When my 2-year-old started showing a preference for string cheese and croutons over peas and cauliflower, I tried various creative tactics. Initially, I recreated the artistic vegetable presentations from my childhood, starting with classic ants on a log and progressing to cucumber caterpillars and hummus monsters with carrot teeth. However, my toddler’s interest was only mildly piqued. I then resorted to persuasion, extolling the virtues of bok choy’s deliciousness and spinach’s strength. However, most days, I was fortunate to get even a single bite of something green near her mouth.
Turning to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, I noticed a prevailing veggie trick: Hide the vegetables your child dislikes in the dishes they love. For instance, incorporate powdered spinach into pancakes or use carrots to add the distinct orange color to mac and cheese. You can even disguise cauliflower and broccoli in pizza sauce.
This strategy of sneaking veggies into meals has been around long before social media, popularized by parenting cookbooks like Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals, which gained traction in the late aughts through TV programs like The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today show. Despite the extra effort involved in stealth cooking—such as making chicken nuggets from scratch with pureed beets tucked inside compared to buying regular chicken nuggets—it can be worth it if it helps your toddler consume their recommended daily serving of vegetables.
However, nutrition experts caution against overly elaborate tactics. Laura Thomas, a nutritionist at the London Centre for Intuitive Eating, advises that children generally don’t require such extensive measures to consume vegetables. While veggies offer numerous health benefits, studies linking them to decreased risks of chronic diseases primarily analyze long-term consumption across years, not just during childhood.
Thomas emphasizes that although many children in the U.S. fall short of recommended vegetable intake, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are undernourished. A national study found that toddlers, despite their perceived aversion to veggies, generally meet their requirements for essential nutrients like calcium, vitamin A, and iron through other food sources like meat, nuts, beans, and whole grains.
While disregarding vegetables isn’t ideal, temporarily accepting alternatives can help toddlers navigate picky eating phases without compromising their health. However, it’s crucial to note that hiding veggies in calorie-dense or sugar-heavy foods doesn’t negate the adverse effects of excessive sugar consumption.
Despite repeated advice from nutritionists and child-development specialists to avoid pressuring or tricking kids into eating vegetables, the allure of stealth cooking persists among health-conscious parents. This inclination might stem from years of health messaging and fad diets. However, experts caution that covertly embedding vegetables into meals can undermine trust between parents and children and potentially foster negative associations with vegetables.
Instead, experts advocate for a more hands-off approach that involves consistently offering a variety of foods—including disliked vegetables—without coercion. This method, based on principles outlined by experts like Ellyn Satter, aims to foster trust between parent and child and encourages children to develop healthy eating habits independently.
In my own journey, I’ve shifted away from sneaking veggies into meals and focused on modeling healthy eating habits. By offering vegetables as part of meals without pressure, I’ve noticed my toddler becoming more curious and open to trying new foods on her own.
