age goes a long way to getting them to eat vegetables on a regular basis. Starting healthy habits young will keep your children coming back for the good foods as they age.
To learn more, check out the Mom’s Talk Guide to Raising Happy & Healthy Kids - Tips and resources address nutrition, exercise, sleep, routines, and much more.
Posted by admin | Filed Under Parenting
Similar Posts
- 8 Fun Ideas To Get Your Kids To Eat Their Veggies
- Vegetables On-The-Go
- Father’s Day: Here’s What’s Cookin’