For the Love of Vegatables.

Tips to help your child eat vegetables.

1. Love vegetables yourself. If you do not like them why would your child.

2.Demonstrate this love by eating vegetables yourself in front of your child. Do this with relish as if you were eating your most favorite dish. While you are doing this, just focus on how great it is for you to eat the vegetable, at this stage do not offer it to your child. Our children can smell a "trick' a mile away, it is important that you sincerely do like eating the vegetable, so pick one you like. If you are only doing it to get yourself to eat it, they will pick up on this and move away.

2.Put bowls of the food you would like your child to eat, within easy reach around the playroom while you are working with your child. If you are not working with your child in a playroom you can do this in the living room, or in the kitchen. It is important to make these food accessible, and plentiful. The more familiar your child is with the food the more likely they will investigate it.

3.Present the vegetables in different ways, for instance a carrot tastes and feels different when it is raw as opposed to cooked. You can mash, stew, boil, steam, chop into tiny pieces, or make it into the shape of a train. Be creative with how you cook and present them.

4.While you are working with your child, stop every now and then, and munch with great gusto from one of the bowls.

5.Whenever your child looks at a bowl of new food, touches the bowl, or the food, or indeed take a bite himself, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate him.

6.If the food your children usually eat, such as chips, chocolate, cookies are also available, then obviously they will choose this over the new healthy choices. So the important thing is that you only offer the choices you want your child to eat. Its common sense, if your child fills up on cookies then they will not be hungry enough to try the new food.

7. Be persistent and enjoy the process of offering new foods.