Should I force my child to eat veg?

[freindlyparent]

Should I force my child to ear her/his veg?

Well, I definitely wouldn't physically force it but vegetables are important so I'd strongly encourage it. If your having a difficult time getting your child to eat their vegetables, try having them help prepare them. If all else fails, there are lots of different recipes for hidden vegetable meals.

How old is your child?

It's worth knowing the at around the ages 2-4 young children often find veg very bitter, this is an evolutionary development to stop newly mobile children eating berries etc when out with the gatherers.

There are also conditions like ARFID and sensory issues that you wouldn't know about yet for a very young child that makes eating veg challenging, as the taste and texture between the same type of fruit and veg but individually different pieces are different. It's why so many children with these conditions like processed food as it always feels and tastes the same.

So no, forcing just causes food issues. Stealthily hide them within the meal instead

you're*

The very question I asked myself this week

Jamie Oliver has a great recipe for pasta sauce with about 8 hidden veg. Stir in some mascarpone or cream cheese at the end 👍🏽

Forcing absolutely doesn't work and only creates massive control issues around food.

Hide them to start, I used to blend them then mix with ketchup for a pasta sauce, then slowly would swap out some ketchup for blended tinned tomatoes. Over 2 years I can now put chunks of veg in the sauce. Dd still won't really eat plain veg on her plate but she is better with it slowly.

No but keep dishing it up. My dn were bought up without f&v being offered and one now has a very restricted diet and he finds it difficult to try new foods even though he finds what he likes restrictive. Neither has a fruit bowl which I do.

We've moved this over to our Parenting topic now, @freindlyparent - hope that helps.

I can't vote, my answer is too complicated. I would suggest two things:

1. Broaden the variety as much as possible
2. Put effort into preparing and serving in different ways

I didn't like cooked carrots and onions, my mum found that I enjoyed them raw. I was roped into helping to peel the carrots and having mine raw, and munching some of the onions during prep. She learnt about cooking some of them for shorter periods, which helped with others.

There's much more info about fancier preparation these days, braised cabbage, glazing carrots and other vegetables. Making them taste better will help. There's so many things you can do which don't take a lot of effort. It'll make it more exciting for the adults too.

Also break the rules for things like chili, bolognese or anything else with a sauce where you can sneak a little bit of extra veg that won't get noticed

No. I used to get so stressed about veg consumption - to tears, which was a bit pathetic.

These days teen dd has toast and a piece of fruit for breakfast, takes a sandwich and a salad made of at least four different raw vegetables and an apple to college. Then usually eats fruit as snacks on return, then at least one or two veg for dinner - veg stir fries, stuffed peppers etc.

What a drama and complete waste of time for me to stress so much about it.

I wouldn't force but a technic I used on mine when they were small was to pretend I didn't want them to eat veg...
" I'm going to close my eyes, do not eat my peas, I'm looking really forward them "
The second I closed my eyes they'd gobble them up and laugh their heads off.

@freindlyparent if your question had perhaps been

"Should I disguise the veg so my child will eat them all?"

This! My DS has never (knowingly) eaten fruit - veg is easier so will eat carrots, Passata, broccoli and the occasional pea or French bean. I often blast some more things into Passata, make a
Creamy sauce with onion, mushrooms, garlic and he loves 'Popeye!' Sauces which have a few cubes of freezer chopped spinach in .
He will eat baked beans sometimes and orange juice ... Ive built him up to this so it's been a journey but just find what you can they works