If babies get a chance, they will gladly put everything in their mouths, including vegetables. But getting bigger kids to eat their daily cauliflower and broccoli can be a bigger challenge. One tip: put the vegetables on the table for a while before dinner is actually ready, when the children are a little hungry, often they will eat more.

As children approach the age of two, they often become more particular with food. It’s called neophobia. Some go on strike if for example someone has put beans in a dish or if the cucumber is cut into sticks instead of slices, perhaps you’ve had the experience? 

To make it easier for parents and grandparents, Kajsa and I plotted down 23 of our absolute best tricks to get children to eat. Kajsa (who is a professional in the field) then came up with the tip to put two or three different vegetables on the table before eating. That way when the children are hungry to eat, they have only vegetables to put in their mouths first.

A winning trick: put the veggies out before the food

I tested this with my own children. Brilliant I can say! Afterwards, I felt a feeling of victory. And now it is apparently not just me who experienced this. Nadia Beckenham wrote the following to me on social media:

My daughter of 1 ½  has absolutely loved broccoli since she got to taste the first time when she was 6 months old. Now for the last 2 months she has been avoiding a lot of food that she previously loved, including broccoli. Frustrated mother of a child who previously ate everything except herring – what to do?

Picked up your book again last night in pure frustration and stumbled upon the tip: take advantage of hunger and set out some veggies before dinner instead of waiting until during. Then I cooked a big batch of broccoli so it was ready for the afternoon and when hunger kicked in I put out a bowl on the coffee table (as if it wasn’t really for her). It did not take many seconds before she happily began to gobble them up and after 10 minutes the whole bowl was empty. THANKS! Mom 1 – Matilda 0

Yay! Congratulations on the victory! If any of you test others: tell us how it goes in a comment. The more simple tricks we can find and spread to each other, the better.

This is a guest post. The opinions expressed are the writer’s own.