Ask A Dietititan

Q: My kids refuse to eat anything green. What should I do?

A: The best advice is don't pressure, bribe, force or reward your child to eat vegetables. This can negatively affect meal time. Consider these options:

1. Involve your child in the food preparation. Read books on food, grocery shop together and visit a pick-your-own farm.

2. Serve food family-style. Let your children choose what foods they are willing to eat.

3. Serve a new vegetable with a familiar one.

4. Keep trying. It can take up to 10 times of serving the food before children will taste it.

5. Be an example. Be a model eating vegetables and enjoying them.

6. Change it up. Use in-season vegetables and prepare them in different ways. Kids generally prefer raw vegetables.

- Britta Rusk, RD and certified diabetes educator at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital

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