How can we persuade kids to eat vegetables? Parents share these 11 "magic" tricks

Kids and vegetables don't usually make for the friendliest pairing, and convincing your little one to eat broccoli or spinach can sometimes turn into a truly heroic feat. But nothing is impossible - you just need to know how to do it. The next time you're trying to convince your child how tasty those boiled vegetables are, remember some of these tricks.

A very interesting thread popped up on Twitter recently, authored by Emily Adrian, the author of several popular books. She shared with her fans a trick that works great on her son.

She wrote: "My son used to tease me by putting dirty leaves from trees he found on the ground in his mouth. So I offered him special edible leaves instead, which was what finally convinced my 4-year-old to eat a full bowl of salad for dinner."

This advice sparked an extensive and fruitful discussion under her tweet, which may help you too. Here are the best pieces of advice parents shared in it.

#1 My son is 2 and anything that is forbidden or magical intrigues him. So even vegetables have to have a little backstory added to them, and I sometimes tell him they're meant only for dragons or stories like that.

#2 I convinced my sons that Brussels sprouts are dinosaur eggs, and that it takes a hell of a lot of courage to eat them. Now they are happy when they get dinosaur eggs for dinner.

#3 I convinced my son that eating vegetables draws a picture in his tummy. White beans were snowballs, broccoli became trees and so on.

#4 When my son was with his grandparents, his grandfather cut an apple into the shape of French fries and told him they were apple fries. He loved them.

#5 I remember when I was little and I didn't want to eat something, my parents told me that food was magical. They said that if I ate it, it would disappear...

#6 My daughter liked to pretend to be an animal at mealtimes, especially a giraffe. So I told her that giraffes have to eat salad - and so it became her favourite food.

#7 My son would never eat “spinach”, but when I tell him that it is “a beautiful green leaf”, that's a different matter.

#8 I told my 4-year-old that peas are actually zombie eggs and if he doesn't want them to hatch, he has to eat them.

#9 My daughter doesn't like vegetables, but she loves balsamic vinegar. So she now considers vegetables as a means to get to the balsamic.

#10 We solved the white bean problem by telling my daughter they were Hello Kitty eggs...

#11 A tried and true trick that works great for us: If your child doesn't like vegetables at all, give him a sense of having a choice and ask him if he'd rather have kale or broccoli for dinner.