Sneaky ways for fruit and vegies?? - Help!

[*Ang*]

Help!

Alex has always been a fussy fussy eater but now he has gotten worse. For the past couple of months he has decided to become a carnivore and will only eat meat meat and more meat. He refuses any type of vegetables no matter how I try to cook them - mashed, chunky, steamed,with "sauce/gravy", mixed with rice or pasta and is the same with fruit. For a while I could at least be guaranteed to get him to eat bananas but he has even gone off those. I have tried pureeing and mixing with yoghurt or weetbix - nope, giving them to him whole or soft boiled,. He just keeps looking at them and not even touching them and even when I try to feed it to him he just spits them out.

So any suggestions on sneaky ways you get your kids to eat fruit or vegies would be much appreciated.

Oh about the only way he will eat vegies is if I make him some fresh vegie soup but I cant give that to him all the time.

[Phteven]

I sneak veges into shepherd's pie. Peas, corn, grated carrot, some tomatoes. Then I put some carrot, pumpkin and yam into the mash on top.
You can also sneak it into hamburger patties and rissoles and spag bol.

[{sarah}]

Muffins, either savoury with veges or sweet ones with fruit.

Grating up the veges & putting them in things like spaghetti might help too?

[MrsFabuloso]

Hehe, I would give him vege soup if that's all the veggies he'll eat! Have you tried things like meat balls with grated/pureed zuccini/carrots/onion, how about some rissotto or pasta with tomato based sauces, or add grated vegies. As for the fruit have you tried freezing it? Whole pieces of orange or bananas on a stick like an ice block. Maybe get some of those ice block moulds and freeze pureed fruit with a little juice in it. Will he eat dried fruit? Like sultanas, apples and apricots. Ummm....vege lasanga, meat loaf with lots of grated veg, vege dips with crackers....I can't think of anything else, LOL!

HTH

[christy]

I would stock up your freezer in dinner sized vegetable soup... for back up.

Also make bolognaise with finely grated carrot or zucchini (so you get tomato, and another vege with meat).

Meatballs? We make turkey meatballs with spinach & carrot chopped & grated finely mixed in with spices and egg.

We have issues with Matilda & vegetables so we do alot of hiding... homemade chips with sweet potato & potato. Hamburgers made with grated vege's inside.

Savoury muffins with ham & you guessed it, finely grated & chopped veges & cheese.
Apple puree pikelets
zucchini bread
banana bread
homemade sausage rolls with veges grated in with sausage meats.

Matilda is incredibly picky, will eat one thing one day & another the next. So a few things I do are:
1. stay calm
2. don't get terribly fussed, always have a back up.
3. offer food for 20 minutes and then clean up. If they say they are hungry, offer the same food & say they can't have anything until they have 3 bites. If they eat 3 bites and stop thats okay because they ate 3 bites, well done!
4. If they want biscuits, lollies whatever throughout the day say "sure once you eat half your dinner you can have a biscuit" so they know that they can have one later.
5. HEAPS of praise when they eat something you want them to eat. Even offer a special treat once in a while to get them to understand how good it is for them to eat well.
6. Eat the same things as them, sit down together & eat the same meals.
7. Get him to help bake something like savoury muffins. Its a sure fire way to get Matilda to eat them.

Goodluck!

[*Ang*]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

He used to eat sultanas but now just throws them away. I keep offering vegies on his plate and put them there every day in the hope that he will decide to try them! Shepherds Pie is where I normally sneak vegies in too but now he actually will spit out the peas, corn kernals etc and wont even eat the mashed potato - he only swallows the mince the cheeky boy!!

Am going to go and try some savoury muffins I think as "most" days he tends to eat some sort of bready products altho you just dont know with him *sigh*.

Love the idea about the iceypoles too! Going to have to go and buy some moulds I think.

Tried hamburger patties on Friday night funnily enough Sarah and he refused to eat them.

[christy]

oh yeah! I used to put yogurt & pureed fruit into icy pole moulds & give one to Matilda as a snack. That an smoothies are a great way to get heaps of fruit into them.

