Encouraging Young Children to Eat Healthy Foods

One of the best ways to get young children to eat healthy fruits and vegetables is to make them stakeholders.  Let them help in harvesting the food.  No matter how unfamiliar the food, their curiosity usually gets the best of them.  They are going to want to at least try whatever they brought from the garden into the kitchen.

If you don’t have a garden plot of your own, there are U-Pick opportunities at different farms depending on the season.  It’s a fun activity for the entire family and it’s a very economical way to get some fresh local produce. 

My grandchildren actually like every kind of green leafy vegetable.  I’ve seen them leave the noodles in their soup and just eat the greens.  The reason they do this is they know that the kale, spinach or turnip greens came from the garden and they helped harvest the greens.  They quickly learn that those same green vegetables give them energy and make them feel good.

Let the kids take part in preparing their food.  Allow them to put some butter in the pan or stir the soup.  Once the children feel they are owners of the process they take pride in what they’ve prepared.  It’s a lot harder for them to turn down something they helped cook.

Make the food look attractive and fun.  Create smiley faces on their sandwich with small pieces of red pepper.  Add arms or legs to your creation by adding slices of apples, carrots or pickles.  Raisins are also useful for making faces and designs.  Even young children appreciate a plate with eye appeal.

If you really want to go all out, tell the children that you’re going to make a surprise for them.  Put a little mound of mashed potatoes on a plate.  Stand a few steamed broccoli florets upright in the mashed potatoes to create a “forest.”  Garnish with a few “red boulders” (radish halves) around the edge of the forest.  Once they see their surprise it may be hard for them to resist eating the whole broccoli forest.

For further information on this topic you can check out Fresh from Florida Kids which has a series of booklets (on-line) geared for children of different ages.