How do I get my kid to eat his veggies?

My son is three. He's a pretty good eater, but won't eat his vegetables. My wife and I are trying to come up with some creative ways to trick him into eating his veggies.

Anyone have any ideas or tricks to make them more appealing?

He loves cheese, so we'll sometimes melt some Velveeta over chopped broccoli. He'll eat that, and I like it too.

My wife will sometimes try to "hide" vegetables. She'll maybe mix up spinach in pasta, but he's too smart for that. He'll pick it all out.



Any other ideas?



-Steve

 

Heheh...that old chestnut. Basically it takes strong willpower from you and your wife, regardless of the size of the tantrum that prevails. Two weeks and he'll have it sussed.

If he likes dessert then don't give him it until he eats his veggies, period. If that doesn't work, then don't give him the savoury part of his dinner he enjoys (i.e. the meat) until he's eaten all the veggies. Yes he will scream, but he'll get over it.

Also you could explain (in 3 yr old terms) about the veggies making him strong and healthy. I did that with mine, and they love their veggies now and realise a balanced diet is important (They are 10 and 14 now). Give him the power and understanding of his decision, even at this age. It's the key to any wise choice

 

greens are very important indeed
but my 3 yo loves corn on the cobb
and I am not gonna force my kids to eat somrthing I wont. .lol
green beans are green, does that count?

probably not

 

cheat!!! give him carrot cake, smoothies, and sauces. carrot grated and cooked in a little water and mixed with mash. ditto onions or green peppers, puree anything and add it to gravey. all these are yummy and not hard. my advice is almost the opposit to lev. dont turn the meal table into a battle ground. apart from cheating, always put a spoonfull of vegies on his plate. eventually, believe it or not, he will eat them. if you pay attention to his refusal, it will spiral. if you ignor it, it will cease to 'pay off'.

 

Hehe...I can just see it now.

Three-year old logs onto PC, accesses MGs and says "oh gee...they're disagreeing again about how to convince me to eat that stuff that they don't even like !"

 

Cheese whiz over green beans is good too!!

My sister and I were always good eaters when we werew little!! But my dad could probably be considered a gourmet cook!!!! It was always a little more than just throw it in a pot with some salt and pepper!!

I could elaborate some on the recipes if you wish...but let me know...I'm not going to type it all out and waste the time and space if you aren't interested!!

Roger

 

Let him watch Popeye http://www.everwonder.com/david/popeye/

 

My mom either used cheese, or on green beans would fry up some bacon and add it with cream of mushroom soup. I did the same with my children.
As for peas, yuck, forget it

Our family loves them raw, so we eat a lot of them that way when we can

Gal

 

Interested

 

Sorry wish i could help, i am 40 next year and they still try and get me to eat my greens.

 

Kids naturally want what they can't have. Don't give him any and pile your plate with them and enjoy.
Eventually he will see you have something he does not. I would start with vegetables that you don't normally eat but are on the sweet side. If he asks to have some, say no. Say no for a few dinners and then let him try one.

My son eats em all now

 

LOL......I love it...great advice Kodo

 

nice one kodo. i can see that working.

 

What about green m&m's? aren't they a veggie?

 

When my kids were little, my wife worked evenings, so it was my job to feed the kids. Peas were the main veggie. I taught them to suck them off the plate with their lips. It worked great, 'til my wife observed it one day. She thought it was disgusting. Women, I just don't get them.

 

Depends on what level the child is refusing to eat his vegies. If it's just a matter of :I don't feel like it", then there is always encouragement (positive reinforcment). There is always alternatives that still supply all the nutrition, but may be actually be enjoyable to the child, or a at least edible.

You shouldn't force a kid to eat something that he definiyely hates, or he'll grow up hating them even more. I wont touch Broccoli, pumpkins, and most roast veggies to this day, in no small way because I was forced to eat crud I hated, where if I was left alone to experience things as my pallate developed, I probably would have grown to like them.

Both of my kids were pretty fussy when they were young, but we always found other ways of getting the nutrition into them that they didn't mind. Now they eat most things that are good for them. Neither of them likes candy and sweet stuff all that much, which is fine by me.

