Best Veggies for Picky Eaters

Introducing veggies to picky eaters can be difficult. Might as well start with the easiest vegetables to introduce first!

Although it can feel like your kids are born with a hatred for vegetables, they begin life with very few taste preferences and use the first couple years of life as a “sensitive period” for food introduction (1). And the good news is – there are decades of research on specific ways to make vegetable introduction more successful.

Within 3-4 years old, kids start becoming autonomous eaters, which means they are forming their own opinions about food. This time of their life often sets the tone for how they accept new foods for the rest of their life (2).

However, if your kids are older than four – it’s not too late! Trying new foods is a skill that is learned and can be developed across the span of their life. The goal is to provide them with the most variety in colors, textures, and flavors – the earlier in life the better!

What makes a vegetable good for picky eaters?

If you’re dealing with picky eaters, introducing vegetables with milder flavors and uniform textures is key.

Presentation and preparation play a big role in making vegetables appealing. Experiment with different cooking methods, seasonings, and pairings to find what works best for the picky eater’s taste preferences.

10 Best VeggiesFor Picky Eaters

1. Carrots

2. Sweet Potatoes

3. Bell Peppers

4. Cucumbers

5. Zucchini

6. Cherry Tomatoes

7. Snap Peas

8. Mashed Cauliflower

9. Corn

10. Celery

9 Ways to Get your Picky Eaters to Eat Veggies

Make Them a Part of the Process

Giving your kids a chance to be a part of food preparation makes them more likely to try new foods. Kids crave responsibility, and love to experience the fruit of their own labor!  Here are some ways to get them involved:

• Invite them to the grocery store: make a quick list of 5-6 fruits and vegetables that your kids are responsible for recognizing and adding to the cart
• Cleaning vegetables: any hands-on time is helpful! Washing the berries or scrubbing the potatoes gives your children more time to get comfortable with the textures and shapes of produce.
• Cutting vegetables: This will come with age, but I encourage parents to buy kid-safe knives like these which can be used for ages 5+.
• Gardening: Obviously this isn’t practical for every family, but physically picking produce from the ground gives kids a sense of purpose and responsibility – and they usually want to taste the end result of all their hard work.

Let Them Play with Their Food

The key here is exposure. More exposure to the smells, textures, and consistencies of vegetables is a crucial first step of food introduction. There is a “learned safety” that kids need when faced with a new experience – whether that be with a new friend, new toy, or new food (3).

So let this serve as your encouragement that even if your child needs 3-4 times just touching the carrots or mashing the green beans – this is a successful first step!

Give Them 6-10 Repeated Exposures

Kids need multiple exposures to food before deciding if they like it or not. This is to encourage parents not to say that “my kid doesn’t like broccoli” after putting broccoli on their plate once or twice – don’t give up!

Kids are most likely to start eating the food after their 5th repeated exposure (4). To play it safe, give them a chance to try a food 6-10 times before they can fully form a dislike.

Aside from exposure, it also takes kids multiple promptings to try a new food. On average, kids need 2-3 neutral prompts to taste a new food. An example of a neutral prompt is saying “these carrots help make our eyes healthy so we can see better when we play outside” – something to trigger their internal motivation!

Make The Vegetables Smell Good

Although we all use our sense of smell during mealtime, kids especially rely on smell as their primary measure of food experience. Kids pick up on the “vibe” of food before they even taste it – your facial expressions, how the food is served….and the smell.

Kids as young as 12-15 months use their sense of smell as the first of many “alarm systems” when trying new foods (5). This means that food introduction of vegetables that have a neutral smell like peppers, carrots, lettuce, etc. will be easier to start with than cabbage, brussels sprouts, or broccoli.

Serve a “New Food” with a “Safe Food”

A new food is any ingredient that your child has been exposed to less than 6 times. A safe food is any food that your child has repeatedly shown to feel comfortable eating, even by itself. The key here is only to introduce one new food at a time.

This makes the child feel more comfortable and less threatened by new experiences. Likely, this is the same way you feel the first time trying a new cuisine – and the sigh of relief when you see a food you recognize.

One caveat to this – make sure they don’t touch! Each kiddo is a little different with how important this is, but a study with 18-26-month-olds showed that toddlers often rejected “liked” foods simply because they were touching the “disliked” or “new” foods (6). So especially for the first couple of exposures, this could be helpful!

Eat the Vegetables Yourself!

What we call “setting a good example” is also called associative learning, and kids do this ALL the time. Associative learning is the idea that children will start to pair concepts with words based on what they see (7). This means kids will group foods into positive and negative categories based on your words, body language, and facial expressions – the same way they make distinctions between a sharp object and a toy.

A study of over 100 toddlers between 28-36 months showed that there is an 83% chance a food that is liked by a family member will also be liked by the toddler (8). That means that nearly all of the foods that you put on your plate make an impact on your child (9).

Use Their Peers

Just like on the playground, kids learn SO much from their peers at the dinner table. If you have older kids, their attitudes and actions about vegetables speak volumes to your younger kiddos.

But here’s how to kill two birds with one stone: evoke a sense of responsibility in your older kids. Telling them “it’s your job to make sure baby brother sees you eating broccoli. This will make sure he grows up to be big and strong like you”, will help give them a sense of purpose at the dinner table.

If you don’t have older kids, a puppet or even a character on a TV show works the same way. A study found that infants are more likely to choose unknown foods, including vegetables if they have seen a puppet or character display positive actions toward that food (10).

So screen time isn’t all bad! If it helps bring exposure to new foods, it could foster a more positive interaction during dinner time.

Introduce Vegetables in Similar Categories

From as early as 3-4 years old, kids put foods into categories that help them form opinions and proper responses. For example, they make mental categories like fruits, vegetables, berries, breakfast items, snack foods, etc. Introducing vegetables to picky eaters within similar categories together has been linked with a higher success rate of trying new foods (2).

For example, introducing cucumbers after the successful introduction of celery because they are learning to group colors and textures together.

Don’t Use a Food-Based Reward System

A food-based reward system says something like “you can have a cookie once you finish all your carrots”. Not only does this create an unhealthy relationship with desserts, but it doesn’t always work either.

A study of 60 families showed that simply modeling how to eat vegetables and giving a neutral encouragement of trying new foods works better than giving them a liked food as a reward (11). This is because it focuses on creating internal motivation which is much longer lasting than depending on an external motivator, like candy or dessert.