Hi all! With my first, I was generally lucky in that she liked most foods (or would at least try it) as a baby and toddler. She’s gotten a little more picky now that she’s almost 4 but she’ll still at least try her veggies (and there a few she will just happily eat anyway). But when in doubt, I’ve been able to sneak in her veggies as a sauce or chopped up into a rice or pasta dish. Her younger sis, however, has always been more picky (especially with veggies, sauce, pasta, rice) so it’s hard to get her to eat veggies on their own or snuck into her meals as a sauce or dip for rice, pasta, etc. She also doesn’t get the concept yet of “if you try or eat this veggie, I’ll let you have that treat,” so that isn’t helpful. What’s worked well for your picky kiddos to keep them eating healthy while keeping it from being a battle?
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I have zero good advice about this because I am terrible at getting my children to eat vegetables, but this thread was posted a couple of weeks ago and has some really good suggestions:
http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/easy-veggie-sides-the-whole-family-will-eat#post-2872939
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We eat the veggie noodles. I've also had great success making fresh salsa with the kids and throwing in an extra red or green veggie. My kids love fresh salsa with chips or taquitos and love blending it up. Win-win.
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we buy riced cauliflower and mix it with hash browns... every week we put less hash browns and now my kids eat plain cauliflower.
it worked with mixing it in rice too
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Thanks! I was thinking riced veggies might be the way to go if I can find ways to mix it into foods she likes. I haven’t tried veggie noodles in awhile, so I’ll give those a shot again as well!
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@LadyDi: lol that was my thread and i came here hoping for a miracle.
My kids like the frozen broccoli and cheese tots from green giant. Sometimes I can sneak butternut squash purée into Mac and cheese but sometimes they complain. Since I posted that thread I started doing half tomato sauce and half butternut squash purée as a pizza sauce and they havent noticed. If I have a plate of cut up veggies (usually rainbow carrots, cucumbers, and peppers or broccoli florets) they will usually eat at least some. They particularly like the purple carrots. Smoothies are a good way to get spinach or kale in, as long as I mix it with enough berries.
And sometimes I just let them have pouches that at least have a few spinach leaves or something in them, or I let them eat a lot of fruit and decide not to worry about the veggies. They are very good with fruit so that helps.
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Veggie muffins. That's the only reliable way I get my big kid to eat vegetables. I make my own out of oat flour, carrots, and apples. He gobbles them up.
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@castilrm: I make cauliflower tots instead of potato ones. E has never had regular tots so I didnt have to do any mixing to get her to accept them. You can also mix beans or squash in cheese sauce fairly easily, it just makes it thicker.
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My toddler is extremely opinionated about food. I find that sometimes it seems to be more of a texture issue than a taste issue... my main approach has just been offering repeatedly and trying in lots of different forms. i.e. straight broccoli is a no but he surprisingly loved a broccoli soup where I pureed the broccoli with whole milk and lentils. He hates honey roasted carrots but loved the carrots slow cooked with beef, etc. But many days are still fails. The ped told us that with toddlers it is most realistic to aim for relatively balanced diet over the course of a week and not over the course of a day.
A struggle lately has been to even get him to try something that's not one of his five favorites. It quickly becomes a struggle of wills, and I'm also a bit clueless on how to avoid this
. He's only one, so a bit young to reason with...
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@periwinklebee: I find that E likes veggies cooked so they still have texture still rather then steamed to mush. She will eat steamed veggies but only if they are still al dente she also likes roasted veggies and other preparations. I have found homemade tots are a big hit, time consuming for me to make, but at least I know what's in them.
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@snarkybiochemist: Great ideas - thank you!
. He's only one, so a bit young to reason with...
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