[Soph]

My kids aren't big on vegies (but eat a fair bit of fruit so I don't stress about it too much) but they both are really good with meatballs. It's a weekly meal in our house - 'cos they are actually pretty healthy and easy and I can make a big batch and freeze the mixture (and I know for at least one meal the've had some vegies!)! I make hamburgers for us and meatballs for the kids. It's all a rough estimate but here's the recipe:

About 400g each pork, beef and lamb mince
couple of grated zucchini and carrot
an egg
couple of tablespoons tomato sauce (or puree if you prefer)
couple of tablespoons worstershire
an egg
clove of crushed garlic
half an onion grated

make the balls/hamburgers and then roll in flour.

[Lucy]

One thing I have noticed recently.........the more meals we eat together, where me and DH tuck into veggies and salad, the more the kids eat......I guess the old adage "lead by example" comes into play here.........

I know that when Olivia was the only one (before I had Charlie and Lexie) I would feed her separately in her high chair....& she had a tendancy to be a little picky. But then we started eating together as a family and all three of them now just follow our lead I guess.....?

[clare076]

there was a women on Oprah a few weeks ago that has bought out a book with recipes for this exact reason. I am racking my brain trying to think of what it was called. Maybe have a look on the web under the Oprah Winfrey book club.

OK, its called deceptively delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. She even makes chocolate brownies with carrot and spinach in them

[*Ali*]

The cookbook is called Deceptivley delicious (i think) and it is by Jerry Seinfields wife, I have seen it in Book shops here in Perth Ang.

Hve you tried corn on the cob?
Spag bol is a good place to hide veggies, what about someting like fried rice?

I cant really offer any other suggestions, but just want to give you hugs............goodluck!

[*Ang*]

Well I made a big batch of vegie/meat soup today and he gobbled that down followed by some meat so thats a start. I did make earlier today some potato/pumpkin cakes that a friend with a fussy eater recommended - essentially like mini hash browns I think. He took a couple of bites but then wouldn't eat anymore - admittedly I tried them and they werent that crash hot.

As my DH's grandfather said today - He doesnt look like he's not eating, he is a good solid boy. He is just very willful I suppose

I think I am going to have to look for that book - it sounds great.

We do eat all meals together, its one thing I have always insisted on. And we dont give alternatives, if he wont eat then bad luck really.

Soph, with the meatballs do you then just cook them in a bolognaise sauce or something?

[Kazbah]

I was thinking - maybe raviolli?

[ShootingStar]

You can buy vegie nuggets (made with mash potato and vegies) or chicken nuggets that have vegies in them or even fish pieces with vegies in them too.

[Heaven]

Oh definately get that book! I saw it on Oprah and had a look at it in the shop the other day, I will definately be getting it when I have kids!

[MsPink]

Hi Gabysmum,

I saw the Oprah show when Jessica Seinfeld was on promoting her book. She has developed all sorts of child friendly recipes which include different veges. Oprah thought it was brilliant (well she also wanted Jerry on the show 2 weeks later.. )

Then about a week after the show, I was reading an article in the paper written by a Nurtionist. She said, although you are being sneaky by trying to feed your child veges you are not teaching them anything and they will always think that it's ok not to eat them.

She said, if you are going to 'hide veges' then make sure you still always offer them to the child and keep trying to make them interesting to them in the hope that one day they will start. She also said the same as Lucy..that children learn by having an example set..

Sorry to just confuse the situation...

[Hoody]

You can get the book Deceptively Delicious off the net or if you ask a book store they can order it in for you. When i first heard of the book i asked for recipes that other BB users had and didnt get to many recipes but lots off tips like you. Girls at mums grp bake muffins (such as choccy ones) and put steamed and mashed pumpkin and broccolli in the batter b4 baking. They come out so moist and you cant taste the veg. My DD enjoyed one but if i bake anything chocolate i'll eat it all

[Heaven]

She said, if you are going to 'hide veges' then make sure you still always offer them to the child and keep trying to make them interesting to them in the hope that one day they will start. She also said the same as Lucy..that children learn by having an example set..

Oh yeah, Jessica said that on the show too. She will hide vegies in things but also put the vegies on the plate so her kids get the idea that you should eat vegies but if they don't eat them at least she knows they're actually getting the nutrients from the hidden vegies.