What to do if your child doesn't eat vegetables? 8 tips to help you solve it

Vegetables are indispensable in people's daily life. Vegetables are rich in nutrients and can supplement various vitamins as well as calcium, iron, zinc, etc. Not eating vegetables can easily cause many diseases and affect your health. Therefore, eating green vegetables is very necessary. However, many children nowadays are unwilling to eat vegetables and only like to eat meat with heavy taste. What should parents do if children don't eat vegetables? How should they correct them?

What to do if your child doesn't eat vegetables

1. Let your baby participate more in cooking

Take your baby to buy vegetables they don't like to eat first, and give them the opportunity to choose vegetables after returning. In this way, when the meal is ready, the baby will pay special attention to the meal in which he participated, feel proud of being able to help mommy cook, and eat as much as possible. Mommy can also consciously let the baby help do something after cooking vegetables, such as older babies can help serve the dishes, to encourage them to smell the aroma of vegetables. This helps to cultivate the baby's desire to try vegetables.

2. Cook vegetables in different ways

If you want your baby who doesn't like vegetables to accept vegetables, you should try to change the way you cook them. Most babies like to eat food with stuffing. For hardcore babies who don't like to eat vegetables, you should use your brain to change the way vegetables are cooked. For example, you can make carrots and other root vegetables into sticks or shreds or grind them into paste and add them to meat stuffing to make small dumplings, buns, pies or wontons. Or you can add vegetables to the minced meat of hamburgers to make hamburgers or other foods. Not only do babies like to eat them, but they are also psychologically willing to accept them. Adults also like to eat them.

3. Don’t like to eat cooked vegetables, replace them with raw vegetables

Some babies don't like to eat cooked vegetables such as stir-fried dishes and stews, but prefer to eat raw vegetables such as tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, etc. For these vegetables that can be eaten raw, mothers can make them into salads. When babies don't like to eat cooked vegetables, they can eat some raw vegetables like this.

4. Arouse your baby's curiosity

Mommy puts a cute sticker under the plate of vegetables that the baby doesn't like to eat. Then tell the baby that if the baby eats all the vegetables, he will find a secret at the bottom of the plate. This will make the baby very curious, and even if they don't like the food in front of them, they will try their best to eat it. By changing these little "tricks" frequently, the baby will happily eat the vegetables without realizing it.

5. Play war games

If babies like to play war games, you can compare vegetables they don't like to enemies after they are at the table, and let them "eliminate" them quickly. This will make the baby excited. Then, mothers can continue to make up stories based on the vegetables: "This vegetable is the enemy's commander. Eliminate him and then go to the enemy's lair - drink the soup. You will win after eating all these vegetables." Babies will quickly devote themselves to the meal in order to win. However, such games should be changed frequently to prevent babies from getting bored.

6. Eat all the vegetables on your plate before you can eat your favorite food

If babies don't eat vegetables after they sit at the table, moms can put their favorite food on a small plate and tell them that they can only eat their favorite food after they finish eating all the vegetables on the plate. Usually, babies have to eat all the vegetables they don't like in order to eat their favorite food. This will help babies suddenly find that the vegetables they hate are not so unpalatable and gradually start to like them.

7. Give your baby timely encouragement when he/she does well.

Let your baby try some vegetables that he or she doesn't like or has never eaten before. Although your baby may only try a little bit, this will help them discover more things they like to eat. If your baby does well, you must praise and encourage him or her in time, and at the same time give him or her a small gift to surprise him or her. After a few days, ask your baby to try a little more, and gradually increase the amount, so that your baby will gradually accept vegetables.

8. Parents should set more examples for their babies

Take the initiative to eat more vegetables when eating, and pretend to eat with relish. Do not discuss topics such as which dishes are not tasty or which vegetables you don't like in front of your baby, so as not to mislead your baby.

The harm of children not eating vegetables

1. Constipation is the most common problem

Insufficient fiber intake reduces the amount of solid matter left after digestion and absorption, which reduces the stimulation of intestinal peristalsis. When intestinal peristalsis slows down, constipation is likely to occur; if feces stay in the intestines for too long, harmful toxic substances will be produced, destroying the growth environment of beneficial bacteria in the baby's intestines.

2. Changes in the intestinal environment

Cellulose can promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the intestines and inhibit the proliferation of harmful bacteria. For children who don’t like to eat fruit, the normal environment of the intestine may change, affecting the healthy growth of intestinal cells.

3. Decreased immunity

Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants (such as vitamin C and beta-carotene). Insufficient intake will affect the healthy development of cell tissues, reduce immunity, and make babies more susceptible to infection and illness.

Make your baby love eating vegetables during the complementary feeding period

Make good use of the sensitive period and use a variety of complementary foods to lay the foundation for your baby to love vegetables

According to research, babies aged 6-12 months are in the sensitive period of taste buds. They can keenly perceive the original taste of each food, and the subtle differences between vegetables are magnified several times. This is a unique ability of babies, and we should be happy about it. However, if the tastes tried during the sensitive period of taste buds are relatively single, they will lose interest in other tastes because they do not have the opportunity to try various tastes in time, and become more picky and partial to food in the future.

The benefits of eating more green vegetables

Carotene, calcium, iron, etc. provide material conditions to ensure the body's physiological needs and help enhance the body's immune ability.

2. Maintain blood vessel elasticity. Green vegetables contain a lot of crude fiber. After entering the human body and combining with fat, it can prevent the formation of plasma cholesterol and promote the excretion of cholesterol metabolites - bile acid, so as to reduce the formation of atherosclerosis and maintain blood vessel elasticity.

3. Moisturize the skin and delay aging. Green vegetables contain a lot of carotene (1 times more than beans, 4 times more than tomatoes and melons) and vitamin C. After entering the human body, they can promote skin cell metabolism, prevent skin roughness and pigmentation, and make the skin bright and clean. Delay aging.

4. Anti-cancer The vitamin C contained in green vegetables will form a "hyaluronic acid inhibitor" in the body. This substance has an anti-cancer effect and can make cancer cells lose their vitality. In addition, the crude fiber contained in green vegetables can promote colon peristalsis and increase the discharge of toxins in the colon, thus achieving the purpose of anti-cancer.