What if my child won't eat vegetables?

Solving feeding problems Solving Feeding problems What if I need more help? How Should I Handle Dessert? The Finicky Child The Overweight Child The Poor Eater What if my child won't eat vegetables?

If you're like most parents, you worry when your child won't eat vegetables. You may even try to force or bribe your child (‘‘Eat your broccoli and you can have dessert''). Vegetables are important. They're a major source of vitamins and minerals: vitamin A, vitamin C, B vitamins, fiber, folate, calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium. But don't let vegetables nutritional importance lead you to foist vegetables on your child. It doesn't help to force. Studies show that pressure just doesn't work. When you bribe or force children to eat certain foods, they like those foods less. Sure, he might eat his peas today if you bribe him with ice cream, but he won't learn to like peas in the long run. Other studies show that if you simply present a new food to children, say, at the family meal, and let them decide whether or not to eat it, most of the time they do. But they have their own way of doing it. Toddlers are especially cautious about new food. The first time they see a food they usually won't eat it. They might just look at it; they might just watch you eat it. They might look and watch for several meals. If you can keep from putting pressure on your child to eat the new food, eventually he will try it out by putting some in his mouth and tasting it. He probably won't swallow it. Toddlers and preschoolers put food into their mouth, try out the taste and texture, then take it out again. This discourages parents because it looks like food rejection. It's not. It's just a child's way of getting used to a new food. Studies show that children taste as many as 15 or 20 times before they're ready to swallow the food. And then they like it. But they still won't always eat it, and that's OK. For a comprehensive set of educational materials that teach stage-related feeding and solve feeding problems, see ELLYN SATTER'S FEEDING IN PRIMARY CARE PREGNANCY THROUGH PRESCHOOL: Easy-to-Read Reproducible Masters (4th grade reading level, English and Spanish) and ELLYN SATTER'S NUTRITION AND FEEDING FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN: Handout Masters (7th grade reading level, English only). Copyright © 2005 by Ellyn Satter. For more about feeding your child, see Ellyn Satter’s How To Get Your Kid To Eat... But Not Too Much. For permission to reproduce this handout, call (800)808-7976 or e-mail info@ellynsatter.com

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