2 Year Old

My son loves veggies, but won't eat meat. so my mother-in-law taught me a great trick...cook his meat earlier in the day. put in fridge, once it is cold then she uses the cheese shreddar and shreddes the meat up like you do cheese. then you can put in with his potatoes or whatever and he never knows he is eating it. So what you could try is maybe putting the veggies in a blender and make them into a sauce then cook his other food with the sauce. that way he gets the veggies without seeing the veggies. good luck to you hope this helps.

My two year old is the same way. He used to love vege's, green beans were his favorite, he'd try to eat them right out of the can, and I can recall him eating a small bowl of them in front his television show before! But he has decided he will have nothing to do with any vege now. So, my ped. told me to keep offering them to him b/c he may come around sooner or later, and give him a "My First Flintstones" vitamin a couple of times a week.

well my aunt has a similar problem with her 11 yr old boy. all he ever eats is peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese sandwiches and just a few other things.

its better to break the habit at 2. keep offering a variety of vegtables to him. pick a night for the family to have a nothing but veggie night. thus if he wants to eat something he has to eat a vegtable. i know it seems harsh but once the habit of not eating vegtable is broken the easier it is to get back to normal eating habits. don't give in if he refuses to eat normal healthy foods.

Hes picky now. You are going to have to hide it in stuff, I make breads with shredded carrots in it. You can also shred up vegetables and put it in stuff like spaghetti, lasgna, soups. Stuff like that. My daughter went through a phase where at every meal, she would say, "I dont want green beans". Like every meal, I would be making a pbj for lunch and she would always remind me about the green beans?? She was very against vegetables. I just hide them, and give her a flinstone everyday!

My son is the same way, altho from time to time he will eat a few carrots and peas but thats it. I buy him the V8 fusion drink which is Juice but says its like getting a glass of veggies. I also give my son a vitamin everyday.

just stick with it, keep offering them, but don't make a huge drama about it. we expect our son (2 1/2) to at least try a bite of everything. he knows he cannot eat dessert or have seconds on what he likes unless he tastes it. he doesn't always try it, but sometimes he does and he now eats peas like a pro - he used to hate them. or play "ball" with them across the table. anyway, as long as you're willing to buy that V8 juice, and as long has he's taking his vitamins, he's probably fine. my son can't drink fruit juice because of a sensitive tummy, and his dr. said as long as he takes vitamins and fruits he'll be okay.

how about telling your 2 yr old that he must take a no thank you bite first??? before refusing his vegetable..use reverse psychology..tell him he dies not have to eart it but he has to take a no thank you bite first & swallow it!!! fresh baby carrots are sweet & celery hearts..try with ranch dip...all of my grandchildren like those...your 7 yr old can help too by telling the little one that big school kids all like vegetables...so if he wanmts to be a big boy 7 go to school some day..he has to eat vegetables like his big sister who goes to school...tell him that you will buy him a back pack for when he goes to school if he eats veggies...afer he does it all the time, then reward him with his new back pack that you can hang in his closet for his first day of school. hope this idea works!!!
good luck mom,
grandma j.

Hi, J.,

I had the same problem with my children off and on during their childhoods. Sometimes they just decided they didn't like vegetables. Fortunately, they've all outgrown that by now and are trying to figure out how to get their own kids to eat veggies!

I used to hide vegetables in casseroles, meat dishes, etc. For example, I made a chicken and rice casserole that I called "green rice". It was green because I chopped up broccoli so fine you couldn't recognize it as broccoli. Also, I added shredded carrots and finely chopped sweet peppers to sloppy joes and meatloaf. I also served zuchini/carrot bars for desserts - carrot cake is ok, too. The trick is to have such small pieces of vegetables in the dishes they can't tell what they are or if they're even in the food at all.

If he will eat fruits, give him plenty of those and that will help with the vitamins he misses from veggies.

Hope this helps. Remember, he will outgrow this phase especially if he sees the rest of you eating and enjoying them.

C.

