Getting Started
How do I get started helping my veg-resistant kid eat vegetables? What if they don’t eat any? Where do I start? We’ve asked our expert panel and gathered their top tips to help you find answers to these questions.
How do I get started helping my veg-resistant kid eat vegetables? What if they don’t eat any? Where do I start? We’ve asked our expert panel and gathered their top tips to help you find answers to these questions.
Do your kids refuse to eat vegetables? You’re not alone!
Nearly 30% of children eat little to no veg, and many become even more resistant during primary school. But with the right approach, change is possible—77% of parents tell us that our programmes have seen their kids eat more vegetables, even the most reluctant ones.
If you’re looking for expert help with getting your kids started veg, we’ve got you covered…
Struggling to get your kids to eat veg?
We’ve got expert help with top tips from our panel including: Dr Glenys Jones, Jenny Rosborough RNutr., eco-chef Tom Hunt, Zoe Griffiths RNutr., broadcaster Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Veg Power Editor Claire Wright, TastEd’s Kim Smith, and child psychology expert Dr Clare Holley.
These tips are designed to be simple and actionable – check out the next steps below and pick one to try today! Or scroll down for more great advice from Professor Giles Yeo.
Simple swaps!
Glenys suggests sticking with the familiar to make sure there isn’t too much change in one go. Why not try swapping potato wedges for sweet potato ones, which count towards your 5-a-day? Or try adding just a little bit of a veg to a meal they are already happy eating!
Our Family Favourite recipes guide you through exactly that…
Eat veg when your kids can see it!
Whether you eat a meal with your children or not, try to at least let them see you regularly eating veggies yourself. This role modelling is one of the most powerful ways of getting your kids eating veg themselves as it normalises it for them. We got child psychologist Dr Clare Holley on board to explain why and how this is so crucial…
DO play with your food!
As Jenny, Kim and Zoe tell us, exposure is really important to normalise veggies and remove pressure for kids. So before you ask them to eat them, why not step back and just let them engage in creative and fun ways, slowly growing accustomed to veg before attempting to taste them.
Head to our Engaging Kids section to find art, science, cooking and games inspiration to suit your child.
Try cooking with kids, a little at a time!
Jenny, Claire and Zoe suggest cooking with your kids as an essential way of engaging them with veg and helping familiarise them. If this feels like an impossible ask, why not just start with one small task they can own, even if it’s just washing some veg for you or stirring veg into a dish with your help.
Find tips and Kitchen Ninja Skills to inspire you and your kids in our Kids in the Kitchen page.
Move away from mealtimes
No one enjoys a mealtime battle. By all means, keep offering vegetables at meals, but a gentler pace for a slow and pressure-free interaction outside of meals is more likely to go down well. Talk about veg often: when you’re shopping, prepping, putting food away, noting the texture and colour and sounds.
Snack on veg as you cook or after school so they see you eating it, and ask if they want to take a look or sniff or even lick of the veg, too. Encourage exploring vegetables with all their senses, not just taste, and have fun with creative language and imagination, seeing how many things you can both come up with when wondering what a pepper looks like, or what a sugar snap pea sounds like when ‘snapped’, or what a corn cob feels like, or even a head of broccoli smells like!
Professor Giles Yeo
Simply Veg user Sarah asked us “How do I get my child started on veg?”, we asked Professor Giles Yeo of Cambridge University, a specialist in food and nutrition, and one of our expert panel.
Do have a question our experts could help with?
DO you have a question you’d like one of our experts to help you with?
SIMPLY VEG
Need to get your kids eating more veg?
Our only goal is to help parents and carers serve up affordable, simple food their families will love. We know that takes more than a few recipes, so we've got all the hacks and advice you'll need. Join now. It's 100% free and 100% simple.
Follow Us on Social