Im seriously at my wits end. One day he ate them fine, the next, no freaking way! Unless theyre cooked into something he won't have a bar of it. It's driving me nuts as DH and I eat alot of fresh veggies.
Help!
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Im seriously at my wits end. One day he ate them fine, the next, no freaking way! Unless theyre cooked into something he won't have a bar of it. It's driving me nuts as DH and I eat alot of fresh veggies.
Help!
I use the 'one of each colour' rule. Or two or three depending on what stage your toddler is at.
Seeing them as colours instead of veggies has helped us. Even my 6 year old uses the rule and remembers it when he's here on school holidays, but he's on larger numbers :-)
Ahh, the veggies! This is my friend's suggestion hun. She used to grate cheese into it so it changed the flavour so they still ate their veggies. GL sweets!!
Its so hard, DS1 would not eat them at all and has only just now started, we do holding 10 fingers uo and gets to knock one daown when he has a spoonfull, seems to be working so far. Good luck x
we call them funny names
One week carrots are crocdiles, the next chickens.. ( i have weird kids)
brocoli is always trees, beans can be frogs or snakes etc
corn is corn but has to be on the cob more fun apparetly
I tried the cheese. Even cooking everything onto a big "veggie cheese" bake thing. He knows!
I don't think he's old enough to get the name thing, or the colours. He's only 1.
can you grate them and make little fritatas or something?
we just give DS a few sticks and chunks of whatever we're eating, but I'm guessing that 8 month olds and 2 year olds are somewhat different ...
Let him sit at the table with you and 'eat' off your plate. For some reason they taste better that way. Have you tried grating them and putting them into an omelet or with bake beans.
Just remember what they love/hate today they will hate/love tomorrow.
We tried every trick in the book with DS.. nothing would make him eat them as a toddler.. yet as a baby i have videos of him eating a plate of corn, peas and carrots. But in saying that, we have now found a light at the end of the tunnel. We told him once he turned 4 he had to starts eating a vegetable with his dinner or he wouldnt grow strong. Well it worked. He now eats broccoli. He wont touch anything else but at least its something. We started out with a tiny piece and each night that piece grew to the point he asked me for 2 pieces, which he has every night. Only catch is, he has to dip it in sauce.. which is fine by us.
But as for a toddler, i would just keep giving it to him every night. Make a game out of it, see who can eat their vegies first? let him dip it in a tiny bit of sauce? But i wouldnt put too much pressure on him to eat them though otherwise he will get scared of it. And in the mean time, maybe give him some multivitamins so you know, if hes not eating the vegies, at least hes getting his vitamins.
Good luck!
I just remembered there is a book called Deceptively delicious I think And it hides all the vegs in things lie choc bikkies etc? Worth a try?
When my boys started to do this, i started puree the vegies, and putting them in EVERY meal. I then started mashing them and putting them in every meal, and then putting them in whole, now they don't have a problem. It took a few months, but it was worth it.
There is also a book called the Cauliflower Conspiracy that's supposed to be good
Keep offering different vegies and dont make too much of a fuss if they are ignored (as much as its annoying when you have gone to the effort to cook a nice healthy meal)
He will have them in spaghetti bog, omlettes, quiche... I even made chicken palm sauce and sneaked zucchini, spinach and carrot into it. So he is getting some. I just would really like for him to eat them as they are sometimes.
Is there such a thing as a multi vit for a one year old?
I tried asking my CHN for ideas and she said he's too young to be fussy and have likes and dislikes -.-; if only I could show her how he will eat a stick of cheese compared to a carrot!
i didn't find the Cauliflower Conspiracy much chop, too many recipes where the vegies are "as is" and easily identifiable
With Deceptively Delicious, i don't have a kitchen gadget that does purees well enough, to make use of that book (it relies on pureed veg for every recipe).
at one y.o the 100% vegie win we had (with a fussy eater) was the Rafferty's Gardens tubes of vegie puree. really annoyed me that i could replicate same stuff at home, steam up vegies, add to apple sauce and she WOULDN"T eat it.
i have a fussy eater at four. i can't think of any vegie she will eat "as is". If she can see it, identify it - no way. Very few fruits she will eat either. but the same fruit in a tin, dried, etc - no probs.
i'm quite envious that your one year old is eating omlettes, quiches, spag bolognaise, chicken etc - he sounds like a great eater to me! (but i have such low standards, having a 4yo who exists on weetbix and cheese, ha ha.)
LOL. Maybe I'm expecting too much? He just USED to eat them all so well as is (well as good as for him, he's always been a bit Meh with food - more of a boobie man) then it's like a switch flicked his veggie space to off.:
I am lucky in regards to fruit. He will eat whatever fruit he's given except rockmellon - but I think that's more of a required taste anyway.
Oskar was the same... used to eat it all then nope, but he's slowly starting to eat different ones again, he loves corn and asks for carrot. I just go with it, put it on his plate and if he eats it he does, if not, so be it. Elijah, he won't eat vegies straight lol.. but he does eat them grated into different things, so I try to make sure that I do this a few times a week to bulk up his intake.
My two are older, but dd used to eat everything. Now she won't touch broccoli or mushies at all (so I keep half regular size and grate the other half so she thinks she gets a choice). They both love raw snow peas and carrots though, if that's any help?
