If all else fails, try these techniques.

You’ve tried all the other things in my blog and your kids still are not eating their vegetables. It time to pull out all the stops.

My 5-year-old and 3-year-olds love the song “Sailing, Sailing, over the bounding main…” If you Google it, you can get all the lyrics. Although we only sing/know the chorus, the kids love it. We make it a story. The spoon or fork is the boat. Because there are rough waters, the sailors are looking for shelter. Oh, look ahead; there is a cave with white rocks. Let’s go into the cave. Wait a second, this isn’t a cave, it’s a mouth and those rocks are teeth. Let’s get out of here. That’s when the mouth closes to trap the boat. I know, it is a little sinister. But it gets the kids to eat. We also pretend that the fork or spoon is a helicopter or plane with sound effects.

If that fails, I usually ask who will be the first to eat all their vegetables. Or eat the most vegetables. My kids must be very competitive because I don’t even offer a prize (being first is prize enough, or second, or third).

If that fails, I ask if their brother or sister can have their vegetables. This will only work if the brother or sister is willing to take it. It will back fire if the bro/sis doesn’t want it.  Most of the times that I offer to give the vegetables to a sibling, the non-eater wants them back and gobbles them up.  It goes under the theory of "I want anything my bro/sis has" OR "I won't give my bro/sis anything that they want."

Next up:  should I bribe them?