We are big fans of the Charlie and Lola books in our house.
In one of the books, "I will never ever eat a tomato" big brother Charlie tricks little sister Lola into eating a whole bunch of healthy foods she claims she doesn't like – simply by being a little bit inventive with what names he gives to the food he is serving up.
Mashed potato becomes Cloud Fluff. Carrots are Orange Twiglets from Jupiter. And fish fingers become so much more tempting to Lola when Charlie calls them "Ocean Nibbles from the Supermarket Under The Sea."
Personally, I have been known to serve up "Superman Smoothies' and Princess Fish (Salmon). And some other creatively name foods that were clearly made yummier simply by a little name-change.
If you are in that same boat, struggling to get your child to like – or even taste – things that are green – we feel you. It
is hard. But don't give up. Perseverance is key here – as is making sure your children see you eating healthy too. Because the old monkey see, monkey do thing really is true.
I also recently came across these two excellent tips from
The Natural Parent magazine, on how to turn mealtime mayhem into nutritional bliss – and how just the heck to go about getting your children on board with eating green things:
Begin small
Yes, we all want our kids to eat vegetables at every mealtime, but serving broccoli to a child who refuses to eat any green foods is like trying to harvest when no seeds have been planted. So instead, start small and build towards a varied list of green foods. Offer your child a single pea, a pumpkin seed, bean or snow pea.
Get them involved
In the supermarket, get your child to pick three foods to ‘learn’ about. Why? Because if children are encouraged to experiment and interact with different foods – slicing, dicing, peeling, juicing, cooking and tasting them using different cooking methods – the element of anxiety will be alleviated.
Tell us – have YOU got any special tricks for making sure your children eat their vegetables? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotie
