How can I get my preschooler excited about vegetables?

What an emotion-laden food! We love to push them, and our kids love to push them away. Because vegetables are so important to a well-rounded diet and research shows that the earlier a food is introduced and the more often it's served the more likely a child is to prefer it later in life, it's important to keep offering vegetables. Try these ideas for making them palatable:

• Kids love dips. Offer freshly-cut, raw veggies before dinner when kids are hungriest with a bowl of ranch dressing.
• Make a sauce. Cooked veggies taste infinitely better to kids when smothered in a creamy cheese sauce or garlic butter.
• Make smoothies. It sounds strange, but adding cooked carrots to a sweet smoothie doesn't really change the taste.
• Offer juice. Children do need fiber, but carrot-apple juice, for example, is a good way to get some extra veggies in the diet.
• Start a one bite rule. Institute a rule that children must take one bite – and one bite only – of each food on their plates. This is a good way to introduce new foods, and kids are often surprised at what they like.
• Plant a garden. Get your kids out in the dirt and show them where their veggies come from. Kids who garden are often more likely to try the vegetables they grow.
• Shop together. Let your children help you choose what to buy and cook in the produce section.
• Hide them! If all else fails, hide grated carrots or zucchini in muffins or add vegetable purees to your soups.
• Never give up. It can take up to 10 exposures before a child learns to like a new vegetable.
• Last but not least, eat them yourself! Sometimes the key to getting our kids to do anything is letting them see you do it first!

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