Children Don't Like To Eat Vegetables? Follow These 7 Tactics

Illustration of tricking children to eat vegetables (Unsplash/Tanaphong Toochinda)

JAKARTA – Vegetables are high in fiber and nutrients. This type of food is also good for maintaining endurance if used as a daily intake. However, what if the baby is not fond of eating vegetables?

You can work around this in the following ways so that the fiber and nutritional needs of vegetables are fulfilled.

1. Menu exploration

Usually, children don't like vegetables because they don't taste good. Therefore, the baby always avoids mealtimes when they know the menu is vegetables. So exploration of the menu that the child likes is important.

Later, if you already know the types of dishes you like, you can create vegetable ingredients for the menu. Moms also need to explore how to process vegetables so that they don't 'disturb' your child's appetite.

2. Avoid hiding vegetables

Parents need to communicate and provide understanding to their children that vegetables are good food. That means vegetables don't need to be hidden or covered up in a child's diet.

Moms don't need to process them into vegetable nuggets, for example, to 'force' children to eat vegetables. But combine it with meatballs, sliced meat, cheese, or mayonnaise so that children know that eating vegetables can be a fun way.

3. Instilling an understanding that eating vegetables is fun

The most important thing is to instill understanding in children. Avoid requiring children to eat vegetables but children should feel happy in the process of eating vegetables.

Better yet, invite children to collaborate in processing food made from vegetables. So he will know how to process it and the taste of the preparation. Interesting right?

4. Identify the types of vegetables that children like

In addition to recognizing the menu, it is also important for parents to recognize the types of vegetables that children like. At first it was necessary to try one at a time, later you would know which type was the most preferred and which one made the child reluctant to eat the vegetables.

5. Free menu

Sometimes, children also need to be left to choose their own menu. So free the child to choose the menu he wants to eat based on the food stock in the refrigerator, for example.

6. Introducing vegetables from an early age

The earlier the child is familiar with vegetables, the more opportunities there are to explore which types of vegetables he likes and how to make the taste of vegetables acceptable to children.

Moms can start introducing vegetables from the solids period. You can also combine vegetables, fruits, to rice porridge and other complementary foods.

7. Avoid forcing

If your child doesn't want to eat vegetables at first, don't force them. Enjoying vegetables and fruit is a process. So accompany the child's process to understand, realize, to like vegetable foods.

To be sure, parents should never get tired of trying to get their children to eat vegetables because the benefits are very good for supporting the baby's growth process.