How Do I Get My 18 Month-old to Eat More Veggies?

H., for some inspirational ideas...you'll love these 2 websites (my favorites):

http://weelicious.com/

AND http://wholesomebabyfood.com/

DELICIOUSLY YUMMY!!!

ENJOY!!! : )))

LOL,
L. (MAMA to 20 month old Dylan Orion....29 September 2007). : )))

Today I gave my daughter rice, lentils, cauliflower & greens. I mix 4 of 5 ingredients for each meal, it's a good way to get extra veggies in. You can add cream cheese and veggies to pasta, such as tomato and broccoli.

Get the cookbook Deceptively Delicious. It's a great cook book and most all of the recipes include adding veggies. My son loves the meals.

Offer, offer, offer.. At this age I would take a 6 cup muffin tin and put something different and healthy in each slot and let my little ones graze on it. Sliced sweet peppers, sugar snap peas, carrots - grated or softened if she lacks teeth, edame (spelled this one wrong), grapes-maybe, cut in to 1/4's depending on how you feel about giving these to her, crackers, cheese.. but if you just want to do veggies, fill all 6 slots, not too much in each one with something different, just 2 or 3 pieces - you don't want to overwhelm. Also, when you want a snack yourself, make yourself a veggie plate and sit down with it and start eating, chances are, she'll want to eat what you are having. Also, if she doesn't go for something the first time, or appears to dislike it, keep on offering it.
Best wishes!
M.

I do the muffin tin thing too with my daughter but I use an ice cube tray instead and she loves it. I do pomegranates, strawberries, peas, blueberries, watermelon cubes, sweet potato cubes, aparagus slices, etc. Also, my daughter loves grilled or lightly boiled corn.
2 dishes that are packed with veggies that she likes are these: sauteed sliced veggies rice noodles and ground chicken with chopped veggies. For the sauteed veggies, I put 1/2 onion, chopped garlic, cubed carrots, chopped portabello mushrooms, chopped aspargus, chopped brocclinis, fresh corn off one cobb and about 1/2 cup of water, then I put the lid on it until the veggies are tender but not over cooked about 10-15 mintues, then i add a splash of organic soy sauce and some agave nectar or maple syrup and cooked rice noodles at the end. She really loves this alot now. For the ground chicken dish, I use a little bit of olive oil and saute 1/2 onion and some chopped garlic, add chopped carrots, fresh corn off the cob, chopped potato, chopped tomato and 1 pound of ground chicken, paprika, sea salt, cumin powder and pepper. She loves this dish too.
If she likes spagetti or pastas, you can add so many different kinds of veggies to a marinara sauce or homemade pesto. For the pesto, I just add fresh basil, pine nuts, olive oil and sea salt, then I add mushrooms and asparagus to the pasta.
Best of luck.
E.

Hi H., if she will eat mashed potatoes you got it made, I used to put carrots, peas, brocolli you name it, and I put it in mashed potatoes, chopped up real small, my kids ate everthing I wanted them to camafloged inh potatoes. J. l.

Our pediatrician said concentrate on fruit - all the same minerals, vitamins, fiber, etc.
Good luck!

Hi H. - I know how you feel, and over the years I still find myself searching for ways to make healthy meals and snacks my children will eat. My kids eat better than most, limited junk, but they still don't get at least five servings of fresh raw produce each day. According to the USDA now - we need even more - in fact, their motto is no longer "5 A Day". It was changed a couple years ago to More Matters. You can get lots of great ideas on their website: www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org. About 5 years ago when my youngest was the age of your child, I found Juice Plus gummies and my kids love them! The research proves that it is the next best thing to eating the whole food, and that all the nutrients from 17 of the most nutrient rich fruits and vegetabes picked at the peak of ripeness are getting into my family's blood stream and helping us stay healthier every day. I get tremendous peace of mind from this. Doesn't mean we stop trying to eat more of the real thing, it actually encourages us to eat more! Check out what all of the independent research, and many of the most well-respected doctors and pediatricians in America say about Juice Plus at www.WeThriveonJuicePlus.com (there's also a wonderful video link on the main page that explains the high quality of nutritional value). Dr. William Sears (and several others) has a great educational message on kid's and nutrition and the added benefit and research behind Juice Plus that you can listen to at 800-942-1260. It's not just for children either, we need to "put our oxygen mask on first" so to speak. The fruit and vegetable powders come in capsule form for adults and if you do that, you can get your child's for free. Feel free to call me at ###-###-#### if you would like more information or to give it a try. You can also order directly from the website, but if you want the children's free, I have to order that for you. Have a great day!

