How to make a baby eat vegetables? 15 tricks

Are you ready to win a vegetarian war that you announced to your children? Use these ingenious strategies that will make the kids love vegetables. The battle between picky eaters and a plate of beans is as old as the world. Children are very wary of new tastes, and sometimes they move the plate with useful food without even touching it. But your desire to give your son or daughter the maximum nutrients and trace elements is understandable. This struggle lasts for several months, and it seems that until now you have not won the span of another's territory ... Sometimes at the thought of future painful trials your hands are falling. Do not worry, these tricks will help you expand the gastronomic preferences of children.

Use butter

Our first cunning has a scientific explanation. In fact, most vegetables have characteristic bitterness in taste. That's why most children distort the face in a displeased grimace when they see cabbage or broccoli. This feature is inherent in people at the evolutionary level. In bitterness, our ancestors determined the toxicity of a particular plant. Distrust of the new taste helped them survive. Too much of our taste buds are sensitive taste buds. That is why little ones almost instinctively refuse vegetables. It is curious that many useful trace elements provide the bitterness: calcium, polyphenols, flavonoids. To avoid meeting with a bitter taste, we advise you to add a little melted butter to the vegetable dishes. Another indispensable ingredient of vegetable purees can become sweet potatoes.

Eliminate harmful snacks

When a child feels hungry, he is ready to put up with any food, even with one that is not particularly lenient. Therefore, do not allow children to have a snack between meals with sweets or sandwiches. But if the kid asks for something tasty, you can apply this trick: put in front of him a plate with a healthy snack, which will be laid out slices of cucumbers, carrots and red pepper.

Encourage food from the garden

This is a scientifically proven fact: food that can be torn off on its own is much more delicious than the one that is sold in the vegetable department of the supermarket. When during the summer holidays your children go to the dacha, encourage their desire to get acquainted with new tastes. For kids, this will be a real revelation: it turns out that you can eat greens and not in a salad, a young carrot is unusually sweet, and the beans crunch almost the same way as chips.

Use sauces

Studies have shown that children eagerly eat vegetables when it is possible to dip the slices into a sauce. Among all options, give preference to healthier ones, such as Greek yoghurt. Avoid ready-made ketchups containing sodium glutamate and soybean oil. To make the sauce yourself this simple recipe will help you: mix garlic and onion powder, dried dill, salt, cayenne pepper, finely chopped green onion in a cup of Greek yogurt.

Make children imitate each other

When one child jumps into a puddle, all the other members of the team will do the same. Psychologists emphasize that in the children's environment is very common imitation. You can send your little son to visit a cousin who has already grown fond of vegetables. At the general table for the company the kid will necessarily want to do a tasting of a new taste.

DVD Movies

This is another trick that relies on imitation. You can put children to watch a movie, in which the main characters are children with an appetite eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. These scientific and educational films are created specifically for children to have healthy habits, looking at their peers.

Choice option

Children love to exercise power and control. They will be happy to make a choice if they are given this opportunity. Still would! After all, this allows the little tombs to briefly stand on one level with omnipotent adults. Give children the right to choose fruits and vegetables when they go with you to the grocery store or to the market. Children will not resist if their own preferences get to them in a plate at dinner.

Offer a deal

Prepare two colorful versions of the garnish for dinner and ask the child what he would prefer: carrots or broccoli? There is a possibility that the baby will want to tasting both options at once. You will be surprised, but this technique works without fail. When the decision is not imposed from above, the child is more willing to eat food.

Become a positive example

If you want to teach young children to taste vegetables, there is nothing easier. Be a good example of proper nutrition for them. Eat Brussels sprouts, beans, avocados, hummus. The child should see that these habits will be useful to him and in adulthood.

Fry vegetables

You can use vegetables as snacks, but to improve the appearance of snacks, you can resort to roasting or baking. Thus, carrots or eggplants will not look like a traditional dish. When the children are hungry and waiting for dinner, remove the bread and sweets from the table. Instead, put a dish with pieces of colorful vegetables, cooked on the grill. If it is in front of the kids, they will necessarily empty the plate. Colorful vegetables at the beginning of the meal look more preferable in comparison with bread. In addition, baking will save vegetables from the hateful bitterness. Do not forget about the sauce.

Take a neutral position

If you talk daily about the benefits of vegetables, children can develop a reaction of rejection. The same goes for your desire to coerce. Instead, take a neutral stance. So the child will have more chances to explore new tastes. Once again, we emphasize: try to exclude snacks between meals.

Involve the child in cooking

And here is another secret weapon that will help to develop healthy eating habits in small touts. Involve children in helping to prepare vegetable dishes. When the kids put their own cabbage in a green cocktail or pour olive oil on Brussels sprouts, and then sprinkle with salt, they have more interest in eating it. Studies have shown that children who take a direct part in cooking, develop a more positive attitude towards the products used. Therefore, give the child a knife, a cutting board and put a number of cucumbers and greens. Do not forget to give a safety briefing. Every time a child asks you permission to chop a salad, do not deny him that pleasure.

Arrange a holiday of vegetables

When people turn food into a celebratory event, it helps children overcome their fear of new tastes. You could use the Italian theme and add tomatoes to the usual food for a week. Do not forget about the power of colorful plates and vegetables, laid out on the dish in the form of funny little animals. Let the children associate vegetables with a fun adventure, and not with the fact that they are compelled to eat under compulsion.

Use a blender

This secret is to hide from children the real number of ingredients in smoothies or cream soups. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that children between the ages of 3 and 5 years double the consumption of vegetables if the components of the dish are grinded. But the recipe for smoothies with pumpkin: mix half-avocado with a blender, a little spinach, a half-banana, a quarter cup of canned pumpkin and almond milk. Your children will not even realize that spinach is present in their nutritious cocktail.

Do not give up

If all the measures proposed by us do not work or work badly, do not even think about despairing and throwing out a white towel. Continue to experiment with the ingredients and offer the children to try different dishes. Be interested in the impressions received from the new taste, but do not try to put pressure on your son or daughter.