The only way to get your child to eat vegetables is ...

[emkana]

...to introduce them to as many different varieties as possible before they are one year old. Apparently. According to this .

So if you have a dd like mine who refuses any solid food until well over 12 months then you are stuffed, I suppose. Luckily she is not too much of a fussy eater, but we'll see how she develops - she's 2 now. Dd1 only had jars (oh the shame ) until she was a year old, but she isn't fussy at all now and she's four now...

I just don't think it's as simple as they make out.

[Nbg]

I think my dd had every vegetable there is when I introduced solids. Now she is nearly 2. If I put veg on her plate she won't eat it.

[QueenOfQuotes]

Of course its' not that simple. DS1 was the same, jars until 1yr old, then 'rubbish' for 1yr and now at nearly 5 eats everything and anything - impressed some of the helpers at nursery by reeling off a string of vegetables that he likes to eat - including spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, and broccoli LOL.

[nannyjo]

i think these people forget that every child is different. Fair enough that can happen but it doesn't mean it will!

Luckily DS (11month) has had loads of different variety as he eats well but come 4 he will i'm sure as many kids do go throught he stage of not eating anything which is remotely healthy. Hope not though

[Tommy]

ah..... someone else who has all the answers to a fussy eater!
And what would she suggest to the boy who won't even try any food if it's a bit "wet" e.g. sauces, pizza topping, etc even if he did eat every vegetable known to the western world before he was a year old?!

[Kayleigh]

my ds1 and ds2 were fed exactly the same stuff at the same age. Ds1 will eat everything. Ds2 is a fussy little whatsit. Only veg he eats is raw carrots - only fruit he'll eat is banana and very occasionally a slice of apple.

[MistressMary]

So they learn that mummy decieves them. Great for learning trust.

[colditz]

Rubbish. I gave my son cooked veg as his finger food, pureed veg as his first food, lumpy carrot as his first lumpy food....

He cries if I try to put vegetables in his mouth. When I put them on his plate, he just picks them up and puts them on mine.

At 14 months old, he learned to spit. He has never knowingly swallowed a vegetable since then. He has swallowed a few blended, hidden ones, but that is it.

[colditz]

Bloody neophobia pile of crap. It cannot be true.

How come he would quite happily eat cat food if I let him? Why did I ever find him chewing paper with every sign of enjoyment? Surely it would have meant he rejected his first ever tase of chocolate?

Whereas peas, carrots, sweetcorn, broccili (a previous favourite food!), cabbage, cauliflower, potato, butternut squash were all rejected again and again and again.

Neophobia my bum. I think toddlers are programmed to eat the food with the highest calory content.

[MummyJules]

My DD is exactly the same as Nbg's - She had every single vegetable even things like artichokes, spinach and brussel spouts and now she won't even have vegetables or fruit anywhere near her.
I get very frustrated when people (mostly parents would you believe?) critisize my daughter's eating habits and comment that if I had started off properly then she wouldn't be so fussy - that is complete rubbish! I think the turning point is when they start eating finger foods as that is when DD started to go funny with vegetables and fruit.

I would really appreciate it if anyone who has had a child who didn't eat any veg and now does to give me some tips and it is driving me mad worrying about her health and I feel constantly guilty

[fqueenzebra]

Don't agree with the article. My kids don't get pudding unless they eat most of their veg. Result: they eat the veg. DS1 now complains that the meal isn't right without the veg.

[colditz]

Mummy Jules, how old is she?

Have you got a blender? I whizz some potato, and egg and some well cooked carrot in a blender, make it into burger shapes, coat with flour and fry them.

My ds will eat that if he can't taste the carrot.

Make gravy with vegetable water (it tastes nicer if nothing else!)

Whizz carrots with cheese and spead in sandwiches.

Butternut squash is well hidden in mashed potato - although my ds won't eat mashed potato either.

