Are Your Kids Eating Enough Vegetables?

The last couple of children I’ve seen in clinic, have only eaten vegetables with their dinner at night. This means they need to get their entire daily servings of veggies* in one meal. Which, I think, is safe to say, is next to impossible! My son, Clancy, who is 5 and currently going through a control/fussy phase sometimes doesn't eat anything at all for dinner - not one bite!

So we need to serve veggies with every meal, because dietary guidelines aside, veggies should be making up the biggest portion of our diet.

Blend & Hide!

Blending & hiding is definitely your friend for picky eaters, but whether they eat it or not, they need to see some veggies as well, so serve some on the side, or some visible in the dish - whichever they’ll tolerate, as well. We blend and finely chop vegetables through bolognese, scrambled eggs, smoothies, soups, pizza toppings. The only limit is your creativity, really. But we always, make sure we serve some vegetable on their own on the plate as well, because one day, I know - they'll start to eat it.

Tomorrow I'll share a go-to breakfast that my kids love which is filled with protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates - and contains one serve of green vegetables! Stay tuned.

*The recommended daily servings of vegetables for children ages 4-11 according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, is 5 serves- which some consider a conservative estimate!