Children's health

Getting children to eat vegetables is hard. Sometimes getting them to eat at all is hard.

It helps to shift the focus. Mealtimes work better as a time of togetherness than as a negotiation about quantity, and children who are learning independence generally do better when they get to decide how much they need to eat.

Including them in the process — choosing, preparing, cooking, deciding whether something gets roasted or grilled — makes them far more engaged with food. That doesn’t mean handing over the menu. You control what’s available; they control how much of it they eat. If it isn’t in the fridge, it isn’t an option.

Things that work in the kitchen

Hide them in sauces. Cook vegetables in water until slightly soft, mash them and add them to a pasta sauce. Use the cooking water in the sauce or to cook the pasta, so the nutrients go in too.

Make chips out of more than potato. Sweet potato, turnip and carrot add colour and variety. Rosemary or oregano sprinkled over gives them flavour.

Serve raw as well as cooked, every day. Carrot or celery sticks with hummus or avocado dip, or a salad with lemon and olive oil, reads very differently to a child than plain boiled vegetables.

When to book a consultation

If your child has ongoing digestive symptoms, skin problems, recurrent infections, poor appetite, low energy or difficulty with growth, a naturopathic consultation can look at the nutritional picture in detail.

Bring a parent or guardian, and bring anything your GP or paediatrician has already found or prescribed. Your naturopath needs to know what’s being managed medically before suggesting anything, and some things belong with your doctor.

⚠ Supplement doses for children are not scaled-down adult doses, and some products aren’t appropriate for children at all. Please don’t start one without asking.