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We have this SAME problem with our 18 month old! She mostly just wants to eat meat right now for some reason. I spoke to our pediatrician about it and he said it's our duty as parents to OFFER a balanced meal. Beyond that, it's up to the child and their body guides them. He said that it can take many times of offering the same food before they try it.

This seems to be true. We've been offering tossed salad for a month now and last night she FINALLY at a tomato!

Some healthy and tasty veggie options:
--Fresh avocado - lost of great fat for growing brains
--fresh, raw spinach - seems to go over better in our house than lettuce
--oven roasted sweet potatoes - I do NOT add sugar. Instead, I add garlic, thyme, and olive oil for a tasty savory dish!
--roasted squash

Good luck!

Never underestimate the power of DIPPING! My daughter is a good eater, but she rocks the plate when there's dipping involved. She eats even more veggies when there is ketchup (which if you buy organic is very good, no high fructose corn syrup) or organic ranch dressing.

Making food fun is always a good idea where kids are involved! The more boring a meal is the less time they will spend eating it. Make mac-n-cheese and put broccoli 'trees' in it. Try lightly steaming her veggies so they have a little crisp. Texture can play a big part in eating veggies. I always thought I hated asparagus, b/c the only kind I had been given were canned. My husband introduced me to grilled or lightly steamed asparagus so there's a little snap still in them and I love it!

Variety is huge! The more veggies you introduce, and the more times you bring it to the table, the more veggies she's bound to like!

I boil up some whole wheat rotini, and steam up some frozen organic broccoli, peas, green beans and corn. Then toss them together with some alfredo sauce. My daughter loves it, gets lots of veggies and a variety and the alfredo comes out of clothes a whole lot better than red sauce!

Check out my blog for more ideas :www.theveggiemama.blogspot.com

Good luck Mama!

S. M

www.storksbestfriend.com

Try different textures and temperatures: canned, frozen, fresh, serve warm, cold, hot...

I 'hide' them in eggs, tuna, pasta.
Frozen chopped broccoli is so small you can put it in anything, same thing with frozen spinach.
Canned pumpkin works well in muffins, homemade pancakes, coasts pasta well.

Lots of really great ideas already offered. I especially agree with offering all the time and modeling by eating it yourself. I have read that of could take offering 15-20 times before they eat it but they will see it, maybe hold it, play with it, and eventually they will give it a try. Also, my 23 month old has recently taken up a few bites of salad because she sees us all eating them all the time. One idea not mentioned was veggie muffins. We cook and freeze veggie muffins every other week so we have some on hand. Any combo of veggies (squash, zucchini, spinach, beets, green beans, etc.) steamed and then blended. Add to the mixture brown rice; grated carrots, zucchini, and/or cheese); 2-3 eggs. Bake for 45-50 minutes, depending on the mixture of veggies. We sometimes add an apple or pear to give some sweetness but not necessary.

Hi H.,
Try making a smoothie filled with fruits and veggies.
For the veggies, try using spinach and carrots. Banana, blueberry, strawberry are great fruits to use. Ice and water to provide liquidity. You will probably need a pretty high powered blender though. I have a vitamix and it completely purees the contents.

Good luck,
C. Tanaka, DC
www.naturallifechiro.com

I like to add brocolli to mac'n'cheese. Just add fresh or frozen brocolli to boiling noodles for the last four minutes. Strain and prepare as usual. Also if your family likes spagetti, you can add all kinds of things to the sauce. It's amazing how well brocolli goes with tomato sauce. Good luck!

For starters, just keep offering them. If she won't eat them, so be it, but there will be times when she'll take a few bites.

I try to cook vegetarian meals at least 2-3x a week. One good dish is veggie chili, where you do the usual beans and seasonings, but add tons of seasonal vegetables as well.
Spaghetti sauce is a good one to add veggies too also. I like to add minced kale and spirulina powder.

Also, we love doing green smoothies at our house. Lots of fruit then a handful of chopped kale, baby spinach, or whatever we have. Lately I have been making extra and pouring it into popsicle molds - green popsicles are a huge hit in our house!

I've also made juice (using a juicer) using broccoli, kiwi, apples, pears, kale, then blending it with spirulina powder and a banana. It's very sweet and you can't taste the veggies.

I have a GREAT book with health recipes for children, including healthy snacks and veggies: "Super Baby Food." I recommend it highly.

As for eating the veggies, serve the meal in courses, veggies first. If she doesn't eat the first course, then she doesn't get the other stuff she lies more.

And no child will starve themselves. If she skips this meal, she'll eat more at the next :) And healthy snacks from the book will help here, too.

