Mother's of veggie haters

holly321

Want to share any new ideas or recipes for tricking LO into eating better?

Until recently, the only veggie ds would eat was carrots. And now he won't touch them. I am getting desperate. After making a gross homemade squeeze pouches, he wont touch them.

So yesterday I put pureed peas in pancakes, called them monster cakes, and he scarfed them down.

brachysira

The only trick I have is to make some for myself, sit on the couch while she plays, and pretend I don't want to share.  The second she sees me, she runs over and wants a bite, and will usually keep eating whatever I'm eating, as long as I don't actually give her a bowl of it.  She eats anything this way, and rejects all meat, beans, and veggies at the table.

meggipi5

Hi there. I've pretty much lurked since the babies were born, but I'll come out of hiding for this one. 

 Green smoothies are my only solution right now. I get some spinach and greek yogurt in there for protein. I'm at a loss and looking for ideas, too, so I'll certainly be following this thread.

ally2011

Keep trying.....I read that they can sometimes need 10+ exposures to things before trying and then sometimes 10+ more to start eating them on the regular.  Have you tried corn on the cob?  Or grape tomatoes cut in half (I know they are a fruit technically and corn is not that nutritious, but just as places to start).  Of course you can blend and hide spinach in about anything.  My dd liked pretending she was eating trees when eating broccoli.  Mostly just keep trying and if you get a bite her or there celebrate.  I have also bribed mine before with chocolate chips, but that is probably not a solid strategy and is probably messing her up for life so I stopped

ally2011

I have also mashed up avocado and successfully hidden it in mac and cheese.

Poppy523

I have bribed mine before too. I trade her a bite of banana for a bite of dinner. I'm probably also ruining her for life

ally2011

At least yours was banana!  I have no shame, I would set out a few chocolate chips right in front of her.  What is wrong with me!?

tamarar5

I have this problem with fruit! I swear, I have the only kids on the planet who would eat spinach instead of apples.

cinnasugar

We are hit or miss with veggies, lately more miss.  He's been sick and not wanting to eat anything except yogurt the past few days. 

Prior to that, though, I got him to eat peas by doing airplane noises and pretending to fly bites into his mouth.  Then of course he tried it himself and we ended up with peas all over the floor.  Yep, teaching him to play with his food.

Spinach in smoothies is a go to when I feel like he hasn't had much lately.

kelly321

For quite a while with DD1, pureed cream veggie soups worked well if I called them by the color. She still eats "pink soup" (which is what my mom grew up calling cream of tomato soup because she had a brother who didn't like tomatoes), but "green soup" (i.e. broccoli cheese soup) and "orange soup" (usually a mix that included carrots) are no-gos now. Also, a tip-- when she watches me make "pink soup", she sees me put onion and tomato in the form of canned diced tomatoes and some tomato sauce in and tells me, "Mama, I don't want onion in mine. I don't want tomato in mine." So at the end, I let her watch me put her soup through a strainer into her bowl. The onion chunks and tomato chunks stay in the strainer, but the onion flavor and all the tomato juice still go through. Both of us are happy

Soup is still working with DD2, but not as well as it used to.

colinsfebmommy

I am too lazy to make my own smoothies. Mine eats yogurt already made with veggies, Pear/Spinach/Mango, Strawberry/Beet/Berry, Banana/Pumpkin and Apple/Sweet Potato.

Other than that he LOVES red peppers and Hummus....the kid dances for hummus and he loves peas. So far he hates onions, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots (unless cooked in a soup). Oh and jicama he hated.

We will keep trying. 

kbates85

Smoothies work well but the other trick I've found is that if my kid watches/helps me prepare the food he will usually at least try it which often leads to eating it. It's a total PITA because cooking while holding a toddler sucks but it's worth for it if I get him to actually eat meat or veggies or both. 

Gftf7

Last week we tried Potato Cauliflower Mash and it went well. LO loves spaghetti squash with pasta sauce. We make 'pumpkin' pie from buttercup squash a lot.

djm31012

Poppy523 said:

I have bribed mine before too. I trade her a bite of banana for a bite of dinner. I'm probably also ruining her for life

Ha-ours is pretzels. You get a pretzel if you take a bite of dinner. He literally wakes up asking for pretzels...no idea where he gets it from! DS is a good veggie eater so I feel lucky there, but he also does love my smoothies. Yesterday i did spinach, kale, blueberries, raspberries, banana, greek yogurt and he was all over it. I would try that route! Otherwise, spinach in meatballs is easy to hide, or peas in sauce. Those usually seem to go over well. How about soups? Will she eat those?

holly321

fishes said:

DS has been known to lick the ranch or whatever off the veggie and then hand the veggie back to me saying, "more?"

Dd did that. Then stole the bowl and ate ranch with her fingers. Now she acts like it is the grossest thing she ever ate.

wineandcake

Anything puréed in pasta sauce works for us. Or when we do homemade pizza on Friday I make him veggie pizza and he eats it like he's never eating again. Veggie sushi = so much fun for him and he loves to eat with chopsticks so it's a win win.

I bet if I put little pieces of veggies in the dog bowl he would go nuts and eat it..., kid is always trying to eat dog food, I could probably trick him tht way.