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How do you get your kids to eat their vege's? Aiden used to be a reasonably ok vege eater, but, is getting worse as he gets older. Will eat them mixed with spag, or chow mein or in quiche etc, but, as for a plate of vege's.. no chance.
So, it got me thinking.. what do you do if you are raising your child as a vegetarian? Its more important that they eat their veges, so, perhaps you have some special tricks that you could share..
We aren't vegetarian but we don't eat red meat (mammals) so we do need to make sure our children eat a healthy diet to gain the minerals, especially iron... that some people say they might be "missing out" on. Fortunately we have no problem getting them all to eat lots of dark green vegies (that contain iron)... I have a 2yo, 5yo and a 13yo. They are great, non fussy eaters. Basically I think they eat well because Dh and I set good examples. We aren't fussy either. It seems to me that often when kids are fussy (not always) that their parents are too. We all LOVE nothing better than a big bowl of steamed vegies with seasoning and a dob of real butter.... yuuuuummo! My kids' favourite vegie is brocoli, no kidding! One thing I did do when i introduced new vegies with them was to include the new vegie in a "known and popular sauce". For instance... if I knew that a particular child loooooves satay sauce I would serve the new vegie in that. Broccoli is great for absorbing sauces. My youngest loved soy sauce... so the first time I introduced steamed bok choy was in a honey soy sauce and he ate every bit!
That's just a basic idea of what we do. Texture is very important too. Kids love crunch. Don't over cook. Stir fries are a good way to introduce new vegies too.... and make sure the pieces are nice and small. Nothing can be more daunting to a small child than facing a huge chunk or pile of something new... keep the first serving as small as possible.
One more thing. I don't praise for eating. It sets a bad precedent... just my thoughts... and it sets the stage for using food as a power struggle later on. Just enjoy your own meal...and express it in words your children will understand. Make sure you remind your DH to be positive about the new vegie. There is new research to suggest that the father's eating habits have the greater influence on children. Given that there are many men who are big babies about their vegies it's no wonder kids pick up on this :(
I remember my mum making me vegetable forests as a kid, I guess I would have been a bit older than your DS though. Broccoli and cauliflower were trees, circles of carrot were stepping stones etc. then she could make up a story about the forest while I ate it. I loved it and have very fond memories of it, and I plan on trying this to get my kids to enjoy vegetables.
Plus, as Bath said, I want DH and myself to model enjoyment of veggies, which will be easy for me, not so easy for DH.
Is there any way you could grow some of your own vegetables? As DS gets older it might be exciting for him to see vegetables growing in the garden, and pick and eat them himself.
Gosh I am not sure. DS is only 18 months and loves his fruit and veges. I think letting them get used to the food on their own time is important - offer dont force it on them. And let them get used to how the vege really tastes. Devon's idea about growing veges is awesome as kids who have helped to grow and prepare their own veges are a lot more likely to eat and enjoy them.
I'm vegetarian and while DD is not, she rarely eats meat at home. She's not big on it at all.
I give her a tasting plate that has crudites (capsicum, carrot, beans, cucmber, tomato), cheese, chickpeas and fruit. I let her graze on it at her leisure and it usually means that she polishes off the lot!
I also do things like pizza (mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum), vegie stirfry with noodles, ravioli stuffed with vegies etc for meals.
Other snacks can be fruit and vegie skewers, corncakes with avocado and faces made out of vegies - kids often like fun things like that.
thanks guys. Some great suggestions. We do have vege garden area... except its abit of a storage area at the moment for DH's crap, however, we do intend to clean it out, and get it going again.
The idea of the sauce is good, i think i have always thought of that as 'cheating' somewhat, so have never really pushed the idea. I think however, will look into it some more.
My other big issue is my fear of Aiden choking, so, i probably tend to over cook veges, more then lightly steam, but, no wonder, if everything tastes the same, mushly and bland, cant really blame him for not eating them.
DH is a reasonable vege eater, has a few not going there type foods, but, as Aiden gets older, will have to get DH to eat abit more variety.
Aiden does like pizza, and generally, will eat whatever is on top. I guess i have abit of a pre-conceived notion that for me to be a good mother, i shouldnt need to disguise vege's so much, that he should just eat them..
I have found I only need to make the new vegie part of my children's "known" flavours by using sauce once or twice before they accept it. I know what you mean about disguising foods. I am soooo not into "hiding" vegies in other foods. My mother did that (put eggs in milkshakes for example) and when i discovered it I learnt not to trust her. So when I say I "use a sauce" it doesn't mean I drown the vegie in it. When i introduced broccoli to my toddler I just dropped one drop of soy sauce from one of those little fishes we got from our sushi hand rolls earlier that day... that's all it took... just a single drop of soy sauce. My DH can't stand over cooked vegies so that does kinda dictate things... I think it's a result of his own mother cooking them to complete stodge that turned him off them when he was at home. The only vegie I didn't really like was Brussels sprouts but DH (when we first met) served me a few that had been pan seared (slightly caramelised) and they were more palatable for me... now I can appreciate their flavour a bit better. Sometimes it just comes down to finding a different way of cooking them. Little kids also like salad vegies diced into small cubes and tossed together into a salsa. That's how we introduced them to radish. The cubes were not much more than 1 cm in size. The Pancake Parlour makes a very yummo side salad that is made this way. We went there when our DD was about 3yo and were amazed that she ate it all up even though it contained radish... we had a vegie garden at the time but until that point she refused to eat radish... after eating them the salsa way she decided she liked them afterall :)