Hi Mommies,
I have a 2 year old that loves fruit, but spits out veggies. I have hidden them in meatloaf, sauce, and potatoes. We try a veg almost every night he spits them out. I have tried raw veggies with dip, but he just sucks off the dip and if he does bite spits out the vegetable. Just looking for any suggestions. I talked to Dr. and he said he's fine as long as he eats fruit and takes a vitamin which he does. Open to all suggestions. Thanks!
Try a spinach smoothie: apple, banana, mango, handful of fresh spinach and water (or fresh squeezed oj) in a blender. Put it in a cup to hide the green color if that will gross him out until he realizes how tasty it is! You just taste the fruit. My girls love it!
Here's a great article about this subject and why hiding veggies in food isn't necessarily a good idea:
http://kidscooking.about.com/od/cookingwithkidsbasics/a/k...
My daughter is the same way and she's 8. Ever since she was an infant she would not eat veggies or fruit. In fact, she dislikes fruit more than veggies, which is odd to me! It's been a struggle all these years, but we've figured out a few tricks to get her to eat like veggies on the plate first and no meat or potatoes until the veggies are gone. This works extremely well, but probably wouldn't work yet for a 2 year old. Hopefully he will outgrow this and eventually learn to like them, but in some cases (like mine) it may be a long struggle.
We put Spinach in with mac n cheese. Cut the stems off the baby fresh spinach and cook it with the boiling water. Then mix it in with the Mac N cheese. Just keep trying eventually he will eat them hopefully. I have been lucky my son will eat veggies and fruit more than anything else.
You say you add them to sauce , are they visible? If they are then why not try making a tomato based pasta sauce and add a selelction of veggies and then use the hand blender so they are not visible at all.
what about like tomatoes which taste kind of like fruit.. cause it's wet inside.. how about shredded spinach or shredded lettuce.. you can add that to homemade soup.. like chicken soup.. if you cut it up super small... it looks like parsley kind of... try it .. it may work...how about the new v8 drinks.. they are really good...
My 17 month old is an extremely picky eater. She eats no vegetables and hardly any fruits, so this is a daily struggle for us. She loves yogurt, so I put pureed baby food (fruit or veggie) in her yogurt. With her it is more a texture issue than taste, so this works because it doesn't change the texture of her yogurt. I also hide veggies when I can, but her food repetoire is so limited even that is difficult. I make meatballs with finely shredded carrots in them (doesn't change the texture or taste enough to be noticable). I also put canned pumpkin or shredded carrots in pancakes. I have also found veggie nuggets (they are in the refridgerated organic section or produce section and I've found them at Giant)- they look like breaded chicken nuggets and are filled with veggies (like portabella mushrooms, spinach, and corn) and cheese. My daughter loves them! I also buy some kids food that have veggie hidden in them- like the new Garden Vegetable Goldfish crackers. I still try to offer her veggies and fruits chunks on her tray, but she will usually reject them and often throw them on the floor or scream because they are on her tray. Good luck- I know what a frustrating struggle this can be!
My three and a half year old has a very limited number of vegetables that she will eat. She started to get much pickier with food between ages 2 and 3. You can't shove the food down their throats, and I think it is a big mistake to turn eating into a power struggle - I think it ultimately does more harm than good when it comes to instilling healthy eating behaviors in a child. So I think the most important thing to do is to keep offering veggies and eat them yourself to model the behavior. It will probably be a long haul (as my own kiddo is demonstrating), but I think the long term goal is to communicate that veggies aren't going anywhere, they are always going to be part of the family diet. My hope is that, in the long-run, if I don't make a big, nasty deal about it now, then my kiddo will come around when she is more grown-up and more mature. As long as your doctor is comfortable with your child's nutrition, I think that staying the course, however long it may be, is the best thing you can do.
Best wishes,
H. S
I always put cinnamon on my daughter's cooked carrots...she gobbles them right up that way.
Soups! Soups are great because you can put loads of wonderful veggies in them, and even if you take out the veggies, the broth will still have all the vitamins!! Both my girls loved soup especially if I put in fun pasta like stars, ABCs etc.
keep trying different things. my son went through a period where he did not eat a lot of veggies. now he likes broccoli,green beans,corn,cucembers. he will also eat avacados. he likes fruit better but at least he tries different things now. he also loves baby carrots. he liked regular carrots and went crazy for the baby carrots once he tried them. do not worry if he is getting enough vitamins and calcium.
to this day my mom who will be 80 next month - still purees the veges I don't eat (squash, cooked carrots, etc.) and puts them in things - I am 49 in a few days.
I do eat all other veges - but there are some I just don't like the taste of so that is her way of doing it - I am assuming she did it while all 6 of us was growing up - we've always had a garden - I just never really thought about it.
I know there are recipes that call for jars of babyfood to be cooked into things like cookies and cakes...I'm a terrible cook and my daughter loves veggies but my cousin's son refuses them and I know his mother makes baked goods with babyfood because of it....good luck
My advice is to keep trying. My kids loved the starchy veggies more, like peas and corn. They did eat broccoli because we called them "trees," and told them they would make them grow big and strong. You might try cheese sauce too. I don't think hidiing them really teaches children to eat them, but I do think that if you keep offering over and over, eventually he will try them. I also always counted tomato pasta sauce as a veg! Try some pasta. My other piece of advice is to not show him that it bothers you when he does not eat them. If he catches on to this, forget it! Best of luck to you!
My 2 year old also hates vegges but likes fruit. however, he will eat the baked snap peas (we call them green crunchies) that they sell in the salad aisle (with croutons). They are actually pretty delicious and are a vegetable. Give them a try!
Have you tried frozen vegies that are still frozen. That is the only way my son will eat vegies. He loves frozen peas, corn, edamame, and green beans, but the moment they start to thaw they taste gross to him (I think it is mostly a texture thing). I often give him a little bowl of frozen ones to munch on while I am prepping dinner. That way he is hungry and undistracted by the other "tastier" foods on his dinner plate.
