How to get a toddler to love vegetables...

Or should I say tolerate vegetables? haha

I feel like we've come SO far with Teagan and his vegetables that it is worthy of a post. Maybe some of our tips and tricks will work for your picky toddler.

This picture depicts how much he loves to eat healthy. :)

So a little background: If you look back about a year or so I did a post about how Teagan wasn't eating the greatest. All he wanted was grains and dairy and some fruits. I was really concerned and so I started gathering info about getting kids to eat veggies. I came across advice in random books, movies, phone conversations and from observing other people. Here is what I've come up with:

**NOTE: these ideas do not in any way encourage good table manners**

Kids haven't acquired tastes for most foods when they're born so it's our job as parents to expose them to new foods. Teagan generally doesn't like a food the first few times he tries them, but over time it gets better so the key is to get them to try foods over and over.

-The rule is that he must try at least TWO BITES of each type of food at meals before he can completely dismiss them as gross and disgusting.
- If he tries something and doesn't like it I don't get mad at him (even if he spits it out-although we work hard to get him to swallow it). I just say "good job for trying ______, you are such a big boy! Maybe next time you try ______ you'll like it better. I'm sure proud of you for trying new things!" This keeps the atmosphere at dinner positive, and makes him more compliant when I ask him to try new things in the future.

-Don't make a separate meal for your child, even if they throw a tantrum. Just the other night we told Teagan it was time for dinner, he found out we were having salad and he SCREAMED and through a fit. After he got it out of his system in his room we just had him sit at the table with us (without his food) and told him he could ask for it when he was ready to try it. After a few minutes of conversation and of Zac and I ignoring his protest he asked for his food and started eating it. Hunger is really motivating.

-Allow your child to get hungry and don't spoil them with too many delicious treats. Food should be a means for nurturing your body, not a distraction, entertainment, or reward....I fail in this area OVER AND OVER again...but I still know that it's true. I think that a huge part of the obesity problem in American children is that they are taught to eat constantly! I still give teagan snacks and I don't force him to become ravenous, but the snacks are fruits or veggies and I don't give him snacks for a couple hours before each meal, especially dinner.

-Do give your kid the food they don't like when they are the hungriest. Broccoli just tastes better when you're starving, but a baked potato and piece toast always taste great. We eat in courses (sort of). Salad/veggies always come first, then after he's tried a certain amount (whatever we decide) we'll let him have whatever else we have for dinner. "When you've finished your spinach, you can have a scoop of rice." If you're consistent they learn to suffer through the spinach so they can enjoy the rice. And eventually you can give them at the same time and they like them both (still waiting for him to love spinach).
-Have a little fun with dinner and get silly. One of my favorite tricks that NEVER fails is this. Teagan starts complaining about eating a certain item and getting whinny so I just lay my head on the table and pretend to be asleep. Zac: "Oh no! Mommy fell asleep, the only way to wake her up is to eat a bite!" Then Teagan eats a bite and I jump out of my sleep and make a silly noise or something and Teagan laughs and laughs, then I fall asleep again and it begins again. This is not a good life long habit, but it is a great way to get him used to a new taste or texture. This is how we got him to eat peppers, now he requests red peppers as a snack (and I don't have to sleep to make it work)

-Talk about how much YOU love the food and the taste...better yet, talk about the animals that love that food. Whenever we are doing the "eat your salad" battle we always talk about how bunny rabbits love lettuce and we show Teagan how a bunny would eat lettuce. Then Teagan laughs and wants to pretend to be a rabbit eating lettuce. Sometimes we just make stuff up. "Oh you don't like tomatoes? You must be crazy because did you know that elephants LOVE tomatoes, they just gobble them up with their trunk." Then Teagan's arm magically transforms into a trunk and he's eating tomatoes.

Just keeping dinner a positive, fun time makes all the difference in the world. I figure that a lot of work now is worth it! We still plan to fail hundreds of times before we have Teagan eating perfectly, but I think these are good ideas for a start.