Many children dislike vegetables, and will resist eating them. The television show Nightline might be able to help you get your kids to eat vegetables!
There are many theories about why a child decides not to eat his or her vegetables. Some children are picky eaters, and have a long list of foods that they will not eat. This list, of course, includes vegetables. I read somewhere a theory about why so many children refuse to eat their vegetables. Many vegetables, (including spinach and broccoli), have a bitter taste. While adults have fully developed taste buds, children are still physically developing them. This means that the spinach that tastes fresh, rich, and yummy to an adult will taste extremely bitter to a child. This theory might be science, or it could be just a parenting “urban legend”, I’m not sure. Either way, it attempts to provide some kind of reasoning behind why your infant, who loved peas and yams, has suddenly become a toddler who passionately hates vegetables.
As a day care worker, one of my responsibilities was providing a healthy lunch for the infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Part of every lunch consisted of vegetables. I learned that toddlers who turn up their cute little noses at the vegetables on their plate, (and push the plate away), cannot be convinced with words alone that those vegetables taste good. It just wasn’t going to happen.
I also learned that many toddlers enjoy being able to dip their food into something. Put a little ranch dressing on the plate, and suddenly, baby carrots become appealing. This trick also worked with ketchup, or peanut butter. While these flavor combinations may sound disgusting to adult sensibilities, there is something about it that appeals to many toddlers. Unfortunately, the kids who harbored the most intense hated for vegetables could not be “tricked” into eating them by this method. I could only imagine the scene that played out at their dinner tables at home, every night.
Does this sound familiar? Do you have a child who hates to eat vegetables? Are you tired of going through the same struggle at dinner time each night? Nightline might be able to help you with that. Right now, the ABC television news program Nightline is looking for parents who have tried everything they can think of to get their kids to eat their vegetables, and whose kids still adamantly refuse to eat them. If this describes your family, go to their website and sign up. You could win an on-camera meeting with Cat Cora, star of Iron Chef America. She will help your kids learn to love to eat all kinds of vegetables. Finally, an end to the meal time struggles!
Image by ConstructionDealMkting