How can I encourage my 3 year old daughter to eat vegetables?

Answers:
As a finger food with dip. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green or sweet red pepper, pea pods.

Other Answers:
tell her if she eats all her veggies she can have dessert. otherwise no dessert.

Tell her that she can have an extra dessert if she eat her vegetables.

Saying no desert can work. A good way too would be to make the meal fun. Like arrange carrots to look like a face. Stuff like that. If your child likes peanut butter, put some on celery for her. Most important make sure you are a good example and eat yours too.
Source(s):
Mother of 2 year-old twins that are picky eaters.

Bribing and incentivising are the worst thing to do. Kids dont eat things we force on them. If they feel that your need to make them eat veggies looks more than her need to eat them, they will revolt ang repulsed by it. Just STOP insisting and you'll see a difference. Make them taste good and dont give it to them till they ask

Let her help you cook them. Or grow them, even.

My kids love everything with hummus. And lots of kids like to dip...

Try the same vegetable in different ways. For example, zucchini can be shredded and cooked with lemon juice and parmesan cheese, or chunked and thrown in with pasta, or added to tomato sauce, or diced fine and stirred into scrambled eggs.

Soups are a good way to get kids to eat veggies.

I'm running out of steam here, but that's because my kids love vegetables. Candy? Ice cream? OK. Broccoli? YAY! I know they're weird, but it sure works for me!

hide them in another dish. corn, peas, bits of carrot in mashed potatoes for instance. and defiantly, no vegetables NO DESERT you can't compromise on that. also, she can't have another snack later unless she eats them. tell her if she is hungry she should have eaten them and she can't have anything else until she does, warm them up and all so they are still edible. don't make a big deal about it at the table, let her go if she wants to give up desert and snacks. just remain firm and calm about the consequences. I doubt that she will refuse to eat them under these circumstances but but if she does make sure she is getting vitamins until you finally win out (you will)

growing and cooking them together is also a fantastic idea. make a big show about how much you love them

I agree with hiding them in other foods. It doesn't teach them to eat them but at least they get in there! Also try fixing some for yourself; don't offer her any; just remark how yummy they are when you eat them and act as if you really enjoy it. This works pretty well with my granddaughter. She usually wants to do what she sees me doing. And please, be sure you cook them right. I know that some things like broccoli and brussels sprouts usually get overcooked and when they do, they turn bitter. Use frozen veggies because they taste way better than canned and only steam them for 2 or 3 minutes (just until hot); never more! They won't get bitter this way. Also try putting cheese or butter on them. That helps a lot. I've also discovered that when kids don't eat salad, it's usually because they have trouble chewing the lettuce, etc. You have to cut it in much smaller pieces for little ones so they can chew it. Good luck. Keep trying, it's worth it!

I asked the same question a few months ago about my two year old. I got a lot of the same suggestions, and even though they were good, many of them I found didn't work, or I had tried them already.

However, since I asked the question, a friend of mine with kids introduced me to a drink called V8 Splash. It is all fruit and vegetable (carrot, beet, and tomato) juice with no high fructose corn syrup or any other horrible stuff in it. V8 claims that one serving of the juice has a full serving of fruits and vegetables in it. Their are several flavors and the stuff tastes great. My son loves it. I figured that at least he can drink his vegetables until I can get him to eat them.

Also, I asked my child's pediatrician, and he said that their isn't much you can really do about it if your efforts don't work. He said that as long as they eat fruit, they should be in pretty good shape heath-wise until they get older.

Try to relax! Try the V8 Splash. Good luck.

When eating a meal or snack, set her vegetables in front of her before the actual meal. She cannot eat the meal until she finishes most or all of the vegetables. Children will not let themselves starve, and she'll eventually eat them so she can get to the good stuff. My parents did this with me, and to this day, I always eat the vegetables on my plate before everything else.

Do keep in mind, that just like adults, there are some things that children just plain don't like. It's not going to be fun for either of you sitting at the table for an hour waiting for her to eat spinach. And obviously, start off with something on the vegetables if she will not eat them plain. For broccoli and cauliflower, my mom would always melt some velveeta cheese and drizzle it on them. For celery you can make fun "ants on a log" with peanut butter and raisins.

Cut up some veggies that have weird textures up small so they are really easy to chew.

its simple,make them attractive and colorful.present it to them properly.tell them stories like poppey how he eats spinach and becomes strong etc...

My son had this problem. All day long I feed him (healthy)things he likes. I don't give him a snack after lunch, so he is sooo hungry for dinner, and surprise, all he got was vegetables. I have recently started reintroducing the rest of his "square meal" as part of the big picture, he eats his veggies first.

There are 2 great and easy methods that I would suggest trying. First of all, disguise them. If she likes pizza or spaghetti with sauce, add a little grated carrot (or other vegetable of choice--but not something *green*!) to the sauce. She won't even know it's there. You can do this with other foods, too: carrot or zucchini cake; waffles, pancakes, or muffins with grated or mashed cooked vegetables; etc.

The other thing that often works--especially with toddlers--is to refuse to give her any vegetables. Make some of your favorite vegetable. Sit down to eat it, but *first* tell her that it's only for you and she cant have any. Then sit and enjoy it. If she begs you for some, tell her you really wanted it all. Let her ask twice, then offer her *just a little bit* because there really isn't enough otherwise. (This same method works to get teenagers to read good books--put them on a *high* shelf behind other books, but make sure they "accidentally" see you hiding them.)

My son was a very picky eater when he was little but I managed to turn him into a child who ate everything I gave him without complaint. First, I made it clear that this was it. He didn't always want to eat the dinner but I told him there would be nothing else so he had better eat that otherwise he would go to bed hungry. I did not make desserts - I still don't. If he was still hungry after dinner, he got a piece of fruit.

Broccoli became 'tree'. I encouraged him to tell me what each vegetable looked like. Then I told him to nibble a little bit. Dip it in some of the gravy from his casserole and try it then. He did nibble (like a rabbit) but then said it was nice. Carrots got the same treatment. I encouraged him to eat a bit of everything on his plate with each bite.

The thing that he took on board was the fact that if he didn't eat his vegetables, he would not grow big and strong like his dad. He looked at his dad and started shovelling those vegetables down! He also took on board the fact that his meals were not negotiable. He wanted chips and chicken nuggets but I gave him rice, chicken casseroles and vegetables, which he absolutely did not want to eat. I told him that was too bad, I was in charge and this was it. And he knew I was serious.

Do not give in and give your daughter anything else. You prepare her meals with her nutritional needs in mind and she needs to know that this is it. This is the meal. Eat it or go hungry...

the best way is to first give her veggies which she likes, in case she doesn't like any try giving her veggies which are colorful, make it interesting for her to eat

Do like I do--- cheat and hide the vegetables so they don't even know they are eating them!!!! You can take broccoli or tomatoes and grind them up really fine, and then add them to spaghetti sauce. You can do this with almost any vegetable and most likely your kids won't even taste them! They won't even know that they're eating it and you can put the ground up vegetables into just about any food.

tell her it will make her big

Do you eat veggies yourself? If not eat them and she will mimic you...and if you do then just keep on trying them and one day she just might like them.

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How can I encourage my 3 year old daughter to eat vegetables?

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