Lettuce, leeks, beans, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts…you name it, they won’t touch it. Jane Bartlett on how to help young fusspots who hate healthy vegetables

A few weeks ago my four-year-old son wouldn’t eat potatoes, no way. Jackets, mashed and roasted were greeted with high decibel howls, followed by angry demands for pasta. Unless they were chipped, nothing would tempt him to try this innocuous food. Then something incredible happened. We went for lunch with another family, who have two children of a similar age. Jacket potatoes were served. My son looked doubtful. ‘Try them,’ I urged. ‘These are very special ‘children’s potatoes’.’ He watched his peers around the table tucking into their spuds with glee, then suddenly, he gobbled up the lot, skin and all. Now ‘children’s potatoes’ are one of his favourite meals.

We need to pay another visit so that he can encounter mashed and roast potatoes too, and I am looking out for other children who might be able to work their magic with green leafy veg. Inadvertently, I have discovered one of the great secrets of children and healthy eating: peer pressure. Children copy each other’s eating habits, and there’s actually the science to back up this theory. According to Professor Fergus Lowe, a psychologist at the University of Wales in Bangor, who for the past nine years has been exploring ways to get children to eat more healthily, ‘peer pressure is very powerful’.

A conversion can be achieved

Professor Lowe has discovered that fussy eaters can be transformed into fruit and veg chomping champs, if they are just given a little encouragement. He shows them a short ‘Food Dude’ video starring animated characters and child actors. The ‘Food Dudes’ are fruit and veg munching heroes who fight the baddie ‘Junk Food Junta’ and make the world a better place.

Next, Professor Lowe gives the children little rewards, such as Food Dude stickers and hats, for eating up their greens. ‘It works extremely well,’ he says. ‘The reason why kids don’t eat fruit and vegetables is, to a large extent, down to peer pressure and advertising, which creates a culture that’s very negative about fruit and veg. We aim to change the culture, so that it becomes a trendy thing to do, then you get all that peer pressure on your side,’ he says.

In one the professor’s home-based studies with ‘fussy eaters’ (aged 5-6 years), children's consumption of targeted fruit rose from 4% to 100%, and targeted vegetables from 1% to 83%. Targeted fruit consumption was still at 100%, and vegetable consumption at 58%, when the children were observed again 6 months later. In day-care nursery settings results were equally impressive, so too in primary schools. The team at Bangor is currently working on making the Food Dudes available nationwide to primary schools in a series of six animated adventures. In the long term they are also planning to produce video packages that parents can implement at home.

In the meantime…what’s a parent to do?

We know all about the healthy foods that our beloved off-spring should eat, reciting the ‘five a day’ rule as if it were a mantra, but getting anything other than pizza and chips past their lips is something of a miracle. A recent independent survey conducted by children’s vitamin manufacturer, Haliborange, discovered that two out of three children go through a stage of refusing to eat certain foods, and 65% of under tens refuse fresh fruit and vegetables. Brussels sprouts, cabbage and tomatoes came top of the most hated vegetables list.

Dr David Lewis, a psychologist who analysed the results of the survey advises parents to stop worrying – ‘What seems like a food fad may simply be a part of growing-up, which is why they are so common during the ‘terrible twos’ and the early teenage years. Remember that tastes are highly individual and often take time to acquire. Keep in mind too that appetites change with age.’

What causes food fads?

Dr David Lewis identifies six main food fads that young children might experience:

Anger fads
By rejecting food the parents have worked hard to prepare, a small child could be expressing anger or resentment he or she cannot put into words. Look out for sulking, tantrums or tearfulness.
Solution - Identify and remove the cause of the emotional distress.

Independence fads
Refusing to eat certain foods, especially those the parent wants them to eat, makes a small child feel independent and grown up. This is very common between the ages of five and six.
Solution – don’t make a big deal of the fad and allow the child to find other ways they can exercise control in their lives; for example’ by choosing clothes or activities.

Copycat fads
This is common in younger siblings who copy their older brothers and sisters.Solution – stay relaxed and neutral. They quickly pass.

Anxiety fads
Your child might refuse to eat pork after seeing the film ‘Babe’, or chicken after ‘Chicken Run’.
Solution – don’t force the food. Give time for the anxiety to fade.

Strange foods
Children can be very conservative about trying something new.
Solution – avoid making disparaging remarks about a new dish and give them time to become accustomed to the new food.

Allergy fads
A child might know instinctively that a certain food will make them physically ill. Solution – never force a child to eat or drink something to which they violently object.

How to avoid mealtime misery

Do

• Only keep the foods in stock that you want your child to eat.
• Eat healthy foods yourself to set the right example.
• Reward your child for eating new healthy foods. Show your approval: you could use award stickers, points or stars – but don’t give sweets or biscuits.
• Offer brightly coloured foods, such as tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and sweetcorn. You can use them to garnish a dish and make it look more exciting. Try using contrasting colours.
• Present vegetables in attractive shapes. Cut them into matchsticks, make mashed potato funny faces, use miniature sandwich cutters.
• You can hide vegetables by blending them into tomato and vegetable sauces.
• If your child is refusing to eat, you could vary the venue of the meal. Eat in the Wendy house, or make it a picnic on the floor of the lounge. Invite teddy bears and dolls to join you.
• Let your children help to plan the menu and prepare the food. It stimulates their interest.
• Keep the dessert out of sight until the main course is finished.
• Try to find a good role model. If you know of a child who eats up their greens, invite them to tea and lavish praise on their eating habits in front of your child.

• Give too much attention to your child when they say they won’t eat something. Instead, reinforce the positive by commenting when they do eat the right foods.
• Make sweets and cakes forbidden foods. It may make your child crave them more and binge on them when they get the opportunity.
• Force a child to eat food - you’ll make the meal table a battleground.