Learn to love vegetables with The Veggienauts Club!

Do you want your children to eat more veg? We all do right?! And that’s one of the reasons why I set up The Cool Food School!

I recently found a friend in Kate from the Veggienauts Club who has shared her advice in how to encourage out children to eat more veg. Read on …

Plants are amazing. 

We should all be eating more. But it’s easier said than done.

If you’re stuck on the same rotation of sweetcorn and peas, fed up with mealtime battles, bribery and scraping yet another piece of uneaten broccoli into the bin, where do you start?

There’s so much advice out there and so many things to try, so today let’s keep it simple. 

Take away the pressure. We all want what’s best for our kids. But we all know what can happen when we put pressure on our kids to do something. 

They rebel.

So what can we do to encourage familiarity with, excitement around and - eventually, this may take time - a love of vegetables in our little learners in a pressure-free way?

PUT PLAY FIRST

Studies have shown that children who are allowed to play with food are more likely to try and/or eat it. We’re not suggesting a full on food fight, but activities outside of mealtimes with no pressure to eat - as included in The Veggienauts Club boxes - are a great way to make vegetables more familiar. And if kids want to line up their peas on the dinner table or stick broccoli ‘trees’ in their mash, why not? Relax a little around food and your kids might just follow suit.

OPEN KITCHEN 

Get your kids involved in every step of the process, from shopping for vegetables to washing, prepping and cooking them. Chopping, peeling or grating (with child safe equipment where appropriate) all provide opportunities to handle a vegetable and maybe even taste it in a completely pressure-free environment. Cooking is such a sensory experience - when they’ve prepared a meal themselves, kids are more invested in the end result and - this is the theory, we appreciate this won’t work every time - more keen to give it a try.   

GROW & LEARN

Growing your own vegetables is a great way to teach children about where their food comes from and if they can pull up a radish or eat a tomato straight from the plant they might be more inclined to taste it. Start with herbs or cress which you can grow indoors, then take it from there. 

JUST LIKE YOU

Children do what you do, not what you say. If a trusted adult is eating and enjoying a food, children are much more likely to try it themselves. Eat with your kids when you can, include vegetables at every meal and show how much you enjoy eating them too. It might not always be possible or practical, but eating together as a family has been proven time and again to help with fussy eating. 

TEACH DON’T PREACH

Rather than telling children to eat vegetables ‘because they’re good for you’, teach them why (in a simple, not too science-y way). Orange foods give you super sight. Purple foods boost your brain power. Red foods keep your heart strong. Maybe runner beans help you run faster?! Who knows, they might even suggest you try one to see!

SET EMOTIONS ASIDE

Food is love. We get that. Making something delicious for someone you love is so gratifying. But when it comes to feeding kids, it’s important to set emotions aside. Eating a mouthful ‘for mummy’ doesn’t teach a healthy, self-regulating relationship with food. Nor does the promise of dessert as a reward (or the threat of its absence). Act cool, and if you want to praise, focus on the act of trying something new rather than the actual eating.

TRUST YOUR CHILD

Your job is to put tasty, nutritious food on the table. Your child’s job is to eat it. Child eating experts call this ‘division of responsibility’ - you decide when, where and what to serve, your child decides how much to eat. It’s hard to relinquish control at mealtimes, but the nutritional value of ‘one more bite’ of broccoli is almost non-existent. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself or them, or take it personally if your food is rejected. Give your child this autonomy and in the long run they’ll be better off. 

PLAY THE LONG GAME

Speaking of the long run, consistency is key. Serve vegetables with every meal, even if you know they’re not going to be eaten. A single floret of broccoli or piece of carrot if needs be, to avoid waste. Rather than encouraging or even bribing kids to eat something against their will, show them that vegetables are part of a healthy plate, to be expected, and here to stay. One of these days they’ll get the message. 

At The Veggienauts Club, you can subscribe to their unique veggie discovery boxes for kids, packed with fun activities, recipes and more.