Vegetables / Vegetables for children. An observation by Bryan Knox

My experience with getting kids to eat vegetables can be approached at 2 stages of a childs developement.

First Stage: From the beginning. My daughter would eat anything because I gave her everything. As soon as she was able, she ate vegetables and had vegetables as snacks. Most kids will eat just about any kind of vegetable if properly presented to them.

Fresh vegetables are the easiest way to get children to eat vegetables and possible the most nutritious. Removing anything remotely gross or scary is very important to a child. When I was a kid, I thought a spider lived in the bottom of every apple. It was very important to remove this part of the apple as well as the seeds to get me to eat it. If you are serving vegetables to a child remove the stems, seeds or leaves to make it more palletable.

If properly presented and promoted children will grow up eating vegetables and loving them.

Second Stage: Introducing vegetables to a child who has been trained to be a picky eater. This can be a difficult task. Generally you can pack a ton of vegetables in Spaghetti sauce if you cut them up small enough. Creamed soups are another way to get vegetables into your child. Simple salads with just lettuce and grated carrots may be introduced without much resistance.

If all else fails, wait. Wait about 2 hours and your childs attitude towards vegetables will change. As long as a child is dependant on a parent to eat, there will be children who can be taught to love vegetables.

If you as a parent do not like vegetables, you will probably teach your children the same eating habits.