Hi J.-
Have you tried having him help you with picking out new vegetables, preparing them and then eating them, try different varieties and different ways to cut them up like instead of carrot sticks, try carrot wheels, and make it fun, get creative. Get creative with toppings as well, my girls really love pepper and Parm. cheese on their peas...they love to shake both toppings on. Both of my girls do well with vegetables, the older one is better than her younger sister but to make sure we are filling in the gap we take Juice Plus+ gummies. They are 17 different fruits, vegetables and 2 grains in gummie form, my girls love them, and the best thing is, they are just fruits and vegetables. Get more info at www.Stubbs4Health.com. Good Luck.

I feel your pain.
My 2 yr old son will not eat vegetables either. He does love tomoato soup and occasionally I will get some beans or sweet potato into him, but nothing else. I am going to try your v8 Fusion/juice idea. He loves juice and fruits.

I bought the 'Sneaky Chef' for myself and now we have cupcakes with spinach in them. I sneak torn spinach into quesadillas, pizza, and even cupcakes. So, this was a great investment for me.

Keep trying to present the veggies, too. I tried different dips and my kids like hummus and an eggplant dip. So, even if they are sucking the dip off the carrots they are still getting their veggies and a couple might get accidentally eaten. I also switched from Peanut Butter to SoyNut Butter...very high in Omega-3's for kids that don't like fish. It is not peanut related so is safe for kids with peanut allergies....just not soy allergies!

I would keep offering them, but also try blending the baby food vegetables with yogurt and fruit. I used to do this for my daughter. I would blend some lowfat yogurt, several different types of baby food veggies (peas, carrots, green beans, squash, etc.), a banana, some pineapple, and a few boiled egg whites for protein. Sometimes I would throw in some frozen blueberries and ground flax seed. If you get the mixture right it tastes mostly like bananas.

Hi, I would suggest to keep dishing them out! Eventually, he will eat them and it shouldn't hurt him nutritionally not to until he is older- that is the advice my pediatrician gave me a few years ago for my little guy. It worked too! One idea that might peak interest is to arrange them in the shape of something cute and appealing such as a catepillar or butterfly- Family Fun and Parents magazines usually have great recipes for this. A good resource book is, "HOw to get your kid to eat...but not too much" by Ellyn Satter. The best thing is not to make too big a deal about it, otherwise it just becomes a power struggle! GOOD LUCK!

J., as children we were all told to eat our veggies, they were good for us. We had it drilled into our heads that veggies were the one thing that we had to eat if we were going to grow up big and strong, and most of us hated doing it at some point. As we got older our habits changed and we eat them now, but we all have those that we dont like and our children will as well.

What I find interesting is that we accepted that training from our parents at face value and now pass it along to our own children as gospel. I had 3 kids and all of them went through the veggie thing just like your son. At one point I was so frustrated that I got a book from the library in order to see for myself what nutritional content the veggies held. Imagine my surprise to find that many of them were just valuable nutritionally as a lot fruits.

I went through a mental change and decided if that was the case then fresh fruit was something that would bridge the gap. Every night for dinner I put one veggie I knew they would probably eat and one fresh fruit on the table. I had fun and so did they by trying different types of fruit and using some of the old standbys. After a while I would begin making a fruit plate which would contain fruit, and maybe even small tomatoes or carrots. I never fussed about what they took off of the plate. In the beginning it was only the fruit, afer a while they would try a piece of this or that. If they put it on their plate, that was fine, if they did not eat it I did not say a word. We were one step closer it was on their plate and the nurtition was coming from other forms. Evetually they began to try the other things and now they love certain veggies, but just like me, not all.

I guess the point I am making is that by looking into the nutritional value, you may find alternatives. In time he will begin to try new things, but most kids wont if they feel they are being forced to do so. For us it was a matter of relaxing and enjoying the meal together, by offering alternatives that added the nutrition and made dinner fun again.

The fact that he'll take V8 is great! Maybe it's just a texture thing with the whole veggies?

Check out the cook book Deceptively Delicious... it's been great for us. Pureed cauliflower and carrots in mac & cheese - you never notice it! My hubby & I get a little extra veggie in our diet at the same time too!

