My niece loves food. She will eat meats and starches. She does not chew her food all that great but is fine with everything except vegetables. She gags everytime she puts one in her mouth. I make her try them because her parents have told me she loves them. She will not eat them with out being told and without gagging everytime. I dont know what to do I only make her try one piece never more than that. When she does finally eat it still with gagging she tells me mmhhh... I feel like she is not chewing the veggies before she trys to swallow them as she gags the minute the veggies enter her mouth but after she chews them she trys to swallow and gags a very little but is fine. Any suggestions would be great .
Cut them into smaller pieces or give her vegetable juice that has fruit so doesn't taste so gross.
Updated
CUT THEM INTO SMALLER PIECES OR GIVE HER VEGETABLE JUICE THAT HAS FRUIT SO DOESN'T TASTE SO GROSS.
why is this your cross to bear?
obviously her parents are wrong. kids who love vegetables don't need to be forced to try them, nor do they gag when they're in their mouths.
you are going to create an eating disorder if you keep forcing this child to the point of gagging. knock it off.
unless you are raising this child it's up to her parents to make sure her nutritional needs are met in a balanced fashion. you can help by pureeing veggies and adding them to sauces and soups, or by making fruit smoothies and encouraging her to get some fresh produce that way. but ironfisting her to the point of making her gorge rise is a battle you can't win and might affect her for the rest of her life.
you offer and encourage healthy foods. you model eating healthy foods. you make healthy foods the main part of your meals. and then you stop being the food police. don't force or threaten, and don't effuse and reward.
stop making food a battleground.
khairete
S.
That's strange that her parents report she loves them and doesn't mention gagging but you have the opposite experience. Maybe it's just a matter of cooking them the same way her parents do, like B said. I would say a lot of kids will try not to eat veggies but if something made me gag, I wouldn't want to eat it either. Could be that she now associates certain foods with gagging so it's become automatic, so that might just take time to get over.
Can you make it fun maybe? Kids love dipping. Give her a bunch of sauces a muffin tin to dip stuff in and see if that encourages her. Or give her choices of what vegetable she wants. Sometimes feeling like she got to decide might help.
If you don't care that she eats them knowingly, you can always use the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious". Some good recipes about how to make get veggies into kids without them knowing :P
Good luck!
Stop making her. Serve her whatever meal your family is having with a small portion of veggies on her plate. Then just let it be. Let her decide whether or not to take a bite of the veggies. If she doesn't don't call any attention to it. Model healthy eating yourself. A lot kids don't like veggies. Give it time, don't make it into a deal. I personally can't stand it when a family's entire dinner conversation with their kids continually keeps coming back to telling them that you have to eat a bite of this and 3 more bites of that, etc etc.
Stop making her try them. You don't want to get her stressed out at mealtimes. If her parents get her to eat them, that's great. How often do you have her? If it's just occasionally, don't sweat it. If you watch her daily, then find out exactly what veggies her parents give her and how they prepare them (cooked or raw, how they are cut or sliced, if they offer dip, etc). That way you can offer them to her and she will be familiar with them. Let her see you enjoy them on your plate and do not pressure her to eat them if they are on hers. She might eat some if you do, and if you offer them without forcing her to try them she might do it on her own eventually. Some kids need several times of being offered something before they eat it.
If she loves veggies at her own home, let her eat them there. Auntie/niece time is special - let it be about fun and not nagging. Put a balanced meal on her plate, but don't try to make her eat stuff she doesn't want. If she's getting a balanced diet at home most of the time, a day or two here and there without a veggie when she's with you isn't going to hurt her.
I think it's odd that she can handle something as chewy as meats, yet has problems with vegetables. That seems so unusual, since meats are much chewier.
Why is it that you have to feed her so often? Why is it that her parents are telling you what to do in this regard? We've had a couple of questions lately about teens having to care for 4-5 year olds so it would be good to get some background.
I would stop playing her game and stop telling her what to eat. Telling kids this age what to do in an area where they have all the control doesn't usually work. Make it fun, serve small enough bites and stop paying attention to he gagging to see if she's doing this to get a rise out of you. If this is the only area where she's having problems (only vegetables, and only with you), then I'd stop the pressure and move on to other things. Her parents can easily feed her the foods she needs on their own time.
Watch her eating habits at her house, you might learn a thing or two.My grandkids don't care for cooked vegetables so I hide them in my macaroni and cheese, case closed.
Maybe you're not cooking them soft enough for her to chew very well.
While I don't like cooking them till they are mush maybe cooking them till they are tender wold be easier for her.
Just a thought - but our son was having some trouble swallowing when his tonsils got huge.
They were not infected - he never had a fever - but they swelled up till they almost touched each other across the back of his throat.
Take a look - if her tonsils are large (looks like really big fleshy marbles) - it might be time for her to see an ENT to think about having them out.
Our son had trouble swallowing and when he slept he snored something awful.
He had his tonsils and adenoids out the week after his 4th birthday.
It was the best thing we ever did.
I never had my kids keep eating foods that made them gag. To me that was a sign that it really wasn't time to introduce that food.
By the time we got back around to it, usually they were up for it.
Can't say I ever kept forcing the issue. To me, I think I would let it go. That would be my suggestion. I just think in the grand scheme of things that would be far better at age 4. Especially where she seems to be getting nutrients otherwise.
