Creative Ideas on Getting My 2 1/2 Year Old to Eat More Veggies??

I read somewhere to have cut raw veggies, carrots, celery sticks, etc. sitting at the table, kids are more likely to eat that while sitting at the table (essentially starving in their minds) while they wait for the actual meal to come out.

Hi J.~
My son is almost 20 months old and we fight the same battle. Another friend suggested giving him V8 juice. You can either use the straight veggie flavor juice or they have V8 Fusion which has a full serving of fruit and vegetables in every 8oz. They have a couple of different flavors. They all taste pretty good. It's a little on the thick side so I water it down a bit.
Good Luck!

J.,

Here are some things that worked for me and my girls. Let her dip them. Kids love dipping things. Next time your daughter wants to munch, arrange a snack of baby carrots, celery, or red peppers onto a plate and add a cup of ranch or blue cheese dressing on the side. Serve broccoli and let her dunk it into cheese sauce. Even kids who don’t care much for veggies will devour them if they can dip it first.

Try hiding them. Sometimes you have to be sneaky to get what you want. The old saying “Ignorance is Bliss” absolutely applies here! Finely chop a few zucchinis and add them to pasta sauce. Puree some carrots and add it to macaroni and cheese. Cook up spaghetti squash and add it to angel hair pasta. Your daughter won’t know she's eating something healthy.

Also, use shapers. Cooking can be a creative outlet. Get your daughter involved with preparation, and she may just eat what she's helped to prepare. Use cookie cutter shapes to create “eggplant stars.” Show her how to make “radish roses” by making thin slices from the top down about ½ inch, following the contour of the radish. Keep going until you have almost the entire radish sliced. (with your little one, YOU can do the shaping, but she’ll love to watch.) Put in ice water and refrigerate for a few hours to “bloom.” (This is best done mid-morning, if you’re planning on eating them at dinnertime.) Encourage her to bring out her inner artist, and she can eat her “projects” when she's done!

Stew them. Nothing warms the body in the winter more than a huge pot of vegetable stew. Carrots, celery, potatoes, lentils and peas in a beef stock can make for a hearty (and healthy) way to get the necessary “5-a-day” of vegetables. Add some fun-shaped pasta and your daughter will be too busy counting, sorting, and spelling to care that she's eating well.

The best tip is to eat them! Yourself! Make sure to set a good example by getting your recommended daily allowance. Add peas to your tuna casserole; fill up half of your dinner plate with a mixed green salad; top a baked potato with fresh, homemade salsa. Try to serve vegetables with each lunch and dinner. Your daughter may squawk at first. But the more she sees you eat them, the more likely she will be to include them in her diet on a regular basis.

Thanks to all of my creative ways, they both now eat veggies with no problems, with and without sauce, dressings or dips.

I hope this helps you. Good luck!

Bella

Similar to what other mothers have said... Get yourself a food processor! I am a foodie and a health nut! but, I have four kids and they don't always prefer the healthy dishes I serve, so I "hide" their veggies.

I puree carrots, onions, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. and hide them in meatballs, meatloaf and hamburger patties.

I've made dips of pureed beans and herbs or thawed peas with garlic, pine nuts and mint. I toast up whole wheat pita bread cut into triangles and they love dipping these "chips".

I've also made salad dressings using baby spinach, arugula and herbs with a little vinager, mustard, garlic and olive oil. They have no idea when I put it on iceburg lettuce that they are actually eating spinach too.

I've also pureed all the following: beans, cooked broccoli, roasted sweet bell peppers and all kinds of roasted vegies and topped pasta with them calling them pasta sauce. As long as it "looks" kid friendly, they don't ask too many questions. If they do ask what it is, I "white-lie" and tell them it's a new sauce, dip, whatever, that I picked up at the store.

Good luck!

