While cookbooks based on sneaking vegetables into children's food have become popular, my children's pediatrician took a different approach.

The other day when my daughter went in for an annual check-up, her recent distaste for everything from carrots to cauliflower came up in conversation. While she used to eat a wide variety of foods and flavors, she became more and more picky in the past six months. I'd heard about the "white food" phase and other dietary oddities from other moms so I wasn't too worried, but curious if my now finicky eater should take vitamins.

Rather than trying to trick her into eating healthy foods, our doctor just made a pact with her to eat them. When my husband told me what happened, I was curious to see if our daughter would follow through on her end of the bargain. But by the time I got home from work, she had already eaten carrots and was wondering what vegetable we would have the next day.

Last night as a true test, I mixed spinach, carrots and mushrooms. Though the foods weren't her favorite, she ate it and said, "A promise is a promise."