Introducing new foods to a fussy eater

You know when someone gives you advice that you ignore, only for it to turn out to be brilliant? Well, this happened to me the other day while introducing Elizabeth, our three-year-old, to some new vegetables.

Our kids are very good at eating fruit. Veg, however, can sometimes be a struggle. I wanted to see if I could get Izzy, as we call her, eating some raw carrot and red pepper as she can be a fussy eater.

I’d read various blogs suggesting you make the food fun. One idea that kept coming up time and again was to arrange the food in the shape of a face.

This is exactly what I did. I used a couple of her favourite fruits to make the mouth, ears and eyes; namely blueberries and strawberries. I then used carrot to make the eyes and pepper, chopped into tiny pieces, for the hair.

Yes, okay, it was a slightly bizarre combination. That said, it worked perfectly. Just take a look at the picture below.

I won’t deny it, there was a little fussing over the pepper, but she eventually ate it. She didn’t even say a word about the carrots, she just ate them.  It was a resounding success.

Tell me, how do you get your children to eat foods they aren’t sure about? Are there any other ideas I could be trying out? Based on my experiences creating a funny face, I’m open to all suggestions!