Good luck!

The more energy you put on it, the less she will be inclined to eat the veggies. If you eat a lot of veggies, so will she. Just trust that she is feeding her body with exactly what it needs, and keep offering her a variety of foods: she will eat what she needs.

Lots of Love,
Linda

All the other stuff is great, but wanted to throw in another dish as an option - my 13 month old and 4 year old love soup. I make diet soup with fat-free, low sodium beef broth for me, but turns out they think it is awesome. Throw in frozen and fresh veggies and make up a big batch to last a few nights. I give my little one the veggies without the beef broth on his tray and he gobbles it up - the veggies are nice and soft.

Hi-

This post made me laugh a bit because my 20 month old adores veggies and refuses meats! Drives me nuts. I think one idea is to give them dry, crunchy, or entertaining veggies, for example:

Edamame (soy bean pods) are very fun for them because they have to use their hands or mouth to get the bean out. Also you can put some salt on the outside of the pod. My daughter LOVES these. She took a few tries to figure them out. At first she would only eat one bean and throw the pod into the discards even though there were one or 2 more in there. But she really liked it when I squeezed out the bean and said "Hello!" or made the bean shoot across the table (probably not a good precedent!) Just remember to bring a baggie for the discards if you go out. I buy the raw frozen ones at Trader Joe's (red on package; tastier than the already cooked ones).

She also likes the "Just peas" from Whole foods (super pricey unfortunately) these are freeze dried peas, no oil, no salt- they're dry and a bit crunchy so not as veggie like. Whole foods also sells veggie "chips" in the bulk food section- another interesting crunchie veggie. I found a recipe that lets you make your own by slicing and making them in the microwave! Google and see what you find.

Trader Joe's also sells dried green beans- these are in the snack aisle- they do have some oil and salt but otherwise it's just the bean. A lot of babies who don't like cooked veggies seem to like these. They have a satisfying crunch and actually taste a bit sweet!

The last thing is take her to the farmer's market regularly. My daughter loves sampling and is much more receptive to food that she sees from beginning to end. For example she can help us wash the lettuce, or shuck corn. (Pretty messy though!)

Hope this helps!

Hi H.:
I really liked Michelle's idea,with the cup cake tin.Toddlers love stuff like that. She'd be more inclined to try things.Michelle...(excellent) : ) I wish you the best.

chopping blending and mixing in with other foods is often successful. Also have you heard of a juice called Vruit, they sell it in whole foods, and as the name suggests it is a mixture of vegetable and fruit juice.

Do you feed it to her? or do you let her do it herself? My daughter wouldnt eat anything that i cut in front of her face. I always bought those steamed veggies, waited for it to cool and then put a cup on her high chair and let her have fun.. She is getting to that age where she may want to be more independent. I figured that out with my daughter when i'd cut her food in front her instead of me letting her be a big girl and bite from it herself.

Try to make lots of dishes with vegetables included like veggie pancakes, veggie casserole with brown rice and cheese, or make dipping sauces. My son LOVES to eat raw and steamed veggies with healthy dressing or tips b/c it gives him a fun activity.-www.weelicious.com

I have an 18month old daughter too! She loves my pureed soups. I put every veggies i can think of in it, with chicken broth, and some herbs/spices and use the blender...just a little bit, she likes some chunks. but she really does that ....she yells.."soup soup soup" and sometimes i will make the bisquick drop biscuits on top of the soup and she likes those too!

Hi H.,
I have a small daycare with 4 toddlers (2 of whom are EXTREMELY picky eaters)and my veggie pancakes are a hit with all of them. I take roughly equal amounts of sweet potatoes, carrots, and zucchini and shred them. I add some minced sweet onion (I'm really bad about measuring so everything is just kind of tossed in). I mix that mixture together with enough pancake batter to bind it all together. I add ground flaxseed meal to the batter to boost Omega-3s and fiber. Then I cook them just like pancakes (I spread them a little thinner to make sure they'll cook through). They especially love it when I spread light cream cheese on them. The pancakes hold up really well in the fridge. I haven't tried freezing them yet, but I have frozen the veggie mixture without the batter. One key element is to make sure you squeeze out as much moisture as you can before you add the pancake batter so the pancakes aren't mushy.

I also make smoothies for them and add a packet of the Greens To Go that they have at Costco. They are on the pricey side but they have things that even my son who is a great eater won't touch (broccoli, kale, spinach). My daughter has an amazing palette and can always tell when I've added it but the toddlers seem to like the taste.
Good Luck!!!
B. :)