18 Month Old Won't Eat Vegies!!

I found this book to be pretty interesting. Friends with toddlers recommended it.
http://startcooking.com/blog/262/Deceptively-Delicious---...

I also really like Ellen Satter, Feeding w Love and Good Sense, and other books more relevent to toddlers. She has a great section on toddlers.
http://www.ellynsatter.com/

I have started putting mozzarella cheese, melted, on top of broccali and my daughter can't get enough of it! Also, I'll put peas into her mac and cheese and she does not even notice it! Also sugar snap peas have a bit of sweetness to them that may entice him to eat more. Good luck!

Someone mentioned purees, and it really is the easiest way to get extra veggies in. My younger son eats some vegetables (with a lot of prodding:), but I have found it also works to put purees in foods he likes. Carrots and sweet potatoes are the easiest - I put them in pasta sauce, pancakes, anything where it won't be too obvious. Muffins are great too - pumpkin muffins are delicious, and you can put lots of extras in them (carrots, raisins, etc.). Muffins seem to go over well, especially for snacks, and are better than a never-ending stream of goldfish :) I still want him to eat vegetables in their "pure" form, but I figure it can't hurt to add some in to foods he already likes. And eventually they do branch out - it's so easy to get freaked out about it, but really, they all go through it and they turn out okay.

To be honest, my three year old (she will be next month) has issues with eating her veggies. She will sometimes, but other times, she just refuses them. Well, I came up with an idea that seems to work and she gets the correct servings of veggies each day....V8 Fusion juice!!! She thinks it's just like the restof her sweet juices...little does she know that she's getting her veggies in it, too. We tried just regular V8 juice since she could probably eat an entire bottle of ketchup if we let her, but she didn't like that. So, we did the Fusion idea and it worked really well. I am not sure about the V8 Smoothies or V8 Splash, but you could try them, too (haven't looked at their nutrition labels though). Good luck! :-)

If your son will eat spaghetti noodles with sauce, you can puree almost any vegetable and hide it in the spaghetti sauce (carrots, squash, etc.) Also, I discovered one day by accident that my son loved cauliflower. Turns out my mother was watching him and fed it to him. On several other occasions, he would eat something that someone other than Dad and I gave him. Now, he's not too big on carrots, green beans, peas or corn, but LOVES broccoli. I figure if you can get them to eat one or two really great veggies, don't worry so much about the rest. It will come. Also, if he loves fruits, try to make sure he eats more of the better-for-you fruits such as cantaloupe and bananas, rather than grapes or apples, which are fine, but not as exceptionally nutritious. Good luck!

Orange and yellow pepper are so sweet, and the color so appealing, they might work.

Also, oddly, my sister's sons would eat frozen (not heated) green beans.

C. B.

my older daughter (she's 12 now) wouldn't eat many veggies, so we would puree them and put them in pancakes and muffins. the flavor of the muffin overrides the veggie. just dont use something with a strong flavor like broccoli. sweet potato, green beans, sweet peppers, and carrots worked best purreed for us.

My daughter went through this and her doctor said that as long as she was still eating fruit not to worry. (If he won't eat fruit either then you would need a multivitamin.) Her no-veggies stage went on for a month or two and now she eats them again. I just didn't make a big deal of it - would still offer veggies at some meals but didn't make a big deal if she ate them or not. Another thing I tried that occasionally worked was to put the veggies in a different bowl/plate than usual, or to give her something to dip veggies in and eat herself.

Try mixing a little veggies in with his fruit. Start out small 1/2-1 tsp veggies to 3-4 tsp fruit and slowly increase it. He may get used to it. He also may like to pick up and eat cut up cooked veggies more. Just cut/soften small bites of what you are having (right off your plate not seasoned). Each kid is different. My son hated veggies except brussel sprouts & spinach. Good luck.

Give the baby more time to mature. When he is older his tastes will change. He may like veges later on. If he likes fruits, give him lots. AF

I'd try mixing them with fruit to sweeten them up but still keep it healthy. Try a variety of different foods and keep trying. What he doesn't like today he may enjoy on the 4th or 5th attempt a week later. A pediatrician told one of my friends that a toddler can get by on just fruit and maybe some vitamin drops in his milk to make up the difference, if he absolutely refuses to eat his veggies. But I wouldn't give up - otherwise this may become a long battle if he can't develop a taste for them now. Good luck.

Does he have enough teeth to chew veggies well? Have you tried veggies with ranch dip? Also quiche is another way to get some veggies in him. I would just keep offering them each time you have them, at some point he'll probably eat them. As our children got older, our house rule was one spoonful of everything. I'm not sure I'd battle an 18 month-old on that one. I just find that the period from now-4 is a tough one to predict what they will eat. They may love a food one day and refuse to eat it the next day! Good luck!

My son won't eat them either, it has a lot to do with texture for him, but he will eat creamed soups. So we get the creamy vegetable and sweet potato soups from Trader Joe's. I also give him a multivitamin from Trader Joe's. Be sure to read the dosing info on the vitamins. For instance a Flintstone vitamin is half a pill for ages 2-3. The one I get from Trader Joe's is 1 pill for 2-3.

hi A.,
a lot of veggies have a bitter taste that adults can't detect but is overwhelming to littles. don't fret. you're doing everything right (love the honey on the carrots idea!) even though my picky picky boys are grown now (and yes! one loves veggies and the other tolerates them...it DOES happen!) i still use veggie puree in my cooking. grab every fresh vegetable you can lay your hands on (this is easier in the summer for sure, so make a lot then), cook them soft, puree them in the blender then freeze them in relays in ice cube trays. pop 'em out, put 'em in freezer bags, then grab a few cubes whenever you're cooking. there's almost nothing they WON'T go into, and they add a pleasant but subtle flavor. to keep it on the sweet side for little ones, make sure there are lots of carrots.
enjoy your time at home. love the name brier!
:) khairete
S.

A.,
I have a 20 month old and the only veggie she will eat is corn, we give her the gerber graduates lil' crunchies. She loves the veggie dip ones and the tomato ones. I have eaten these myself to taste them and they are pretty good and she does not realize she is eating something good for her, they are like cheese doodles! Hope this helps, picky eaters are no fun!

My back- up plans for my picky 15 mo. old:

I puree veggies and mix 'em in half- and- half with spaghetti sauce and pour over fun- shaped pasta.

My specialty "Sweet potato surprise": (this makes enough to freeze for later, but you could scale it down.)

2 large sweet potatoes, 2 cups cubed butternut squash, handful each of frozen carrots, green beans, peas, broccoli, cauliflower (or whatever else is in your house) 4-5 tablespoons of applesauce and a whole lot of cinnamon. Cook it all, mush it up so it's kinda chunky. My kid LOVES this stuff and eats it at least 3 times a week. I think the applesauce makes it a little sweet, and the cinnamon makes it taste like dessert. My husband and I think it tastes good, too!

Don't worry. Eventually they all eat what they are supposed to. Peer pressure at school is an excellent thing! My son - now 16 and 6 feet tall - hates veggies. He takes a multivitamin every day. I don't sweat it. Now that he is on swim team and in band, he eats more things. There are some things you can't sweat... veggies is one of them. Give the boy a vitamin and relax.
YMMV
LBC

Jessica Seinfeld has a great little cookbook out that shows you how to sneak veggies into kids. I bought the book for my daughter-in-law and she really had enjoyed it and used many of the recipes and ideas.

Another idea is just wait a little bit until your child is older. Keep trying, but don't make it a battle. If your child starts associating a particular food with an unpleasant experience with you, you will be the loser in the long range.

Good luck.