My children love fruits and vegetables; I do not have to trick them into eating their greens, coax them, or make threats. They are more than willing to gobble these healthy goodies right up. I have been told that I am lucky my children love vegetables and fruit, but I wouldn’t call it luck – it happened by design. I have been encouraging good food choices since my oldest was very young. I have used many strategies and I wanted to share five ways to get your kids excited about produce.
- Let your child pick one fruit or vegetable from the store each week. I did this with my children for a very long time. Being able to choose what to buy made them more likely to eat it. Most weeks they picked something they had never tried before and we pretty much ran out of new produce to try. My son was super excited when he found this brussel sprout stalk at Trader Joe’s.
- Tie what is on their plate into what is in their stories. For example, The Very Hungry Caterpillar eats a lot of produce. Many children’s stories and movies have characters who eat fruits or vegetables in the story. Playfully remind your child of this.
- Role play with your food. Younger children may enjoy pretending food is something other than what it is. For example, we used to call broccoli “little trees” and pretend we were long neck dinosaurs gobbling them up. This never failed in our home.
- Make green smoothies. My children love making suggestions as to what to include in our green smoothies. Sometimes they recommend things I would never think to add. But with the right ingredients, green smoothies can be delicious and fun.
- Grow your own produce. Children are more likely to eat produce willingly and joyfully when they have a hand in the growing process. Not only is it educational and fun, it is also very healthy.
I hope at least one of those ideas is helpful to you. Remember to encourage your children to eat a colorful diet (and no, I do not mean Skittles and Fruit Loops 😉 ).
Do your children like eating their fruits and vegetables? What do you do to encourage that? Feel free to leave a comment. Share and let’s talk about it.
About Janice
Great ideas. I’ll do anything to get my daughter excited about veggies.
I am so excited that they love veggies so much. I will keep your tips in mind when I have my little one.
My daughters mainly eats veggies and fruits but is reluctant to try NEW ones. I’m going to use these ideas to see if it works with her. Thanks!
Hope it works!
My older son loves fruits and veggies, he eats those before the actual meal so I don’t have to trick him either. My younger son, on the other hand, won’t eat any veggie baby food so I think I’m going to have my hands full with him!
Isn’t it funny how 2 kids from the same family can have such different tastes?!
I only recently discovered the huge difference having a garden makes on kids eating veggies! They love to monitor it, pick it, and then find ways to eat it!
I love to garden. It is so great to watch the kiddos get excited. 🙂
I would have picked the brussel sprout stalk too! What great tips!
I have 5 kids, and each one has a slightly different take on vegetables. My oldest did not like them very much until his taste buds started to change. My 6 year old and 3 year old will try stuff. The 3 year old is the most adventurous.
We’ve had a vegetable garden for a long time which has helped a bit with the vegetable issue. We also encourage our kids to help in the kitchen. In the end, we do have them eat a few bites, but we don’t make a big deal about it.
Cute photo! My younger kids are veggie phobic. Really. They eat raw carrots and cooked broccoli. That is the only veggies they eat – other than tomato in spaghetti sauce and ketchup.
These are great tips! My son is more likely to eat meals he helped plan and/or make. Also, even if he doesn’t like a vegetable when it’s served plain, he’ll often try it in a sauce or other more interesting preparation; Red & Green Pockets using peas and tomatoes is one of his favorite meals.
those are some really good tips. too many kids are too darn picky about what they will and wont eat. some parents think ‘french fries’ are a vegetable….not!
Great suggestions. Not sure if mine would like green smoothies, though, the color is off-putting to them 🙂
How clever! Those are wonderful ideas!
Our local grocery store offers tours for kids. That might get them excited about produce!
My kids have always loved fruits and veggies – mostly because my husband and I do and we include a variety in every meal!
Mine actually like veggies. The smoothie idea is great–I might add a bit of spinach to a pink smoothie, too.
