trick kid eating vegetablesVegetables and kids do NOT go together as well as peas and carrots. At least in my house they don't. While the older one is starting to come around on some green things, the little one refuses unless it comes via muffin or Jamba Juice. So when I heard about this study that showed an increase in vegetable consumption, I decided to try it at home.

The Journal of American Medical Association held an experiment with 800 Minnesota grade schoolers. They observed these kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth, and fifth graders at lunch on a normal day. About a month later, they covered lunch trays with photos of carrots and green beans, which were the vegetables being served. More kids took more vegetables on those days than the non-photo tray day. Success!

So I tried it out on my six-year-old and her almost three-year-old little brother. Success?

trick kid eating vegetablesAs you can see, on day one there was no interest in the vegetables. (Although the girl did eat carrots later. The boy, however, steered clear.)

trick kid eating vegetablesPicture day! I'm pretty sure my daughter was just faking it for the camera, as there were no vegetables consumed this day AT ALL. Both kids did, however, play with red leaf lettuce, carrots, and celery. They did kind of a matching game with the pictures and were all-in-all entertained by my attempts at getting them indoctrinated to the vegetable team. Which means, I'm keeping those photos out.

While the researchers said kids did not actually consume more green beans on the "picture day" more vegetables in general were consumed as more children put them on their plates. What I'm taking away from this is, a) I've got to just keep putting vegetables on my kids plates; and b) If it takes procuring art work of a variety of fruits and vegetables for our dining area, I'm doing it. That little boy is going to get scurvy if he doesn't start eating better.

Would you try this with your kids?

 

Image via hoyasmeg/Flickr