Jay and I have successfully raised two boys, who are now 27 and 25 years old. We taught them how to prepare natural foods and how to juice daily since they were quite young. Once they were 12 they actually knew all of the kitchen skills needed to live on their own. Now our oldest son is almost 27 years old, he is married and prepares fresh juice daily for her, plus he is an avid Vegan cook.  Since our children were raised vegan/vegetarians since birth, unfortunately, when they were younger, one was just fine with lots of varities of fruits and veggies, while our oldest son really had a huge challenge with eating greens. Because of this challenge it has helped me become good at instructing others how to get the finicky eater out of the closet and into the kitchen!

The side benefit to this is that the bonding experience between you and your child is priceless.

Here are some great tips that we used and that REALLY work:

1. Sit down with your child and ask them what fruits and veggies they

like or so-so like.  By identifying them this helps the parent focus

on the few or many, depending on the child, which juices to make

FIRST.

2. If they don’t want to do this, then show them online under fruit

and vegetable images which ones they can choose for themselves which

ones they either like or which ones they would be open to trying.

3. Once identified, then you can ask your child to come to the store

with you so they can HANDS ON get emotionally invested with their

parents and/or parent in the process.  This way, they will be more

than likely to taste and drink the juice.

4. Now that you are back from the store, invite your child or your

children into the kitchen to help prepare the produce for washing.

5. Get the juicer out from under the cabinet and ask them to help get

a chair so that they can do the pushing of the fruits or veggies into

the juicer.  THEY LOVE THIS part!

6. If your child is really picky, use a colored glass under the spout

so the colour of the veggies do not cause a negative reaction.  The

taste, even if it’s vegetable based, will never taste like cooked

vegetables.  They are always much sweeter in their raw state and more

nutritious as well.

7. We suggest you start off with a veggie and fruit juice combination

such as:

10 carrots

2 apples (not green as they are a bit tart but any other works fine

like golden delicious).

8. Once they taste this, they will be surprised at the sweetness of

the juice and then be more open to trying more daring veggie juice

combinations.

9. If they are completely adverse to trying the carrot/apple combo,

then start with apple/celery combo, and if that doesn’t work, then try

apple/berries of any kind.  Children love to drop berries into the

juicer!

10. Once your children get the hang of juicing, they will begin to

open up the doors to the delicious and nutritious benefits of

vegetable juicing.  Just remember to invite them into this world of

juicing so they become part and parcel to the entire process which

ensures success and a deeper bonding experience with them.  WE also

suggest bringing Dad in on it too!