To feel awful because my children hate almost all vegetables

[Sleepdeprived42long]

I have two boys (8 and 6). They both ate all the fruit and veg going when I weaned but my eldest started getting really fussy at around 2. Fast forward to now and I now have 2 children who will only eat broccoli (in small amounts). They hate any other vegetables. I’ve feel like I’ve tried everything over the years-hiding veg in sauce/soup, serving with meals but not making them eat, no pudding (we don’t have pudding anymore now), asking them to try it even if they don’t like it, explaining the risks associated with obesity etc. It came to a head tonight when I asked my son to try a piece of carrot and he gagged on it repeatedly at the dinner table. I’m at a complete loss and I’m lucky if they’re getting 1 serving a day, never mind 5! I feel awful because I feel I’ve failed them on this and I’m worried about their future health if they continue like this. Anyone have any experience of this and any advice to share?

Sorry posted too early
Don't pressure them to eat and don't comment on if they it them or not.
Just offer the meal, let them know what is everything in the plate and let them decide if they want to eat it or not.

A tablespoon of tomato purée is one of your 5

Also have you tried roasting them in honey? Makes them sweet

I was a vegetable refuser, as a child. That all changed once I hit adulthood.

Mine would eat almost anything if I cooked them in spices, but were quite limited for a while. Don't give up, I think most kids go through this.

Keep offering the veg, apparently it takes 15 or more tries before someone can properly state they don't like something, so keep offering different veg and they will eat it at some point.

My two are awful, too. They're 12 and and 10 and I still make the Annabel Karmel hidden veg sauce which I hide in everything - pasta sauce, shepherds pie, pizza bases etc. Knowingly, DS12 will only eat cooked carrot and broccoli and DS10 raw carrot and corn on the cob. I don't understand it as the vegetables were my favourite part of the meal as a child. But they're healthy, the oldest is taller than me. I'm hoping they will grow out of it (then again, I've bern saying that since they were weaned off the vegetable purées I used to make for them as babies (which they wolfed down). 🤷‍♀️

I have the same problem. Mine are 7 and 12! They were pretty good when they were younger, now they hate everything. The youngest especially. He basically just hates all food that isn't junk food, but strongly will eat more of a variety of fruit that the eldest. I'm at my whits end with it.

supermarket fruit and veg dont taste of anything anyway. even the organics.

My DS was the same, and I heard a couple of brilliant suggestions from a dietitian on the radio which really helped.
Firstly, she suggested trying to encourage them to eat veggies with a variety of colours. So, for example you have a bowl of salad or veg on the table and say something like "you've got some green broccoli, how about something orange or yellow". I tried this thinking it would never work, but by some miracle it did.
Her second tip, which I didn't have to try was to identify something they enjoy doing like football, and say something like "carrots as well as broccoli really help you to be good at football".
Maybe worth a try?

@LizzieMacQueen

Petits pois is one of our favourites. Much sweeter than normal peas.

I remember our health visitor many moons ago saying 'as long as they eat fruit...' so your boys eat fruit, yes?

Petits pois are too much skin and not enough pea.

@Lalanbaba

Sorry posted too early Don't pressure them to eat and don't comment on if they it them or not. Just offer the meal, let them know what is everything in the plate and let them decide if they want to eat it or not.

This^^

Oldest daughter would not eat vegetables, any vegetables, from about 3 through until she left home for uni. We used to put a tiny amount on her plate and made no comment on the hundreds of times she left it. Some veg she couldn’t even bear on her plate, so I served her dinner without. Youngest loved veg throughout childhood, but eldest went to uni and apparently pretty much lived on baked beans for 6 months.

She’s 24 now, own place, partner, and cooks loads of vegetables. She’ll eat any veg going and is one of the least fussy people I know. I honestly think making no deal of it saved her having food hang ups throughout adulthood.

It feels stressful now, but if you model eating them yourself and say nothing I honestly think one day (maybe a long way off!) he will come round. If the rest of his diet is good he’ll be fine.

Veg crudités with hummus / mayo

Homemade apple sauce

Cheese sauce - put blended cauliflower into it

Pretend spinach is basil

My DS can be funny about veg but he loves carrot soup.

Carrot soup contains : onion, cabbage, carrots, lentils, coconut milk.

Sometimes I also put cauliflower in it too. Blend the bejeesus out of it - as long as it's faintly orange, he'll eat it!

Mine will eat broccoli. Broccoli makes a regular appearance. I give them oranges because of COVID-prevention. They will take a few segments daily. Everything else is under duress. My son often leaves it. They are teenagers.

