How do you sneak healthy food into your child's diets?

Tinasmom

My 7 year old refuses to eat her vegetables. I feel like I've tried everything but she's so stubborn she just won't eat them. Is there a way I can sneak them in?

10 Comments

lweddle

I invested in "The Sneaky Chef" cookbook. It helped. I also make sure that every meal has a veggie with it... so it's like a double dose. The best are the sneakey brownies with spinach and blueberries in them.

Also remember that if you can get fruit in the child, you're still doing an amazing job!!

Mon, 2008-11-10 14:20

jersey mom

I kept telling my now 8 year old to just take one bite. I also told him that is is ok to spit that one out if he does not like it.
He ended up eating many vegetables and liking them.
It might work for you!
Also: I put the veggies he likes into pasta, his favorite food and we use Warmables ( keeps food warm for hours)
to send him to school with healthy food from home.
You can find the gadget at www.warmables.com

Tue, 2009-06-09 08:46

Joy H

What about mixing it up a bit...........celery with peanut butter & raisins; carrots with ranch or hummus? Dip is an amazing condiment for my crew.

Not a veggie but I add whole ground flaxseed meal to lots of things without changing the flavor but adding some nutrients -- meatloaf, breading (porkchops/chicken), and cookie dough.

Mon, 2008-11-10 14:26

grumpymom

For me it is all about mixing it all together! One of my favorite recipes is veggie spaghetti here is the link http://www.grumpymoms.com/bb/ArticleDisplay.cfm?articleid=112&catid=3

When I make any recipes with veggies that my kids don't like I either, shred that vegetable really thin or puree it and they never know it's in there. Now as my kids are getting a little bigger, I make the chunks a little bigger and they eat almost anything.

It also helps when you offer NOTHING else to eat, call me mean but if my kids don't eat what we are having they go to bed hungry, and if they just don't eat the vegetables they can't have more of anything else.

Sun, 2008-12-21 18:56

adriana

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife)
We love, LOVE her cookbook. She's all about puree, but it works. We have used her recipes here and there, but more or less incorporated the concepts of the book into everyday cooking.

In addition, we refer to things like dried fruit, such as mangos and apples and banana chips, as "candy" and treat it as so. So when they do get a treat or have a sweet tooth, it's a health-IER alternative to a Baby Ruth. And my kids are 5, 8 and 10 and they're still happy with it.

Setting the example ourselves as parents in our attitude towards healthier choices is a huge thing too.

We are the parents and have control over what is in the cupboards in our home. Just because they ask for things, doesn't mean we have to provide it. If anything, we have the control to provide a healthier and still fun alternative
.

Sun, 2009-03-15 11:15

Loqi

I have an almost-four son. I never try to force him to eat something. But I often resort to concealment, trickery, or subterfuge.

If there's a vegetable he really doesn't like, I make it clear that I don't expect him to eat it, while I eat it in front of him and visibly enjoy it, or play a little dinosaur-eating-the-tree game with my own food. Toward the end of the meal, I tell him I'd like more of the vegetable, and may I please eat his. I then take nearly all of it from his plate and eat it in a similar fashion. It's okay with me if he doesn't get a good vegetable with every meal, so long as I trick him into wishing he had eaten it when he had the chance.

I also talk to him about how some foods help us become stronger and not get sick as much. At age 2. 3. and 4 I don't expect him to be mature enough to accept all my explanations, but I give them anyway, and over time they have their effect. I give him strong associations between certain foods and desirable reasons to eat them. I refer to them as "strong-lifting vegetables", "fast-running juice", and so on. I explain each time you eat them, you get just slightly stronger, faster, smarter, whatever. This is a long-term strategy, but it visibly works within a year or two.

A good mid-term strategy is to grow a vegetable together in the back yard, or at least to look at pictures and talk about how it's done. This teaches him where food comes from, but it also makes him bond with whatever we're trying to grow. He might start off watching me tend the plant, and helping me put water on it, or whatever little task I ask of him. When it's time to eat it, he's very interested in what comes next. When we pick the tomato or zucchini and cut it open together in the kitchen, I taste a bit, and explain that's what great chefs do. They sample their ingredients as they go. "Taste the bitterness of this little peel fragment. What can we do about that? I know, we'll soak it in warm water and then steam it together." And so on.

A quick hack is to wisper to him, "I know you don't like them, but Mama loves them. Help me pick out the best ones for her. We like mama. We want to give her the best ones as a special treat. I'll eat the not-as-good-ones." This forces him to consider what someone else might like about a particular food, and to imagine eating it himself, without actually eating it. But you'd be amazed how often he ends up eating a less-favorite food with such an underhanded trick.

I find that when my son has a hand in preparing the food, he almost never complains about what's in it. You wouldn't expect that choosing the shape that something is cut in, or choosing between broccoli or spinach, or between the skillet or the steamer would make much difference to him. But it does. When you help make something, you become invested in its success. Having him "help" me cook almost guarantees he'll eat what we make together.

Fri, 2009-05-01 13:37

Natural Mother

I don't understand the concept of trying to sneak healthy foods into our children's meals. Sounds kind of counterproductive to me. Our children should be raised from the beginning on healthy foods, knowing that they are eating healthy foods so that when they get older, they make healthy choices. If they don't know what healthy foods are, how will they know to make the right decisions when they get older? My daughter was great with fruits and vegetables. She always ate green vegetables without complaints because she didn't know any better. My son, on the other hand, was an extremely picky eater and tried, yes "tried" to refuse to eat the food I gave him. On meats and starches, I never forced him to eat but with fruits and vegetables- I was the mean mom who made him sit at the table until he cleared them from his plate. At first, I would start with just a couple of pieces, but he always had to eat what I gave him. Now, at nine, I can give him a cup of broccoli and he will eat it all. He might not love it, but he doesn't dislike it either. I rarely have to say anything about him eating his vegetables anymore. My kids are also now willing to eat just about anything. They love Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese and many other international foods because I always made sure they tried everything. My kids are no longer picky about the foods they eat and they understand how to be healthy at ages 9 and 11.
For some reason, people in the US have decided that we are mean parents to force our kids to do anything. It is not abuse to make your child sit at the table until they eat what you give them. What we teach our kids when they are young is what they will bring with them when they are older. If we teach them that healthy foods are yucky and something to "sneak" into their diets, they will grow up thinking that healthy foods are something to avoid. So many children in the US are obese, have diabetes, or have unhealthy immune systems because they are not fed properly. And then, when they are adults, their health becomes even more compromised because they do not know how to be healthy. Teach your kids about good health now and then they will be healthy later!

Mon, 2009-05-04 06:30

achet

Keep carrot sticks, celery sticks, fresh fruit, dried fruit, and popcorn handy for when your child gets hungry between meals. When he has to have a cookie, offer a fig bar, a raisin biscuit, or an oatmeal cookie. Look for whole wheat crackers with no hydrogenated oils, and top them with crunchy peanut butter. If he likes pretzels, there are versions with added oat bran -- don't worry, he won't taste it!
epilare

Thu, 2009-05-14 05:21

Natural Mother

More and more research is proving how bad corn is for humans. Very little nutritional value and empty calories (extremely low in nourishment), extremely difficult to digest (because of that, the vitamins in corn are very hard to absorb) and is used by many food manufacturers just as a filler. I don't offer it as a healthy snack but teach my children that it is another one of many sources of junk food.

Mon, 2009-06-22 11:17