Many of you may have already heard this story about "green things" but I recommended it to a Friend today and made me think that maybe someone else would like the story or be able to use it in their home.
I love vegetables. There isn't many I wont eat. I try to serve them on the side every night ( JJ wont eat food if it touches each other) and have been getting some not so favorable reactions from JJ. I started trying anything and everything I could to get him to eat his vegetables. Threatening him (if you don't eat your vegetables your going to bed), rewarding him (you can have a treat if you eat your vegetables), sitting at the table until he eats his vegetables (or its time for bed), and many other things.
I started to have the phrase "I don't like green things" which JJ would say nearly every time I set the table. I Served carrots and radishes and other non green vegetables. quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. The veggie situation just got to be worse and worse and I started to hate veggies as much as he did.
Than I got an epiphany. Every time JJ said I hate green things and refused to eat his vegetables I served a green desert. We had all the fun. I asked him every night if he was sure and he kept saying yes. Then came the pistachio pudding. Green vanilla cake, mint chip ice cream. green milk shakes, and green sugar cookies. Every time JJ said I hate green things I served something green that he would like. I didn't let him have the green things. I served him something else. Sometimes it would be a different kind of desert or a different main dish. Green eggs and ham was the hardest because he cried. but he caught on eventually.
He started eating his vegetables. I tried really hard not to make it a reward for eating veggies because I didn't want him to eat the veggies for a treat. It seems to have worked. He'll eat his vegetables most of the time and the atmosphere is much better at the dinner table.