With me, I often just don't have time to cook veggies every noght. But I do make sure I drink veggie juice every day. (Tastes basically like tomato juice, so it's not too bad, and probably a lot more vitamins in it anyway, if the truth be known.

 

Wow, thanks everyone! Lots of good suggestions.

I also make up stories to go along with certain foods. For instance, spinach is seaweed and that Squidwards (from Spongebob) favorite! (Just picture me and my wife acting so excited over spinach "WOW, I LOVE SPINACH! THAT SPONGEBOBS FAVORITE.") Or since lately Spiderman is the coolest thing in the world, I'll tell him that broccoli is what gives Spiderman his powers. That works a little.

My wife also works some nights, and I don't even try to cook. Often when it's just me and him, we end up eating fish sticks or Elios pizza (I know, I'm pathetic).

He doen't get a lot of junkfood, but he does get snacks like a few cookies or a handful of Doritos. I've decided that if he doesn't eat his vegetables, he gets no snacks. We'll see how that works.

I think this weekend I'm gonna go to the grocery store and get a just a ton of different fruits and vegeatbles. I'll just try something different each night and see what he detests the least. I think if I'm pretty well stocked with healthy stuff, everytime he wants chips or cookies I'll just offer him fruit. Eventually I'll wear him down.


-Steve

 

Does "here comes the choo-choo train" not work anymore?

Steve

 

Yeah, but it's actually a rocket ship, and we take turns. I'll let him feed me a bite, then it's my turn.


-Steve

 

LOL. That's good.

Steve

 

That's classed as child abuse....taking the food out of a baby's mouth

 

I love Kodo's sneaky method. Heard a doctor some time back mention that long term, the best way to get kids to eat fruits and vegetables is to lead by example, and eat as a family, where that example is noticed. Definitely try to find healthy things that the kids like, and experiment some. There IS life without brussels sprouts.

 

Try mixing the peas with mashed potato, the real mashed potato, not the other stuff.
A hell of a lot easier to scoop up, and eat. A lot quieter than sucking them of a plate, as well. Bazza
===

 

Interestingly enough I came across the results of some research the other day on families sitting down to eat together, and later adolescent behavior. The evidence was staggering, but to summarize....

It was found that youth who had issues...runaways, drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancies....had not been brought up in a family environment where the family regularly sat down together to share mealtimes. It was over 70% of those surveyed.

Eating as a family unit is so important...even if the kids refuses to eat what you cook

 

I found that beating the child works well .....




















JUST KIDDING FOLKS

 

Actually, tonight was pretty funny!

I stopped at Boston Market on the way home from work and picked up a couple of chiken pot-pies, thinking I was a genious since they have carrots, peas and string beans, but they're so cleverly hidden.

So I get home and as we're gathering around the table, I'm trying to get hime excited... "Wow! we're having PIE FOR DINNER!" So after about his third bite, he realizes there are carrots and he spits it out. He insisted he was done and left the table. I told him, "If you aren't going to eat your dinner, you don't get any snacks or anything else to eat tonight".

So I gave up pretty easily, but my wife was determined. She had just bought him a whole pack of temporary tattos, which he loves. She ended up bribing him with the temporary tattos and told hime he could have one for every bite he ate. Well thats all it took. He ate the whole thing, and now has Spiderman and unicorns all over him. He looks hilarious, and I'm sure the teachers at his daycare are gonna love us for it, but hey it worked!

I really don't want to end up having to bribe him every night just to get him to eat his dinner, but for now I'm just glad he got a good helping of veggies.


-Steve

 

My son is 27 months old and also isn't a big fan of vegetables. He'll eat them without complaint if they're pureed, but it takes a bit of finesse to get him to eat them whole. What's worked for us is letting him have a bite of his applesauce in between each bite of vegetables..that seems to appease him. Sometimes if he's focusing too much on his applesauce I'll take it away for a minute and tell him he can have it back when he eats a few bites of vegetables, which he'll do.