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments and suggestions. A few extra ideas for me to try. But also very reassuring to know that I’m not alone and that they will likely grow out of it as adults! Thankfully they are very active and the rest of their diet is generally ok-fruit, meat, baked beans, brown bread, breakfast cereals, cheese etc and I do give them a daily multivitamin. I think I maybe need to stop stressing so much about this!

I've read somewhere (be damned if I can find it now) that refusing veg and fruit as children is actually instinctual. The most poisonous things are often brightly colored, and improperly washed fruit and veg carry a high risk of food poisoning, so children instinctually avoid it.

There's also the matter that they taste things much more strongly then adults, so a bitter vegetable is much more bitter, sour much more sour, etc.

So I wouldn't feel bad OP. I think it's pretty normal. (Mine are the same).

My eldest likes carrots broccoli and tinned sweetcorn, no 2 pretty much anything he’s always eaten loads of different foods. 3rd son just broccoli but loads of it loves the stuff, youngest loves peas and corn on the cob and those little corn things I can’t remember what they are called dinner time is most fun trying to remember who likes bloody what 😂
No pressure to eat more or different stuff, offer or have it there to try then move on, I do a lot of hidden sauces, grate carrot into meatballs etc so they are getting some that they’ve no idea about

Dd (16) loves veg, is also veggie and has always eaten loads of veg, but been iffy with meat. Weaned on purees and jars.

Ds (6) hates all veg, will occasionally eat a mouthful of broccoli or carrot, and eats corn on the cob. Breastfed til 18 months, baby led weaning, never had a puree etc. He's also been on our allotment since he could walk, is very knowledgeable about how veg grows, gets excited about new seeds and can independently plant a tray of veg, prick it out, dig and prepare a bed, plant and weed around and water, helps dh make netting etc, harvest, wash and help prepare it for cooking. But won't eat it! Except courgettes and mushy peas which he bizarrely loves, and they are also the only 2 his sister won't eat.

He will eat fruit thankfully but have given up worrying about veg, I literally couldn't do anything else to get him eating it. Am sure he will eventually eat more.

Have a look at the Tiny Tastes method - it basically involves giving the child a tiny amount (like, the size of a grain of rice tiny) of one vegetable (which they pick) every day for 14 days for a small reward, like a sticker. And crucially this should not happen at a meal time, so it takes the pressure off dinner. It's research-based and has had some quite impressive results.

My ds is worse! Only likes chicken nuggets, fish fingers, sausages. All with chips or waffles. He will eat apples grapes and strawberries but will gag on all vegetables. I have left him be as he gets so upset. He's never ill so I'm hoping he'll be ok. He has a ham sandwich in his packed lunch. Can't offer advice unfortunately. Just hoping he will start to be a bit more adventurous at some point. He's 11.

Following , my 7 year old eats a good amount of vegetables and all types of fruit .
My 2 year old eats NO vegetables at all . Goes mad if she’s sees a bit of colour on her plate .
I’ve started adding fruit to her lunches and dinners so spaghetti carbonara with a side of raspberries, pesto pasta with a side of watermelon 😂
She eats most fruit but very unpredictable. At the moment she would sit and eat a punnet of blueberries but tomorrow that could change .
I was an extremely fussy child , only vegetables I ate were carrots and potatoes! I was like that until about 16 and now I eat everything ( too much actually !)

Something's which don't overtly scream "vegetable" -Homemade coleslaw,
Mashed celeriac,
Cauliflower rice mixed with mushrooms and cream,
Vegetable curry where the veg is finely chopped
Red pepper blended into houmous.
Beetroot and mint blended into a dip

I find the 'sensory' or 'taste' issues related to all veg interesting as they all have very different textures - carrots, broccoli and peas aren't even remotely similar in taste or texture, and even less so if prepared in different ways - raw, steamed, roast, blended in sauces/soups. So I do wonder why it's veg specifically that DC refuse rather than chips and chicken nuggets (for example). Veg is such a diverse food group without a universal taste or texture so it seems odd that would be the reason for refusing all types of them.

Also an interesting contrast the the French school lunch thread where DC routinely eat salad and veg with lunch everyday and without the battles we seem to struggle with. It does suggest there must be a cultural aspect to it, but no idea what the answer is except normalise, model good veg eating habits and persevere

Some of these suggestions are kindly and helpfully meant and might well be useful to posters in a different position but they make me think some people must never have experienced a child who really, really won’t eat vegetables!

My kids are the same. I was the same growing up. Now I eat nearly all veg. I don’t think you need to feel awful about it.