Why is it important for a child to eat vegetables? What to do if your child refuses to eat vegetables? How to get a toddler to eat vegetables? I know all these questions must be gearing up in your mind. Trust me it is nothing to worry about as I will give the ways to deal with it.
Eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables is very much important for a child as it leads to a healthy and wealthy development. They protect the child against diseases. Fruits and vegetables give the children energy, vitamins, antioxidants, fiber and water.
By the end of the article, you will come to know the various ways to get your child to eat vegetables when they hate it. Just hang on and swipe up for details.
Why Is It Important For Child To Eat Vegetables?
A healthy diet is comprised of lots of fruits and vegetables with a wide variety of foods from other sources. As per the Australian Dietary Guidelines-
- 1-2 years should have 2-3 serves of vegetables each day
- 2-3 years should have 2½ serves of vegetables each day
- 4-8 years should have 4½ serves of vegetables each day.
Some of the importance of children eating vegetables are as follows:
- Fruits and vegetables has fewer calories as compared to processed or junk food. This, as a result, reduces the calorie intake and risk of obesity.
- Eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables will lead to boosting immunity and improve the body ability to fight diseases.
- The intake of fruits and vegetables in a proper and right way keep illnesses like diabetes, heart stroke, vision problems, digestion problems and certain types of cancers at bay for the children.
- It plays an important role in cleaning the body off toxins and it frees the body from dioxide.
- Fruits and vegetables give the children energy, vitamins, antioxidants, fiber and water.
- Eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables is very much important for a child as it leads to healthy and wealthy growth and development.
- Vegetables play an important role that will reduce the risk of type 2- diabetes.
- Fiber from vegetables can prevent colon cancer, high blood pressure and rectal fissures among other diseases.
- The intake of fruits and vegetables in the right manner reduce the risk of cancer and chronic diseases.
Why Does the Child Refuse To Eat Vegetables?
There are many cases or examples where the children don’t like or refuse to eat vegetables (R). There are many probable factors behind it. But one of the major causes as per the research is that the child who refuses to eat vegetables is due to the fact that they don’t like the taste of it.
As we all know, we are born with different preferences for sweeter taste so the level of intake of or denying to eat vegetables differ from one child to another. It all resulted due to baby’s first food that to breast milk, which has a natural occurrence of sugars, including lactose, etc.
Some vegetables are bitter in taste so the child doesn’t like it and they get a generalized idea that all the vegetables taste the same. This is one of the probable causes behind the child to refuse to eat vegetables.
How To Get Toddler To Eat Vegetables?
There are ample of ways that can get your child to eat vegetables when they hate to take it. Some of the ways are as follows-
1.Set An Example:
Mostly the child learns to eat or liking or disliking a food especially by imitating you. The best way to get a picky toddler to eat vegetables is by letting them observe you and teach them what to eat and what not to eat.
By observing you, the kids will eat what you offer them, they won’t ask for any special meals. Family meals (R) are a good time to teach your children about healthy eating.
2. Keep Trying With Vegetables:
It is obvious that the child gets bored from eating the same vegetables all the way. Mostly try experimenting with fruits and vegetables. Get some amazing way of cooking with vegetables and provide them at mealtime or as a snack.
The child will probably change his mind about the vegetables eventually and start eating up. As per the research, children need to try a new food up to 10 times before they accept it, and another 10 times before they decide they like it.
3. Use Praise when Your Child Tries Vegetables:
This is one of the best ways to get your child to eat vegetables. This works great with children who don’t eat vegetables. The logic behind the tip is that if you praise your child each time when she eats or tries to eat any kind of vegetables then they will more likely to eat vegetables again.
Punishing your child for not eating the vegetables can also lead to negative aspects for the child. So you need to take care of it.
4.Get Your Child Involved In Cooking With Vegetables:
Involving your child in cooking stuff with vegetables will more likely make them want to eat the vegetables they have prepared. You can take your kids with you to the farmers market or grocery store and let them pick one or two vegetables to cook can make them far more excited to eat.
As per research has found that hands-on approaches, such as cooking and gardening, may encourage greater vegetable consumption in children (R). This create an opportunity for the children to eat veggie.