Buckle up, put your hard hat on and get ready for the ride. This is your life now. And will be for the next 15 years or so. One day he will want what you are having. You are his role model, just keep eating your vegies. Until then, don't stress about it - don't let it push your buttons. At 17, 15 and 13 my kids still hate pumpkin - except in pumpkin soup (go figure). A good suggestion is to look at your child's intake over 48 hours rather than 24 hours - it tends to even out.
Pfft! What a silly statement. What, doesn't she think they have taste buds? Does she think they can't tell the difference between textures? Of course they can. They may be immature but they're not non-existent. My DS is 6 months old and already has preferences, easily shown by how little mess he makes eating sweeter stuff like fruit because he wants it ALL but is messy when it comes to his veggies and ends up wearing or spreading half of it across his tray. How is your DS like with the sweeter vegies like sweet potato or carrot? Green veg is generally quite strong tasting vegetables and kids seem to be more resistant to eating them as breast milk is sweet so being so different they are an acquired taste that takes some transition.:
Carrot he hates. Pumpkin, no. In saying that tho, we were out once and i got him a pumpkin quiche for lunch, which was 90% pumpkin (i didn't realise at the time of ordering it) and he scoffed the lot. It tasted like pumpkin, and definitely not quiche. But he won't eat it at home.
Sweet potatoes mashed, nope! He wont even eat normal potatoes mashed! What kid doesn't eat mashed tatties!
Thanks barb, I think I might just go with that approach. Maybe making a meal every second night that I can hide veggies in easily to nak up the 48hrs so he can get them into him, then having them on display the next - if anything that should keep DH happy! Boys!
At one stage I thought it could be going from one taste to another, so tried offering say, only mash first but nup, he just spits it out over and over.
As always, I'm glad I'm not alone!
Barb, i accept that "this is the way things are" right now. But i'm curious, what to do in the meantime?:
Do i put normal food on her plate (what i'm having) or just, the food i know she will eat/will consent to having on her plate?
Do i put food on her plate but leave it up to her, what she DOES eat?
or do i offer stickers for her having a bite of anything?
i've tried so many things, don't know to do now.
just sick of every meal time being a battle
sick of being judged, when we eat in front of others.
any ideas?
she's 4, and down to one very short breastfeed, maybe three times a week, first thing after she wakes up.
things she eats: tinned pears, tinned peaches, tinned apricots, dried apricots, sliced apple (but not skin), sometimes banana, baked beans, spag bolognaise if the sauce/meat/veg is pureed, rice, pasta absolutely plain, vanilla icecream, banana muffins (used as motivation), mango yogurt, if i boil her an egg - she'll eat ONLY the yolk, store bought mini quiche (fetta and leek), tasty cheese, chutney, wholegrain bread, weetbix, she drinks water predominatly, with the occasional apple juice. My concern is how virtually everything she WILL eat, is processed food. e.g i can get her to eat dried or tinned apricots, but not REAL fresh apricots. I cannot get her to eat anything GREEN e.g brocoli, lettuce. She won't eat tomato but loves chutney and tomato sauce. No matter what i bribe her with, she will refuse to even have a bite of SO many foods.
thanks in advance
Eating veggies? Very rare in this house. They have to be hidden in everything
I just remembered another thing... you can mash or puree pumpkin into spag bol VERY easily and you can't see it or taste it at all!! Things like spag bol are great for hiding vegies lol... puree them up (I don't add too much cos otherwise you start to alter flavours) but enough that they are getting some and they are none the wiser ;)
Yep I do that already. I get a good half meat half veg combo happening and no one notices XP:
I actually made a cauliflower, carrot and broccoli cheese bake thing the other day (like cauliflower cheese) and mashed roast potato and pumpkin thru it which he ate. So that's another veg meal I can add to my list :)
:) Sounds good and sounds like you're doing what a lot of us find we need to do :) Tomorrow night we're having what we call noodle muffins... they have zucchini, carrot and pumpkin grated into them and no one notices it at all.. you don't taste it... and they are DELICIOUS!
Ooh! How do you make those?
New ideas would be great!
PM me to remind me to send it to you and I'll do that tomorrow for you :) Off to bed now cos it's midnight just about lol and I have lots to do tomorrow haha.
No worries lovey thanks heaps!
Does it help if you give certain vegies a break for a week or so? I know DS gets bored of the same things so if I stop serving them for a bit, then re-introduce, he will eat it.
But it sounds to me like you are offering awesomely healthy foods anyway! He sounds like a great little eater!
They go through stages all their life in eating. Have a 20+DD who will only eat potato mashed but loves sweet potato but at potato any way when younger.
Zucchini slice is another way to get veggies into them, have been known to grate carrot in to it.
While he is a bit small at the moment my GS 'helps' me cut up the soft veggies using a butter knife and eats them while cutting. They taste better stolen from the pot.
Have you tried cooking corn on the cob and letting him have a go at that. I saw a mum do this with her 11 month and he loved it.
Sorry, don't have the time to read all of the posts right now, but we have a similar problem. If he likes things like crumbed fish, chicken etc, you can do exactly the same with vegies. Grate / mash them with cheese and some flour and egg, roll them in flour, egg and then bread crumbs and bake them in the oven. Kinda like healthy nuggets?
Rivlas. Yep I tried corn on the cob and he didn't like it :(
Life is good, good idea! Didn't think of that one.
I never knew when I became a mother that I'd have to get so creative!