JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Let me set the scene for you. You've been at work all day, you get home, and you actually managed to roast some broccoli in the oven or pop some frozen broccoli in the microwave. That means you're basically, like, a super-parent. But then your adorable toddler picks it up, looks you right in the eye and hurls it across the room. So you think to yourself, he hates broccoli. I'm not doing that again. Actually, the research says do try it again. It can take 10 or more tries for a kid to accept a new food, so, parents, don't give up. NPR's Life Kit has more creative tips for getting your kid to eat those veggies. Here's Beck Harlan.
BECK HARLAN, BYLINE: One way to increase the appeal of veggies for your kids - something called flavor-flavor conditioning. That's when you pair the new food, say carrots or broccoli, with a flavor that you know your child already enjoys. For example...
JULIANA COHEN: You can roast carrots maybe with a little bit of honey, or my kids love tomato sauce, so sometimes I'll give them tomato sauce to dip broccoli into.
HARLAN: That's Juliana Cohen. She does research on kids and nutrition, and she teaches at Harvard. She also suggests serving veggies as a little appetizer before a meal. Take one study from the science journal Appetite. While kids were standing in line for school lunch, they were offered a serving of peppers.
COHEN: And in fact, it shows that, not surprisingly, kids end up eating more fruits and vegetables when it's offered that way.
HARLAN: Something else to try - and this takes a little extra time, I know - but involve kids in the selection and preparation of foods. That can actually increase the likelihood of them trying a food. Here's Kelsey Lloyd. She's a clinical pediatric dietician based in Washington, D.C.
KELSEY LLOYD: Maybe you go to the grocery store together, and you pick out a new vegetable together and then figure out how to make it.
HARLAN: Try something like, hey, do you think we should sprinkle cheese on this next time? Find age-appropriate ways to bring kids into the process. Another tip - Cohen says there's some research behind giving food fun names. For example, calling carrots X-ray vision carrots. Cohen says you should play with your food.
COHEN: I'll design it into, like, funny shapes for them. I'll make, like, a little, you know, dinosaur out of vegetables or something like that, and the broccoli are the trees.
HARLAN: Cohen also says it's helpful for kids to see adults enjoying veggies, so after you take a bite, say something like, wow, I really love how crunchy this is. We want to create a positive association with vegetables, so as tempting as it is to withhold a brownie until the broccoli is gone or force a clean plate before they can get up and play, Cohen and Lloyd both say be careful with that. Here's Kelsey Lloyd again.
LLOYD: In the long run, can be a little detrimental in terms of how we view food and what it means to eat a vegetable or what it means to have a dessert. Oftentimes that can create a negative association with different vegetables.
HARLAN: Cohen says it's important to remember that kids' tastes change as they grow, and to remind the kids of that, too.
LLOYD: I know your 7-year-old taste buds didn't like that food, but you're 8 now. You have different 8-year-old taste buds that might like these new foods.
HARLAN: Even for a dietitian like Lloyd, it took her some time to come around to veggies.
LLOYD: I know a lot of kids, like myself included, really didn't start eating vegetables until maybe, like, early middle-school. It's a long process, and I think oftentimes we get caught up in, like, the day-to-day minutia, when really, it's a lifetime piece of work. So that's - my main thing is, you know, parents don't have to beat themselves up if kids don't like peas on the first try.
HARLAN: Beck Harlan, NPR News.
SUMMERS: Life Kit has more tips and tricks. Check it out at npr.org/lifekit.
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