Operation eat more vegetables update

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I’m so excited to write this post.  If it wasn’t totally obnoxious, I’d write it with all capital letters, because I feel like shouting it off of the rooftops.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started Operation Eat More Vegetables.  I didn’t necessarily expect grand results, but I knew what I was doing previously wasn’t working.

It got to the point where Meghan would rarely eat a vegetable (not counting the greens I put in her smoothies or the occasional baked good with vegetables baked in).  I wasn’t pressuring her, certainly modeled good eating habits, provided vegetables prepared in a variety of ways, encouraged her to at least try them.

And that was the problem; she wasn’t trying them.

I knew I needed to try a new approach.  It couldn’t get much worse, so I didn’t have a lot to lose with trying a rewards system.

The first two weeks, it was okay, but I wasn’t jumping up and down over the results.  But she was eating more vegetables, for sure, so I was happy.  It took some serious reminding about the reward, though. I had to really talk her through eating those vegetables.  But she did it, even if it was reluctantly.

Each week since then (we started the first week of July), I have seen steady, and almost miraculous progress. This is what dinner used to look like:

Meghan:  I’m all done!

Me:  You have a lot of food left.  Try your {vegetable of the day}.

Meghan:  But I don’t like that.

Me:  You haven’t tried it yet.  It’s okay if you don’t like it, but you need to try it before you know.  Give it a try.

Meghan:  But I don’t want to.

Me:  Just try a bite.  You might like it.  You don’t have to eat if you don’t like it, but you should always just try the food Mommy gives you.

Meghan:  But I don’t like it.  Can I have some more blueberries?

It didn’t really matter what the vegetable was, she rarely would try it.  I didn’t want to force her; it seemed counterproductive to make meal time a battleground.

Since implementing Operation Eat More Vegetables, the last week I’ve heard these phrases at dinner time:

“I ate my dinner all up!”

“Mmmmm! I like vegetables!”

“Sometimes vegetables taste good!”

I’m not kidding.  I would not make this stuff up.  The first time she said, “Mmmmm! I like vegetables!” (she was eating raw red bell peppers, by the way), Tim and I looked at each other skeptically.  He said, “She’s just trying to make you happy.”

Maybe he’s right, but she sure didn’t care about making me happy in that way before.  And she certainly didn’t eat up all of the vegetables on her plate before.

See why I’m so happy?  At nearly every meal, she’s eating up her entire serving(s) of vegetables.  The last week she was 7/7.

Not only is she eating more vegetables, but she’s trying and eating  all the different foods I’m offering her much more easily.  It’s like a door has been opened and she is realizing that trying more foods isn’t so bad.

I haven’t been great about taking pictures of her plates at dinnertime.  It’s a busy time getting food on the table, so I rarely take the time to stop and snap photos.  A few nights, I did, however, just to give you an idea of what I offer her.  Mostly she gets a version of what we are having, often with one or two of her favorite things added to the plate (nuts and/or fruit usually).

At this meal we were having grilled veggie/roasted chickpea tacos.  She got components of our meal (zucchini, red pepper, avocado, and roasted chickpeas) plus blackberries.  She ate everything, minus two pieces of summer squash (more on that below).

For this meal we were having organic apple chicken sausage, rice, and peppers and carrots.  I offered her the chicken sausage, red peppers, carrots, plus raspberries, blackberries, and almonds.  She ate everything.  Chicken sausage is one of Tim’s very favorite things to eat, so I make it fairly often. Meghan has never tried it until this time.  I was amazed when she just ate it without me even prompting or asking her to.

Here are some things I’ve done to encourage this success:

• Limit snacking.  I’ve found that Meghan eats much better when she is amply hungry at mealtime.  She only gets a small snack between lunch and dinner if she doesn’t eat a big lunch.  Normally, however, she does eat a big lunch and doesn’t need one.  We eat dinner pretty early, though.  If she is hungry again before bed and ate well at dinner, I will allow her to have an evening snack.  I know I need a snack between dinner and bedtime, too!

• I respect her likes and dislikes.  I think it’s totally okay to not like certain foods. There are plenty of healthy foods that I don’t like.  Eggplant, for example.  Nobody better force me to eat it, either!  When I am offering her something I know she really doesn’t like, such as summer squash, I make sure to have other things for her that are tried-and-true that she eats often.  (In the meal above that was avocado.  I know it’s not technically a vegetable, but it’s got as much nutrition as a vegetable and it’s one food I can count on her eating.)

• Pay attention to texture preferences.  Meghan shows a strong preference to having her vegetables only lightly cooked or raw.  I’m still offering her grilled/roasted vegetables to get her used to new textures, but I respect that she prefers them not as cooked.  When I am cooking our vegetables, I’ll leave some out raw for her.

So after one month, I could not be happier with how Operation Eat More Vegetables is going.  For now, I don’t mind that Meghan gets a special treat once a week because she’s come so far with her vegetable and eating in general.  I know I can’t keep it up like this forever, though, so I’m contemplating how I’ll be able to phase out the reward system while keeping up the good eating!  I’ll update you when that happens. For now, I’m keeping things as is and enjoying the peace and joy that is our new normal at mealtime!