You can try putting them in the sandwich or in the cocktail, but often they come back home. You can opt for juices – at least for fruit – but it's not the same thing at all. You know that fruits and vegetables are essential for feeling good – more: they lengthen your life – but you can not convince your little ones to taste them.

Here are some tips to stimulate children to eat fruits and vegetables.

1. A good habit is to start a meal with vegetables. When they have more hungry, are more predisposed to appreciate new and plant foods.

2. Science has shown that demonstrated that the time dedicated to the meal is directly proportional to the quality and success of the meal itself. It is fundesirable that the children have sufficient time to appreciate food and to take an interest in those dishes that often feel less appealing: fruits and vegetables.

3. To get them used to new tastes you need to hold on. We need to 10-15 attempts within a short time for the child to get used to new flavors. Rejection of the first taste is more than normal.

4. The good example of parents encourages children to emulate. If mum and dad usually consume vegetables, it will be easier for them to come back into their children's eating habits.

5. Involve in preparing dishes, it makes them feel important, involved and more curious about the result.

6. Playing with i colors fruit and vegetables exploit them to create a nice presentation of the dish, stimulates the fantasy and it makes everything more appetizing.

7. Serve a single plate with vegetables next to something that children love a lot, like potatoes, pasta or rice, it invites you to taste again.

8. It is not necessary to exhaust children because they face plateaus of hateful spinach or disturbing salads. Just a few samples and small amounts.

Francesca Santambrogio
October 20th 2015
updated by Carola Traverso Saibante
December 2018