Kiwilimón users shared the best proven tips for children to grow healthy and strong with a diet rich in vegetables.

"I always struggled to get my children to eat vegetables because while I do eat them, my husband didn’t like them, and you know how children are imitators. Now that I’m a grandmother, I started giving my grandson all kinds of vegetables and fruits while we eat together, but the secret is to give him from my plate because if I serve him separately, he won’t eat what’s on his plate. So I eat together with him, and he wants what’s on my plate; later he gives me his plate, but by then he has already eaten half of mine."

Maria Aracelí García Colonia

"In my experience, I didn’t give my children money for school and made their lunchboxes with vegetables, salt, and sweet chili, which made them the envy of their classmates. When they left school, we invented a game called "gomgomolinear," so when we got into the car, they would ask, 'What are we going to gomgomolinear now?' and I would say the menu, and we all laughed. They arrived hungry and ate everything. At other times, I explained to them the whole process of planting, caring for, and harvesting the vegetables, and that the work for a carrot or peas to reach the table was a valuable process involving many people, and that we couldn’t waste food. While on the highway, we would see food transports, and they paid a lot of attention. They did a lot of sports, and during school competitions, they loved it when their mom arrived with cucumbers, jicama, apples, and oranges cut up, all with lime, salt, and chili for them and all their classmates, and they felt very proud. Now they are athletes and still love vegetables and fruits. I never forced them or punished them, nor did I use bribery; children are very smart, and you can’t fool them."

Additionally, I am a doctor, and while playing, I would come home from work and ask them if they had eaten well. I had already checked with my house assistant about what they had eaten, and I would check their conjunctiva and tell them, 'Here it shows you’ve eaten very well, wow, you had fish and vegetables.' If someone hadn’t eaten, I would tell them, 'You need vitamins, and you’ll need them to play sports.'

Oralia Duarte

"Make chips out of carrots, cucumbers, or other colorful vegetables to play Chinese checkers; whoever wins eats the chips, and the one who eats the most chips wins, obviously."

Caty Perales

"My most creative tip for getting my daughter to eat vegetables: for my 9-month-old baby and my one-and-a-half-year-old nephew to eat vegetables, I make a broccoli character with others; for example, I give it pea eyes, a carrot nose, and a potato mouth, and I create a little characterization where they are giant hungry characters devouring my 'healthy characters.' This works better with my nephew; my daughter prefers to play with them, and since she’s in a recognition stage, she takes off the accessories and puts them in her mouth and eats them that way."

Monserrrat del Carmen Mejía Vargas

“I have a 5-year-old son, and although he generally eats well, sometimes I find it a bit challenging to get him to eat vegetables, so my best TIPS are as follows:

1.- There’s a song I think is great, sung by Aleks Syntek and the characters from Sesame Street, called "Las frutas." I hope you can listen to it; it’s on YouTube. That song has helped me a lot for my son to eat fruits and enjoy them. Now he knows the song and asks me to sing it together. It has been a great help for him to recognize fruits and encourage him to eat them.

2.- For vegetables, I did something similar and relied on a song I remembered loving as a child; it’s sung by Burbujas and is called "Proteínas y Vitaminas," and the video is also on YouTube.

Now, to complement, something that has also worked very well for me is that when I go to the supermarket with my son, I ask him to help me put the fruits and vegetables in the bags. I ask him to look for oranges, papayas, zucchini, spinach, bananas, etc., and this has also helped him to learn, recognize, and get more involved.

Judith A. Delgadillo y P.

"We hold blindfolded contests to guess which vegetable or fruit we are tasting. They have to say whether it’s cooked or raw. We keep track of the points earned, and at the end of the month, the winner receives a surprise. This way, we ensure that if they didn’t eat many vegetables during the meal, they definitely do with the game."

Ana María de Jesús Pinto Macal

"My daughters have good days and bad days when it comes to eating vegetables, but what works best for me and never fails is that I put a large platter of steamed vegetables in the center, and I give them a large clean plate, so they create something with the vegetables they have: images, figures, shapes, letters, faces, etc., and in the end, they can eat it. They don’t always eat everything, but they do eat some, and broccoli and cauliflower are a must; I buy them in various colors so they can use them better in their creations. When they’re not in the mood for that, I put toothpicks in the vegetables and put on a puppet show with different voices, and besides changing their mood, they end up eating everything."

Alma Ortega Cardenas

"My tip is very simple and consists of a vegetable roulette; depending on what we are going to eat, we spin it, and whatever it lands on, they have to eat it. This is because my son really doesn’t like vegetables, but with this game, he eats them; I hope it helps."

Susana Torres Ramos

"I have always struggled with my children to eat vegetables, but what has really worked best for me is that I asked a friend who is a nutritionist to tell my daughter’s group all the benefits of eating raw carrots, and since then she asks for them herself. I did the same with my son; I asked the teacher to talk to them about the benefits of eating vegetables and the downsides of eating processed foods like sausages. It has worked quite well; the method is to get the information to them through people outside the house because at home, they don’t pay much attention to their parents since they repeat the same information a thousand times, and that way they understand that the benefit is for them, for their health, and not just a whim of the parents. My husband and I always serve them a salad before the main course; we lead by example, and in the case of my 14-year-old daughter, she now eats all kinds of vegetables, always asking for salad, and my son is starting to eat a wider variety. The secret is freedom, but leading by good example."

Paula Priscila González Castaneda.

"One tip is to create a garden with the children, allowing them to cultivate what they are going to eat. Once the vegetables have matured, they are harvested, and all the necessary preparations for eating them, such as washing and cutting, are done, as long as the child is of the right age to do so. The important thing is to make the child feel that they are creating their own food, which encourages a taste for vegetables; they feel important for taking care of their garden, fostering an appreciation for nature and life in all its forms."

Leonila Martínez Martínez

After these tips, we recommend these vegetable recipes to give to your children to help them start enjoying them.

Carrot Croquettes

View Recipe

Healthy Steamed Vegetables View Recipe

You can also share with us your tips for getting your children to eat vegetables and some fun vegetable recipes for kids.