We always eat veggies % fruits.
what good ideas you have. I will be sharing them with my daughter. her 5 year old son is soooooooo picky! thanks!
One of my girls loves fruits and vegetables and the other one not so much. I try to come up with fun ways to get them to eat fruits and vegetables like making kabobs or serving them with dips. Thank you for sharing your tips on how to get your kids excited about produce!
Great ideas, but my son loved all his veggies, I’m the one who didn’t eat my carrots.
my sons could eat broccoli every day. These are great tips to help them learn to love more green veggies.
I don’t have kids, but my mom always let me pick a different fruit or vegetable each time we went to the store, and she always gave me fruit for dessert instead of sweets.
The photo made me laugh because my mother-in-law always gets a branch (or whatever they’re called) of brussel sprouts to use as her centerpiece in the fall and for Thanksgiving.
My grandson loves to look at the produce while at the grocery store. We name what everything is.
Thanks for sharing such great ideas.
My youngest daughter eats veggies and fruits pretty good, but I will tell my older daughter who has 3 of her own to try these ideas.
I found that if I give my boys their own money to “shop” at our farmers market, they tend to buy more of a variety & are more apt to try it 🙂
i went to bed without supper when i didnt eat this…i wised up
My kids already love veggies — almost every kind there is. But you have some great ideas for mom’s who aren’t as fortunate in this regard.
Great ideas! Very creative!
Growing produce really does help. My kids loved eating their own veggies.
great tips! my daughter loves veggies and it’s my son who won’t eat them.
These are really great tips. Wish my kids would eat more than the standard of green beans & carrots. Although my youngest loves salad ( but only if it’s drenched in ranch, lol.)
Great ideas! We do all of them. If they are getting really hungry while U am preparing dinner I let them munch on fresh veggies I always have on hand 🙂
When I was young my brother had a school project in Jr. High. He was to create a garden and keep a journal. The teacher went from house to house, helped them out and graded them. Ever since then I loved gardening and eat all my veggies!
Those are wonderful tips !! Our son loved to help in the garden and would sample some of the herbs before making it in to the house to wash them, b/c it excited him to know that he grew them !
We are planning a garden and green house with the boys. They eat lots of fruits and veggies.
I’m lucky that my daughter will eat salad and carrots but she refuses to touch any other veggies. I’m always looking for clever ideas to get her to like and eat other fruits and veggies.
thank you for sharing this great Ideas.
Fortunately my daughter LOVES fruit and likes most vegetables. I hope that doesn’t change.
Brussel Sprouts are soo good in season!
Tho most of my grandkids are more picky when it comes to vegetable the older ones and my family love vegetables . We do plant a garden and the kids would pick sugar peas and eat them off the vines. My 4 yr. old grandson love to garden with me too. Great ideas -thanks
I wish I could get excited about produce.
I agree 100% with the grow your own produce idea. My Daughter was never a veggie eater until she helped me grow our veggies. Being part of the process seemed to get her more interested in eating them
My mom works for a guy who own his own Farmer’s Market business. She’s always giving us fresh fruits and vegetables that are locally grown. My kids love it!
Because of my eating vegetarian for so long, my children has always loved their veggies…if you introduce them to them at a young age, they will like better!
These are all great ideas! I often cook for my nieces and am blessed that they like most veggies. But when a picky mood strikes I talk about how much a favorite character loves that food and it usually whips up some excitement!
This is a great post – our kids need to learn to eat cleaner!
Thanks for the needed info.
It is so important to get kids to eat veges! First I think that if the parent is eating veges, then the kids are more apt to join. Make getting veges a fun experience and find recipes that help give the veges a good taste!
Thank you, great tips!
all are great tips. Any parent knows how difficult it is to get them to eat their veggies!
Such good ideas! We don’t have any kids, but if we do in the future they’ll definitely need to love produce, we’re Vegetarians 🙂
I used to hide veggies in fruit smoothies with my oldest. He was a tough one with food, but my youngest LOVES veggies.
Great tips! thanks