Families are winding back the clock to convince their kids to eat vegetables — all the way to the Jurassic era — in a TikTok challenge called “dinosaur time.”
“The element of play is what makes it fun and magical for my kids,” Elizabeth Riley, a mother of three in Seattle, tells TODAY.com.
Riley shared a video of her 4-year-old son Peter chomping on a romaine leaf while pretending to be a dinosaur. “If you’ve also been influenced by #DinosaurTime, I’m here to tell you it works with kids,” Riley captioned the post.
What is “dinosaur time”?
In the TikTok trend, kids and parents chow down on raw spinach, kale or lettuce — sans salad dressing — to the “Jurassic Park” theme song, mimicking herbivorous dinosaurs like triceratops and stegosaurus. Some families compete to see who can eat the fastest; others take their time and get into character. The win either way? Kids feel like mighty prehistoric reptiles while parents rejoice that the hardest part of mealtime (serving vegetables) is over.
“Dinosaur time” is widely credited to TikToker @sahmthingsup, whom TODAY could not reach for comment. In an interview with the New York Post, the mom said the challenge is “intended to be a supplement to an existing meal to get your greens out of the way so you can enjoy the things you actually like to eat, whether that be a burger, a slice of pizza, a sandwich, tacos, etc.”
The TikToker wrote in a post that “dinosaur time” is not a meal-replacement, adding, “You are front-loading vegetables, not taking food away.”
TikTok reactions on videos with “dinosaur time” in the caption include:
- “This is why I loved broccoli as a kid. I felt like a large creature eating a tree.”
- “My kids play ‘Giraffe Zoo’ where I sit on the couch and they roam the house and come up to the ‘safari car’ to be fed fresh lettuce.”
- “I can confirm this worked on my 5-year-old.”
- “You’ve inspired me! I’ve been eating a handful of greens for a week now. I call it ‘horsey time.’ I’m going for more of a petting zoo vibe.”
How are parents “gamifying” vegetables?
Riley tells TODAY.com that dino-style vegetable-eating appeals to her youngest kids, ages 7, and 4 (not really her 9 year old).
“Lettuce is the hardest thing for my kids to eat,” she says. “Other vegetables have been easier for them to try, but not salad. They say, ‘No thank you.’”
Riley recently did the challenge by offering her youngest child Peter a crunchy romaine leaf.
“I knew it had a taste he would tolerate and he is obsessed with dinosaurs,” explains Riley. “I’m sure the magic will wear off but it’s helping us for a little while … it’s another way to make food more fun.”
Alexis Chase, a mom from Atlanta, tells TODAY.com that “dinosaur time” complements her family’s ferocity.
“I have two kids, 12 and 8, and they are very competitive, as am I,” says Chase. “We are a ‘game family’ — we play basketball, football, video games, board games. We love to compete.”
While Chase’s family eats salad, they don’t love the required preparation. When Chase’s eldest child saw her trying “dinosaur time” with a head of lettuce, he took the dare.
“He said, ‘I bet I can eat that lettuce faster than you’ and I said, ‘No you can’t,’” says Chase.
Chase says her family has tried “dinosaur time” with romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli and curly kale. The mom says she even introduced “dinosaur time” to her son’s friend, who challenged his own mom to a “lettuce-off.”
“Gamifying vegetables is a really interesting way to get us to eat more while having fun,” Chase says, adding, “I don’t care how my kids get vegetables, as long as they get them.”
What do dietitians think of “dinosaur time”?
According to Sarah Williams, a registered dietician in Texas, “dinosaur time” can be a fun way to eat healthy.
“Kids often resist vegetables for a few key reasons,” says Williams. “First, their taste buds are more sensitive to bitterness, which is common in greens like kale and spinach. Texture also plays a big role — some vegetables are really fibrous, too soft or just feel unfamiliar in the mouth, making them less appealing. There’s also exposure: if vegetables are always presented as something kids ‘have to’ eat rather than something enjoyable, they’re more likely to push back.”
She adds, “The good news is that repeated, pressure-free exposure helps. Offering veggies in different forms can make a big difference in helping kids develop a genuine taste for them over time.”
Williams cautions about competitive-style meals, which can lead to choking.
“Letting kids explore textures and flavors at their own pace is a safer and more sustainable way to build healthy eating habits,” she says.
Outside of “dinosaur time,” Williams suggests adding salad dressing to vegetables or blending veggies into sauces or smoothies to make them tastier.
“One of the best strategies is repeated, pressure-free exposure — serving greens regularly in different forms and letting kids explore them at their own pace,” Williams says, adding, “Letting kids help prepare veggies, arranging food in fun shapes, or using dips and toppings they like can make greens more appealing. The goal is to create positive associations so that eating vegetables feels enjoyable— not like a chore or a trick.”
Even grown-ups are seeing the benefits of “dinosaur time.”
“I recently had my annual physical and my iron levels have improved,” says Chase. “I can’t say definitively if it was caused by ‘dino time,’ but I’ll take the … win.”
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