Now, before I start, let me assure you that I do believe in table manners, and I am not trying to raise uncouth children. But I have to tell you a little secret about how I encourage my children to eat certain cooked vegetables...
I let my children eat them with their fingers.
I know – it sounds ridiculous right? But wait – hear me out. I feed my children tons of raw veggies, so they are used to dipping vegetables in salad dressing and eating them with their fingers. Something about eating vegetables like French Fries, makes the process less intimidating and inherently childish.
So, when it comes to a couple of cooked veggies, I add some childish spins. When I feed my little ones broccoli, I call them trees and insist that my kids are dinosaurs, ripping off the leaves and devouring the trees. It works like a charm on toddlers and preschoolers. And before you know it, their palates are accustomed to the taste and broccoli becomes a “go to” vegetable in the house.
Yellow beans? Well, that is just easy! I tell my kids they are healthy French Fries. They gobble them up by the fistfuls. Seriously.
When I am preparing frozen peas, my kids love when I hand them a small bowlful still frozen that they can munch on like vegetable flavoured frozen candies. I remember eating frozen peas as a kid myself and it felt like a small liberation from eating them warm and mushy. The finger food stage doesn’t last long – not much does in childhood. And I only do it for certain veggies to add in some extra fun. (So I hope it doesn’t make me a bad parent! I promise my kids do know how to use utensils.)
But I find a little bit of veggie whimsy goes a long way to removing the “ick” of vegetables for kids. And for me, the goal is making my kids “good friends” of healthy food.
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