My friends are often amazed at how little my ds is prepared to eat to avoid the bits he doesn't like.
I have tried serving nothing but vegetables for 3 days, no milk, squash, anything. I gave in. I thought it was cruel to make him go any longer.

When I was 2 and 3, I ate lamb, and plaice. That was it. By the time I was 10, I would eat anything except sprouts and mushrooms.

[PeachyClair]

My five year old will eat ANY VEG and loves them, especially cabbage! DS3 is a little fussy but DS2 average. I really think the trick is to introduce lots of tastes ( this can be jars too though, ds1 loved jars) and then keep presenting them, so they accept it as part of a meal. I can't see the first year being the only window of opportunity though: I would have thought any time.

[fqueenzebra]

thing is, I know plenty of adults in this country who won't eat anything "different". I think the average child in the UK eats more variety than my MIL.

[gingernut]

MummyJules, I generally agree with colditz's advice. From about 12 months ds1 started to reject veg (not fruit though) and I just hid it by mashing and blending it. I carried on giving him some recognisable veg as well (even though he always left it) and now at 3.5 he will eat small amounts of most of the veg I give him. I hated most veg as a child too but I now eat loads. You can only do your best. I get loads of fruit into him by offering it as a snack (e.g. an apple to eat in the car - he often just chomps away at it out of boredom. I tend to offer it on the way home from a playground, when he's hungry). That makes me feel a bit better about the fact he only eats a limited amount of veg.

My sister also refused all fruit and veg as a child and she eats most things now, and is generally very healthy.

[HondaDream]

Thought the article was pants. My sister grew up on frozen lasagne, our father was very strict in the eating dept we always had to finish our plates. I was not fussy at all but he was so desperate for my sister to eat he filled up the freezer with lazagne just so she would eat. She also ate raw carrot and apples. Now she will eat anything.

[milward]

Mine eat veg fine - it's just a normal part of a meal. We have lots of veg, so I think that if kids see their parents eating veg no problems they will as well. My dd1 has planned her birthday meal & for the starter it's salad - seems perfectly usual to her.

[colditz]

Milward, you are lucky. I serve veg every day, we eat it every day, but my ds will not put it in his mouth. Sigh.

I am just hoping that one day he will, and will be surprised at the deliciousness of vegetables.

[milward]

Sorry Colditz - Just works for us. My kids made a pizza on day at school and the tomato sauce was packed with blended veg - none of the kids noticed & everything was eaten up!!!

[colditz]

Blenders are fab

I will try that one!

[Bozza]

Well my DD who is 15 months will eat any veg put in front of her - but will not touch fruit. We have had a bit of a breakthrough the last couple of days - she ate a grape yesterday and half a slice of apple today. Thats all the fruit (other than raisins or stewed) that she's eaten for months. Think it is an issue with the finger food, texture etc. So now we are all sharing a fruit after each meal. After breakfast all four of us had one grape each. After lunch we had apple.

[mancmum]

I do disagree with the research just on my own experience as a child and a parent.. as a kid I never ate or was offered many types of food and now love all sorts of "foreign muck" as my mother would call it... my kids had everything pureed from an early age and would eat everything from stilton to sushi until they got old enough to understand that you can reject food...

[Melpomene]

My dd used to love veggies. She would literally have a bowl of peas or beans for a snack. She would eat her broccoli and leave the pasta. Then at 18-20 months she stopped eating veggies, for no particular reason. She has also gone off fruit, eggs, lentils and many other foods she used to enjoy.

I still give her veggies at almost every meal but usually she won't touch them. She'll have pasta with tomato sauce, but if I blend other veggies into the sauce she rejects it.

On the other hand, she doesn't like sweets or icecream.

[gingernut]

A thought....I never gave my ds1 `junk' food till he was well over a year, but strangely enough he didn't have any worries over trying that for the first time, so how does that fit in with the theory?

[colditz]

Gingernut, I second that with cat food. No qualms about trying that, yet previously loved brocilli has became the Food of the Damned!