A Guaranteed Trick to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Vegetables*

If you have kids, you know the fight.  The standoff at the end of every dinner.  Your child has eaten everything but his/her vegetables.  Then starts the crying and fit throwing and pleading, and often, after a long day, getting them to eat those veggies just doesn't seem worth it.

Here's a little trick that we use at our house to get our kids to eat healthier, and it's seemed to work well for us.  This is NOT a sure fire way to cure a picky eater.  If you know how to do that, then fill me in (PLEASE!), but it IS a way to get the kids to eat the healthiest part of their dinner first, and avoid "the fight" at the end.  So, here it is: we serve the kids in "courses."  I know, it sounds weird and proper and a little snobbish, but it works for us.

 We start with the veggies or salad.  This is what the girls had for their "first course."  Tonight was easy, because they like all these things.  If we were also having something that they didn't like, like peppers, we would either put a little piece there for them to try or skip it all together (they're still eating veggies, they don't need to be made to like everything).  So, once they eat that, it's on to second course.  Sometimes we don't tell them what the courses are going to be, and they like the surprise, but if they are having a hard time with the first course, it might be a good idea to tell them what's coming in the next courses (as incentive).

Second course tonight is spaghetti.  No problems here.  They love it and ask for seconds.  On to the third course:

The third course is usually something like bread.  Kate LOVES bread and hurries to finish her first and second courses whenever we have bread.  Claire doesn't like bread, and we don't make her eat it.  If your kid doesn't like something unhealthy, don't make them eat it just because, "You need to eat your food."  Why make them eat something that isn't that good for them? (there's my two cents).  And on to the fourth course: dessert!

I know what you're thinking.  You give your kids apples for dessert???  No, not always.  I did tonight because Kate had a bunch of candy at her Valentine's party at school today.  Sometimes we have cookies, or yogurt, or blueberries, and sometimes we don't have dessert at all, just depends.  Most of the time, dessert is just that extra little incentive they need to eat a good dinner. 

So, there's our trick.  The only drawback is that there is a risk that your child may ask for the "next course" the next time they go to someones house.  Be forewarned. :)
 

*The title of this blog was a shameless attempt to get you to read it.  There is no guaranteed trick to get your children to eat their vegetables.  ;)