Q&A: Offer salad first, make eating veggies fun

Question: Do you have a suggestion for getting children to eat more fruits and vegetables?

Answer: Parents might use these principles to increase fruit and vegetable consumption at home. Be sure you are modeling what you expect from them; are you eating fruits and veggies?

Try offering salads before a meal, making salads the first thing offered, when children are really hungry. Inventing fun names for unfamiliar foods also may help, such as “tiny trees” for broccoli or “baby tomatoes” for cherry tomatoes. My grandson refers to green beans as “snakes.” Not appealing to me, but it works for him.

It also might help to keep freshly cut veggies available in the fridge for easy snacking. Politely offering a serving bowl of veggies to kids and letting them scoop their own also ups consumption.

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