Hi J.,
My 3 y.o. would eat brocolli & carrots all day if I let her, so I really DON'T have this issue.
I have read though, if you have a picky eater, to let them help with the preparation of meals (Would you like carrots or corn with dinner??) Also, you can grate carrots into ground beef for meatloaf or burger patties. sneak some mashed peas into soups etc....
Also, you can try fresh raw veggies with dip. Maggie LOVES sliced green peppers, celery sticks, carrots & cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing to dip them into.

one word...dip. My kids have practically lived on Ranch dressing dip from the time they were 18m old. Both girls had a hard time accepting veggies, so I went to the fridge and poured some ranch dressing on their plate, and now they eat all kinds of veggies all the time...with dip. (PS for their nutritional sake, I always buy lite)

Hi J.,

Does your child have a preference as to the texture or consistency of her food? For example, my 5 year old step-daughter loves crunchy things and doesn't really care for soft or mushy things for the most part. She likes crunchy carrots and cucumbers, crunchy lettuce, and crispy french fries but doesn't like things like mashed potatoes or oatmeal (I know oatmeal isn't a veg but it's just an example of something mushy that she doesn't like). Unlike most other kids, she likes things very plain, just like her daddy. She is not a sauce person at all, although she is starting to get into ketchup. I am going to try to start introducing other kinds of dips to her though. So if your child has a preference, like crunchy or soft, try to go with that. Hope this helps...

A.

I did the same thing as Sara. I would keep telling my son, he's nine now, but when he was about 2 or 3 we had the veggie battle, that if you want to grow up up nice and strong, you have to eat your veggies. Now, I couldn't drag him away from broccoli. He will eat a vegetable every day for dinner with no problems. Good luck.

I always made a big deal about how veggies make you grow big and strong. My son shows me his muscles after each bite of spinach, broccoli or whatever he can get his hands on. He asks me if I can see a difference and I always respond that he does seem a little bigger than the last time I checked. This has worked out well for me. My son was sneaking Brussels sprouts before we all sat down to dinner a few weeks ago.

I think hiding the veggies in unhealthy things should be a last resort. I think it would be best to try fresh veggies cut creatively or dressed up with healthy ingredients that compliment the flavors, not cover them. Why teach more bad habits than what they will already pick up at school and on TV. My other suggestion is to start out young. I really do think this makes a difference. If you need any recipes, let me know.

Hi J.,

You can try cutting the veggies up very small and putting them in meatloaf, spaghetti sauce and anything else you can imagine. I've put carrots and zucchini in spag. sauce for the longest time and everyone I've served it to loves it! Spinach works great, too! At this age, your daughter doesn't know what's "supposed" to be in it so it's a perfect time to start.

You can also buy baby carrots, sweet potatoes & squash (one at a time) in her ketchup and let her get more that way. My 2 1/2 yo son loves ketchup on anything or alone, so I do that, too.

Hope this helps get your imagination going! Good luck!

D.

My kids have always liked to eat off of my plate..so i would give her something she doesn't like at all and on your plate put a variety of bright veggies with dip and really enjoy make noises and everything then when you know she is watching you ask do you want some and share....

I hide veggies in my kids favorite foods. If I make rice I make it like a "fried" rice with mixed veggies in it. My lasagna has peppers, zuchini, spinach, mushrooms, onions, and garlic in it, all fresh and my kids eat every bite. When I make homemade soup or stew I put tons of veggies in it. They don't relize that they are eating veggies and they love it. I also cut pototoes for french fries then bake them. You could try letting her dip veggies in something. My kids love cucumbers and carrots plain but they eat them even better if they can dip them in ranch. Now that they are older they prefer fruits and veggies to junk and chips. Good luck!

Hide them in meatballs!! I grind carrots and zucchini (sometimes you have to squeeze the juice out of them) very fine in one of those stick mixers and I use wheat germ instead of bread crumbs. Mix that with your meat (maybe ground turkey), your spices and egg and you'll have a very healthy alternative and once they're in the sauce cooking they'll never know the difference. Hope this helps.

CHEESE!!!
My kids love to eat their veggies with cheese on top - parm. cheese or cheddar. Doesnt matter. As long as it has cheese - they will eat it :-)

I used to mix spinach in the macaroni n cheese.. she never knew! Or u can always chop veggies and add to tomato sauce,, great way of eatin veggies

you can hide lots of veggies in spaghetti by running them plus the sauce through the food processor!