Get Your Children to Eat Their Vegetables With These Tried and Tested Expert Tips

Before I was a doctor, I was a mom to three little children. I started medical school when my kids were aged five, three, and 10 months old, which—perhaps not coincidentally—is the same year I began seeing white hairs on my head.

For survival (mine, not theirs), we had a few house rules: 1. Eat what you get, or you will have to wait to eat at the next meal. 2. You dirty a dish, you wash it. 3. “I’m your mom, not your short-order cook.” We had varying degrees of success with following these rules, but these guidelines made our transition to a plant-based diet much easier (which happened when my children were 18, 16, and 13).

RELATED: “Dinosaur Time” Is the Easiest Healthy Eating TikTok Hack Yet 

You see, when your kids are raised to understand that whatever is on their plates is what they eat, it doesn’t take long before they learn that being picky and whiny is the equivalent of going to bed hungry. Thanks to these rules, my children have learned how to eat—and enjoy—a variety of foods. Combine being a mom with my profession as a doctor, and you learn a thing or two about getting young people to eat their vegetables. So, if you need strategies to get your kids to eat healthier food, try these helpful hints.

Why do children need to eat vegetables?

We all need to eat fruits and vegetables, but for little ones, it’s particularly important. This is because they contain vitamins and minerals that provide energy, and also help with essential growth and development. But, kids aren’t eating enough of these vital foods. In fact, “about 60 percent of children don’t eat enough fruit and 93 percent don’t eat enough vegetables,” researchers at Penn State note.

The tips below may help you convince your child to try to eat more nourishing foods, but it’s important not to panic if they refuse. After all, kids go through different phases as they grow up.

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“I certainly encourage my patients to eat lots of veggies. I also reassure parents that the kids who don’t eat veggies will be just fine,” pediatrician Aaron Lindzon, MD told Today’s Parent. He added:  “For kids who refuse fruits and veggies, I usually recommend a multivitamin to ensure adequate vitamin and mineral intake.”

How to get kids to eat their veggies

Next time your littles are hesitant about the broccoli on their dinner plate, give these tips a try.

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Be stealthy and get creative

Hiding greens in everything and anything is crucial for a parent, so if your child loves smoothies, add a few leaves of spinach. Doing so will not change the flavor, and your children will be healthier for it, as spinach boasts “a generous amount of fiber, folate, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K” reports Healthline. This leafy green is also high in antioxidants and “promotes overall eye health.”

However, if your child is hesitant about the green hue spinach imparts, remember: this is the 21st century, and Instagram has made unicorn foods a hot trend. If green smoothies are a no-go, try adding antioxidant- and fiber-rich berries to create a tasty, nutritious purple smoothie. Perhaps your child prefers red or pink. This bright red shake is made with heart-healthy beetroot, and the root vegetable is also central to this hot pink hummus. 

Set the example

Parents, I am calling you out! You have to stop saying “eat your vegetables” when your plate is devoid of greens. Children are smart and perceptive, so if you want them to eat healthy, you’re going to have to start by being the example. Research backs this up. According to a 2021 study, “families, and specifically parents, who eat more vegetables tend to have children with higher vegetable consumption.”

In other words, you’ll also have to eat your veggies. Be sure to load up your plate with plenty of greens come dinner time. 

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Grocery shop and cook together

Bringing your offspring to the grocery store to buy ingredients is another great way to get them interested in foods. Some grocery stores even offer mini carts and baskets for children—this makes the experience all the more fun and hands on for the littles.

This is also a great opportunity to teach your kids about selecting the best produce. Ask them to compare two zucchinis for their advice on which one is ripe, or have them talk to the produce person for help picking out the perfect bundle of kale. 

Beyond grocery shopping, getting your kids involved in the kitchen can also prove beneficial. Dust off those recipe books from the kitchen shelf, or get online, and find recipes together. If you have an idea of the sort of dish you want to make, you can still involve them by allowing them to pick from two or three versions of a recipe. This way, you still have control, but your kids feel like they have had some involvement and input in the day’s meal planning.

Whatever you choose, getting children involved in meal preparation will increase the likelihood of a lifelong love affair with healthy foods.

Grow your own

Furthermore, my day job as a doctor has taught me that children are closer to the ground, which is one reason why they’re perfect for helping you plant a garden. With this in mind, go online to find the prettiest fruit and vegetables, and head to your local nursery to purchase plants and/or seeds. Then, if you have a space for a garden, get digging! If you don’t have any outside space, it’s worth bearing in mind that you can still grow things like herbs and tomato plants on window sills.

This has another added benefit: your kids will learn about the life cycle of plants. Plus, tasks such as watering can help teach responsibility. 

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Dip it

This can be anything: hummus, nut butters, vegan salad dressings, or salsa, into which your children can dip their fruit and vegetables. They will love it, and you will find they will eat a lot more if you give them the dipping option because the only thing better than a carrot is a carrot with a roasted red pepper dip.

Take this hummus recipe, for example. Alyssia Sheikh of Mind Over Munch omits tahini (which some picky eaters may find to be bitter) and garlic. Omitting both of these ingredients creates a creamy dip with a “more neutral and less intense flavor,” Sheikh notes.

Bribes bring bad vibes 

Parents, repeat after me: bribery does not work! Rather than encouraging children to expand their palates, all bribery does is reinforce the whining and tantrums that occur when they want ice cream for dinner. If you tell a child he or she can have ice cream after they eat their vegetables, your kid will remember this bargaining tool, and use it to their advantage. So, instead of bribery, remind your children that they will eat what is on their plates, or wait until the next meal. Relax—they’ll be fine.

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Get silly 

When dealing with children, one thing I know to be true is that humor always works. Because of this, I have learned that nothing gets a child laughing like silly vegetable jokes. For instance, my kids loved, “What vegetables do sailors hate? Leeks.” Then there’s my personal favorite: “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Lettuce.” “Lettuce who?” “Lettuce us in and you’ll find out.”

TikTok user @223in2023 has also popularized the ”crunchy pepper bracelet.” By reframing a slice of red bell pepper into a “pepper bracelet,” this user was able to excite her three-year-old about the vegetable. 

Dinosaur Time is another fun trend worth trying. While this trend entails eating raw greens by the handful, this playful, imaginative approach could entice kids. Give it a shot by simply asking, “Who wants to play dinosaurs?”