The Seven Golden Rules to Help Children Enjoy Eating Vegetables

• Thou shall love eating vegetables first! Be the taster in your home. Children pick habits from their surroundings. Make them jealous by being the first to chew the carrot.

• Prepare the veggie snack in their presence so that they get to see the real veggie before it is diced and sliced. Children are so imaginative. They actually prefer to have them done in different shapes. Don’t deny them the chance. In fact ask them for suggestions; “Would you like to chew a star-shaped carrot or a square one?”

• Introduce them to the raw vegetables before you bring in the cooked ones. This will encourage them to wash their own and eat them in your absence.

• Always include their favorite fruit in the vegetable salad. If you want them to eat cucumber, cut it into small pieces and add to it carrots and apples or grapes. Avoid using salad dressing at this stage; you are in the training stage.

• Give every veggie snack a name that relates to something they like. For example, you could use a phrase like The Super Snack. Be creative on this one.

• Teach them to simply eat with their hands instead of forks and spoons. Popcorns are not eaten using forks, are they?

• Make the vegetable snack as a morning, noon and night item. Interchange between the solid vegetable and the blended mixture of raw vegetables. Instead of serving popcorns while watching their favorite cartoon, give them the super snack.

With this in place, get ready to visit the vegetable stores regularly. Make the presence of vegetables in your kitchen as regular as you would any other snack Vegetables will always be apart of your children’s life. It is only fair that your children access the vital nutrients in the vegetables as regular as can be, on daily basis actually. You have no reason to deny them this unless you are willing to have them pay the price.