| Get Kids to Eat More Fruits & Vegetables |
| Trying is believing. Sometimes a child will like a new fruit or vegetable the first time he tries it. Or he may need two, three or ten times to get used to it. Ask a child to take one bite. If he doesn’t like it, that’s fine. If he doesn’t want to try it, introduce it again another day. After two or three times if a child does not like it, move on to other new fruits or vegetables. Forcing a child to eat something will create a bad association. Seeing is believing. Modeling healthful eating habits is a great way to make sure children will develop good eating habits. Children will mimic your actions and words. So take a big helping of salad and say “I love salad!” and soon the children around you will eat it and say they love it too. Offer choices. Offer children two or three fruit or vegetable choices to help them make decisions. Ask them to pick the fruit or vegetables for the meal and they will be more likely to eat them. Make it easy. Make fruits and vegetables convenient for snacks. Place them in spots where children will see them first. Put a bowl of fruit on the counter or table. Put boxes of 100% fruit juice on the lower refrigerator shelves for children to see first. Have raw vegetables or fruits cut up in small plastic bags ready and waiting in the refrigerator. Crunchy and sweet can’t be beat. Kids love bite-sized pieces of fruit and vegetables. If a child won’t eat a vegetable cooked, try it raw with low fat dressing for a dip. Kids like to eat what they make. Have children help to find a recipe to try. Help them develop a shopping list and find ingredients at the supermarket. Enjoy the fun of preparing it with them. Add fruit and vegetables to favorite foods. Add sliced bananas to cereal, green pepper to cheese pizza, fresh fruit and yogurt to milk shakes, shredded carrots on a turkey sandwich pureed red peppers and zucchini to spaghetti sauce. |
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