Hey. Parents. Yes, you there – the one grating up a giant pile of carrots and capsicums and every other grate-able veggie on the planet, ready to smuggle into the pasta sauce you’re making for your kids.
I’ve seen you add pumpkin puree into muffins and I know that you hide veggies in fruit. I know that you tried to get the kids onto beetroot chips instead of Doritos without alerting them to the difference in substance; I know that you ended up surrendering and handing over whatever it is was the kids were screaming for at that particular moment in time.
You’re doing a good, honourable thing. You’re being a responsible parent by surreptitiously bringing peas into little Billy’s diet somehow – even if the method itself involves degrees of dishonesty, Billy needs those vitamins and nutrients and minerals somehow, and it’s not going to happen by him willingly eating peas.
And of course, Billy deserves a treat if he happily eats everything on the table. Right?
Wrong. Oh-so-very-wrong.
I’m so sorry to tell you, Parents, but apparently you’ve been going about things in the completely incorrect way.
According to Australian researchers, you’re actually doing a bad thing by rewarding kids with food when they do something good. Worst still – you’re actually screwing over your children by hiding their vegetables in their meals. By pureeing and chopping and grating and disguising those vegetables, you’re setting your kids up for a life of doomed eating.
The findings, published in the international ‘Appetite’ journal, reckon that kids won’t get used to veggies if they’re constantly hidden or disguised. The research generally suggests that a kid needs to try a bite of a certain food about eight to ten times before they accept it – even if they’ve rejected it every other time. That can’t quite happen if they’re not eating pure corn, but corn that’s been blended and made into biscuits somehow.
You’re apparently also sending the wrong message by hiding away those veggies; and worse, you’re developing an emotional connection to junky food as happy food when you use it as a reward.
I know. I know this study makes your life instantly harder. All this time, you thought you were doing a decent thing managing to trick your small ones into actually happily eating veggies.
And here it turns out that it’s not good enough – that you’ve somehow got to actually convince kids to sit down at the table and happily munch on those brussel sprouts. So that they appreciate them. And you’ve got to somehow do it without losing your mind from all the negotiation, whining and screaming that’s bound to ensue.
I am no Supernanny that confesses to have vegetable-eating-kiddie-secrets that will have them shovelling capsicum into their mouths. But I do have some suggestions that might just work for you…
1. Get the kids involved in the cooking process
Kids love getting in the kitchen and it makes it so much better for them if they’re involved in the whole process – picking the meal, using the ingredients, putting it all together…
Top Comments
I really think it depends on the child. The only vegetable my son will eat is corn, and even then, not willingly. Even fruit is a struggle and I swear he survives on a couple of biscuits and fresh air. I've found a pumpkin muffin recipe which he loves but everything else seems to be a struggle. Hence why veggie smuggling is so appealing. Don't get me wrong- we always put veggies on his plate to offer him the real deal but I doubt he has ever touched one to his lips.
In our house, you have to eat the good food in your dinner, usually veg or salad. If you don't eat that, you get plain cold weetbix for breakfast. If you don't eat that you get fruit and veg sticks for morning tea. If that doesn't get eaten you have a salad sandwich for lunch. Then fruit and veg sticks for afternoon tea. Then we are back to dinner where you have to eat your good food! Eventually they get hungry.
We have never had fights about it, that's just the way it is. Fast forward 9 years and I have three that eat most good things. You are allowed to have likes and dislikes, you just can't have a blanket ban on anything with nutrients in it. I myself refuse to eat mushrooms because I am firmly convinced they are the food of the devil.
The other thing that is surprisingly effective is to praise the kid who is eating them and not noticing that the other kids aren't. It's amazing how often that results in "look I'm eating my broccoli too!"