Getting kids to eat their veg

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Posted at 11:26AM, 16 April 2008 by Jenni Muir - Food writer

My mother is visiting from Australia, so we get to hear all the old stories about my childhood again. Like how she trained me to eat peas. If I remember correctly, it wasn't the taste I didn't like so much as the difficulty I had getting them on the fork. So after some turmoil a rule was introduced. At first I had to eat one pea; next night, two peas; the following night, three peas. You get the picture. Last night I had 14,235 peas - no, I'm only joking.

Apart from that and what I would describe as the usual reticence with Brussels sprouts, there were no dramas about getting me to eat vegetables or fruit as a kid. Yet some people have so much trouble with it there are courses devoted to the subject, and a few colleagues are very taken with Lucy Thomas's recent book.

Is singing songs about cauliflower or any other food really the solution?

It's helped some anxious families, certainly. But is singing songs about cauliflower or any other food really the solution? Do they have to do it in any other country? When my sister had trouble getting her son to eat, they found the way forward was to dine as a family, rather than Ann feeding little Callum by himself and waiting to have her dinner later with her husband.

My mum reckons kids naturally copy what their parents do and the best way to teach them to eat properly is to eat with them. Most of my friends seem to feel the same way and, apart from careful restriction of sugary foods, seem to have a very relaxed attitude towards feeding their kids.

How have you tackled the challenges of getting children to eat veg?

Comments

Gbobs

16 April 2008, 1:47PM
Gbobs

I genuinely feel that if you give children plenty of veg from a young age they will eat them too much emphasis is put on children not eating veg....its the parents...given them fresh veg (obviously mashed up) from the day they are on solids and they will eat them and enjoy them! Parents come on give your children decent food from the start and they will eat it and enjoy it!

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Katie Walton

16 April 2008, 3:27PM
Katie Walton

Couldn't agree more! Both of my children (now aged 5 and 3) were fed soley on the mashed up food I'd prepared for them from day 1, all fruit and veg and now they can't get enough of the stuff. Given a chioce between a biscuit or some grapes, they would both pick the grapes every time. Even at tea time, their veg gets eaten long before the rest of the meal gets down them. I firmly believe it's because the have never known anything other.

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James

16 April 2008, 4:12PM
James

And I agree with the other two comments too. My mum put whatever they were eating into the blender and pureed it. All you see in supermarkets is rows and rows of convenience baby food - is it any wonder children grow up only liking proccessed food later on? When we were older I would help dad and grandad setting vegetable seeds, potting on fruit plants in the greenhouse, and nurturing them as they grew, then help mum and gran in the kitchen preparing and cooking it all, for that evening and the preserving in the freezer or jar and the jams for the winter. It was an attack of the senses - taste (the difference between broad beans raw and cooked, and then the difference from the first crop to the last crop was always interesting), smell (don't get me started on this), touch (which is how children learn instinctively), sight (watching growth, sometimes when the sun is shining the growth of the courgettes in one day), and even hearing (the snap of a pea pod - podding was always my job).

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James

16 April 2008, 4:18PM
James

Then when you see and taste things like something being cooked too long, the difference between boiling and sauteeing - especially courgettes & purple sprouting, the difference with seasoning or leaving it plain, the difference when the herbs you've grown are cut up and added - that's magic. Children need magic. Maybe the vegetables they have are just too plain. Food can be a power issue for children too - their choice not to eat something is the power they have agaist the parents. I've converted an 11 year old recently with carrots cooked in a water-sugar-butter glaze & stir-fried PSB with soy - if they're going to eat it it has to have flavour.

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leanne

17 April 2008, 10:49PM
leanne

i agree with everything above. my children have never been allowed convenience foods, they are aged 2 and 4 and will eat most things that i put in front of them. again they will choose fruit over biscuits and crisps. they have been bought up on quality fresh food and i think that has improved their knowledge from a very young age. we have great fun going to the veg shop or picking our fruit and veg.

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kipperelli

18 April 2008, 12:57PM
kipperelli

I fed my children on my own pureed then mashed vegetables from day one of weaning but now it's difficult to get my son to eat many veg at all. Fruit's fine but the texture of some veg as well as the taste seem to be an issue now. Apparently my brother was the same and now eats anything again, so I'm biding my tine and trying not to make an issue of it. Hiding veg in pasta sauces, soups and stews etc. works

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doragibraltar

20 April 2008, 7:40AM
doragibraltar

I am in the same situation as kipperelli. I gave both of my girls home cooked food from weaning but both became very fussy eaters. I wonder whether part of this is because they went to Nursery but to be honest I think I gave them too many choices. I am one of 5 children with a spanish mother and had no choice but to eat what she cooked us. She certainly wasn't going to cook different meals for different children!! Black bean stew and rice was a regular in our house and now I have a great love of good food, especially spanish. My eldest daughter is 7 and is much better now so I think there is hope for my 4 year old.

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Gregg

20 April 2008, 6:10PM
Gregg

I used to take my vinklets round the shop and see if they could identify the veg, it makes it a game. Then, this is the important bit. Let them choose one, bring it home, prepare and cook it. They will then develope an interest in veg.

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Mrs. Mason-Brown

31 July 2008, 8:53PM
Mrs. Mason-Brown

When I was growing up, we always had a vegetable garden, which we got to help with. We would often be sent out to it to select the veggie to go with the evenings supper. It was really important to my feelings about food to know how it all grew, and tasting really fresh produce. I find now that even if an extensive garden is not practical, letting the children pick out the best veg and fruit at the grocery store gives them a little mission for them to do on the weekly shop. They like to feel like they have a big kid job, and it's more likely they will eat it if it's "their" carrot, ect.

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Cassandra Amy Rose

19 December 2009, 11:48AM
Cassandra Amy Rose

I think part of problem is that people expect kids not to like their veg and make a big fuss about eating if. Veg is actually very tasty, as long as its not been boiled to death, and most kids would happily eat the stuff! If they don't just say 'no pudding untill you eat your veg'. It seems to work!

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