And keep with it. Find something he will eat and run with that while offering other options. My son won't touch bananas all of a sudden - but grapes are a hit. He's had grapes with every meal for the last 4 days now. Next week it will likely be something else.

Keep patient, try not to make it a battle - just outwit him! :)

T.

My son is 4 and I still can't get him to eat fruits or veggies. I have to give him a multi-vitamin every day. We give him Thomas Gummy chewable vitamins. He really likes them.

Keep in mind that kids can taste bitter flavors in vegies that adults cannot. The taste buds dull a bit as we age. Also, things really do taste differently to people according to what they can metabolize. Even blood type can affect the way things taste to a person. You might want to find out what your son's blood type is and read Dr. Peter D'Adamo's book, Live Right 4 Your Type. Try offering him only the vegies that are beneficial for that blood type. I wish that book would have been available when my son was young!

My son was that way at that age. I grew a lot of my own vegies back then and was so disappointed when he wouldn't eat them. I learned to purée them in the blender and make simple soups and sauces. I would often make a sauce of puréed vegies and cook rice in the sauce. His favorite was when I would purée things like a fresh tomato with, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and a little spinach, add a bit of honey and lightly season it with Italian herbs. Then I would cook rice in that sauce. The consistancy was something like Spanish rice, so we called it Italian rice. He never knew he was eating vegies! You can also use sauces like that for making sloppy joes or combine it with a broth and cook some meat and noodles in it as a soup or casserole. You can even make your own pizza sauce this way.

Good luck!

DD is the same way!! She's 18 months old and I asked the pediatrician about this. He said it probably is a phase but if it's been going on for awhile, I suggest in addition to the V8, giving him the V8 fusion. My pediatrician said 1 cup of this a day is good because it's a full serving of fruits and veggies. You could even break it down and give 4 oz each time watered down. Plus, he told me to give her 1/2 of a gummy vitamin and keep trying! Good luck!

It's great that your son will drink the V8 and I think doctors would be thrilled with that! If you start sneaking maybe some frozen spinach into your spaghetti sauce and blend some pureed veggies into your hamburgers or meatloaf type recipes I'm sure he'll be alright.

I also give my children vitamins to help compensate, even though I'm blessed to have 2 very good eaters.

One thing you might try is offering both raw and cooked varieties. My kids aren't crazy about cooked peas, but if I buy frozen sweet peas and then run warm water over them for just a little bit to thaw them but they are still cold, they love to eat them with their hands. Be wary of carrots, they are hard to eat and are more sugar than veggie :D

Good luck and don't stress too much, historically doctors have said that kids this age get what they need, even if they just eat chicken nuggets and french fries for 2 months!

Try sneaking it in foods. Meatloaf with pureed carrots, spinach, peas, or whatever other veggies. Spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce are great to hide veggies in. Maybe try cooking them in different ways... for instance, does he prefer savory cooked carrots, or sweet cooked carrots? Or maybe he prefers them raw (cut up small, of course).

Next... my friend is having the same trouble with her 2 year old and we were just talking about it. Her pediatrician said that since she has no problems at all eating fruit and eats a variety of fruit each day, that he's not too worried about her. He did recommend putting her on a children's vitamin though.

Just keep offering, keep trying new things. And maybe only offer veggies, before offering the main course or any other sides. Good luck!

I'd relax about it a bit. Keep offering him the vegetables prepared in different ways. He'll find something he likes. Kids sometimes need to have a certain type of food offered 7 times before they'll eat it. Make sure to give him different options...not just the same couple of vegetables every night. When kids get hungry enough they'll eat what you put in front of them so you might make sure you're doing snacks only at scheduled times. My daughter is almost two and does this sometimes too...then other nights she'll only eat the veggies. Crazy.
also, have you tried the cook book deceptively delicious? Jessica Seinfeld teaches ways to hide the vegetables. My daughter has liked every recipe I've tried from that book. However, I want her to still like eating veggies so I still offer them in plain form. but on a night she doesn't want much I know I'm sneaking in some of the much needed nutrients for her.

Good luck!