Hello,
I am a cloth diapering, breastfeeding, organic food and natural childbirth believer who’s frustrated by my daughter’s refusal to eat veggies consistantly. She will eat great about one meal a week and just pick at all the others. Just wants milk and juice almost all the time. Refuses to drink water so I just really dilute the milk & juice. Any advise?
How old is she? If she’s between 6 m and 12m, i think it’s the perfect age to give them lots of finger food to sample. Carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, celery stick, bell pepper sticks etc. to get them used to as many tastes and texture as possible.
-I let my daughter create a salad with me. i sit her in the highchair with a big bowl in front of her and bring her containers with different vegetables (corn, beans, choped tomatoes etc) for her to mix and she always eats straight off each container. When i do this i make sure not to make a big deal and not pay attention to what she does.
-When she was in a bad phase, I gave her frozen vegetables (wasn’t my idea, she likes frozen things and asked for vegetables) I put peas and brocoli for example in a bowl and she’ll suck on them and chew once it’s not that cold. When they get used to that, i would thaw them a little bit more each time so it’s more tasty.
-Make a smoothie and put in little amounts like carrot, tomatoes, spinach (not at once of course)
Offer her a choice between two very similar vegetables. Do you want sweet potato or carrots? Beans or peas. Spinach or chard. Etc.
Toddlers like to express their autonomy and test limits. Food can quickly become a power struggle if you let it. As long as it’s clear that she must eat some vegetable but that she has the choice (between two you’re okay with) she should have fewer issues.
I love to be sneaky! I have found that my 2 year old loves green smoothies. It is especially good if you are choosing organic, but not totally necessary. Two of his favorites are:
These are rough measurements…
1 cup of frozen pineapple
The juice of one large orange (sometimes I peel and just put the whole thing in)
1 banana
a handful of spinach (or whatever green you have)
enough vanilla almond milk to blend it smooth
This makes a lot so I split it up amongst my 4 kids or I share :biggrin:
We also like a 50/50 split smoothie of blueberries and the vanilla almond milk. YUM!
Another trick I’ve started doing is setting out a veggie or fruit plate while I’m fixing dinner. This way when they come in saying they are “starving!” I point them to the plate and say go for it. This way they feel like they’re getting their way and then I don’t stress so much if they don’t eat all of their veggie at dinner.
I have also been incorporating some veggie purees into some of our recipes. It’s in there but they don’t know about it. I still offer the real thing on a regular basis because I want them to grow to love fruit and veggies but now I don’t have to stress as much when they go through a really picky stage.
For example I put carrot puree in with mac and cheese and nobody knew it was there. 8) Even my VERY picky husband tasted it and said he couldn’t tell.
For me I have learned that the bigger deal I make of something then the harder my kids will fight me on it. Just like learning, make learning to love good foods a joyous occasion and hopefully they’ll come around. :biggrin:
Our baby likes squash and isn’t crazy about green beans. We alternate between the two and he seems to tolerate it pretty well, I imagine he’s thinking he just got a bad bite of squash!
My son gags and can projectile vomit anything that he doesn’t want to eat if it so much as touches his tongue. I tried some of the recipes from the Sneaky Chef. You can also try Deceptively Delicious - which is basically the same concept.
Is there any trick or formula on how to get your kid to eat vegies without having to disguise or hide it? My brother’s grandson likes to eat tomato and broccolli which he call little trees. He is only 2 yrs old. Maybe it has to be by example but my son eats a lot of salads.
I am afraid my grandson is not eating well. I think it is difficult to get kids to eat veggies ‘naturally’ and found the recepies given by ‘The Sneaky chef’ not only very good but give me an idea of how we can mix vegetables without them realizing it.
I will try those recipes.
Karma Shenli for that link.