5.Pair Vegetables with Familiar Food:
If your child is not eating vegetables, one of the simple and best ways is to pair up the vegetables with familiar food. This works great for the children. A neutral food component along with something that might be a little harder to eat, like a vegetable, can make it easier for your child.
6.Offer Vegetables As Snacks:
If the child is not eating vegetables at mealtime then just switch it up to snacks option. You can make some kids loving snacks out of vegetables and give them up. That really works great in most of the case.
Add the vegetables to the dishes that your kids like tacos, pizza, spaghetti, etc. Kids will simply love it. Filling tacos with beans and roasted vegetables can be a fun way for kids to try a new vegetable,” says Jessica Ivey, RDN.(R)
7. Go For Vegetables Variety, taste and Fun:
Choosing the vegetables of different shape, size, color, texture, and taste actually makes sense in respect to getting your child to eat vegetables when they hate. The more variety it is the more interest of the child to eat will be.
In this case, the taste matters a lot. You can have fun with vegetables too. You can use our own innovative vegetable face for a snack plate that is a grated carrot for hair, cherry tomatoes for eyes, a bean for a nose and capsicum strips for a mouth.
8.Get The Vegetables In Meals In Another way:
In this first you have to figure out the dislike factor of the kids with respects to vegetables then only this way will work wonder in the best ways to get toddlers to eat vegetables.
For some examples, you can try something like grating up the vegetables and used in the meals or you can make a paste of it and use it for your kids. In this case, the kids will also not known and they will start eating the vegetables.
9.Arrange Food In Patterns On The Plate:
This sounds simple but trust me, it works amazing with respects to get a picky toddler to eat vegetables. Once the food is prepared just serve them with stylish, small, funky plates as per their likeness, as a results it will lead them to eat all the food that is rich in fruits and vegetables.
This is also another way to make food fun.
10. Don’t Force Them To Finish:
One of the biggest mistake what parents do is that they forced their kids to finish their food. But this should be. As this can lead the child to have a fear or afraid of not eating at all. This creates a negative meal experience.
As per studies has proven that negative food experiences have the opposite of the desired effect and actually it increases picky eating tendencies in children.
Tips for Parents:
- Provide fruits and vegetables as snacks by keeping fruit washed, cut up and in plain sight in the refrigerator.
- Serve salads more often to your kids and get pre-washed, bagged salad at the grocery store that is available in the market.
- Try out more of vegetarian recipes for spaghetti, lasagna, chili, or other foods using vegetables instead of meat.
- In every day meal Include at least one leafy green or yellow vegetable for vitamin A such as spinach, broccoli, winter squash, greens, or carrots each day.
- Include at least one vitamin C rich fruit or vegetable, such as oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, melon, tomato, and broccoli each day to the kid’s diets.
- Add a fruit or vegetable as part of every meal or snack
- Be a role model in case of eating more fruits and vegetables yourself.
Consequences Of Not Eating Vegetables In Children:
Well not eating of fruits and vegetables in meals can lead to many negative consequence. Some of the ways are as follows
- The very first adverse effect of avoiding fruits and vegetables will lead to vitamin or mineral deficiency. Avoidance of these foods will affect the different function of the body.
- A body without veggie will lead to or more prone to digestive disorders such as constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis. As there will be the absence of fiber contained in the body.
- According to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR),” no one food can protect you against cancer, but a diet filled with plant-based foods can help lower your cancer risk”.
The presence of antioxidants such as vitamin E, Vitamin C, and carotenoids may reduce cancer risks by protecting healthy cells from free radicals. So mainly through the vegetables, we get it.
- Eating not proper vegetables will lead to weight gain too. A study led by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine showed that” overweight and obese portions of the U.S. adult population ate fewer fruits and vegetables than normal-weight groups”.
- The absence of fiber and other nutrients in the body can lead to the chances of diseases risk is more. Studies have shown that increased consumption of vegetables and fruit might indirectly reduce the incidence of it.
- The absence of fruits and vegetable leads to an increase in the chance for heart diseases. As Per Harvard-based Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study showed “that compared with those who ate less than 1.5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, people who ate eight or more a day were 30 percent less likely to have had a heart attack or stroke”
Healthy eating is very much important in one’s life, so for this, a child should eat all types of fruits and vegetables. I hope this article has given you a good number of ways that you can opt to get your child to eat vegetables when they hate.
