To ask how you get vegetables into a toddler?

[BradPittsLeftTit]

And I do mean via food 😊

My toddler (2.5) isn't particularly fussy BUT his diet has slowly narrowed over the past few months so that everything vegetable related now gets rejected. I used to do a vegetable curry that I rammed with veg which he now won't touch. No peas with food, rejects anything remotely green and identifiable as veg or salad

He does seem to eat better at nursery and will eat most fruit but I'm conscious his main meals at home are slowly turning beige

Does anyone have any sneaky ways to get veg in or healthy meal ideas to give us a shake up?

Thank you!!

Salt.

unseasoned veggies are awful. I added a sprinkle of salt from 2.

I put veggies with most meals in the hope they will get eaten - it’s a long process but now my 2 year old will eat broccoli, peas and carrots. Cauli is a no no, as are peppers. So first thing is just keep trying.

both My kids like butter on veg (who doesn’t). And I agree with poster above re a tiny sprinkle of salt.

Something to dip the veggies in (yogurt, mayo, Tom sauce, cheese sauce, etc) helps too

if not veggies, will they eat salad? Sweet tomatoes and cucumber sticks have never really been much trouble to get mine to eat

keep putting it in front of them and most toddlers eat some of it and a reasonable variety.
Mine loves cucumber, sweetcorn and cherry tomatoes. Will eat broccoli, peas and green beans and carrots. Everything else if probably going to be ignored but he gets a bit of whatever I’m eating anyway.

Try roasting the veg, most of it is so much nicer roasted. My kids are much in older now but 8 used to do this.

literally no one in our household apart from me would eat broccoli but since I started roasting it gets devoured!

Maybe try introducing the sweeter veggies back into dinners first. Sweet potato chips/mash, sweetcorn with nuggets etc.

If you’re making something like a spag bol try grating veg in so it’s not obvious. Courgette, carrot, onion can all be sneakily added.

DS went through a few months like this but it was just a phase and didn’t last all that long. It’s a nightmare when ever dinnertime is a struggle!

There’s a great site for healthy family meal recipes and snacks called Taming Twins. DS loves everything I’ve tried from there!

I used to do a 'vegetable voice'. They would beg for mercy and then scream in pain when eaten.

To be honest, I don't really bother. DS will barely eat a veggie at home and he wouldn't be fooled by any of the tricks in this thread. There's not much in veggies that you can't get in other types of food so I just serve them, accept that they won't get eaten and add them to my dinner later on.

A dip of some kind. They can have as much ketchup as they like if they're eating the veg dipped in it.

With a wedge and a funnel?

Only joking…..

Same.

My job is to provide the food, its up to my DC whether or not they eat it. I'm not going to hide veg, do ventriloquism, bribe them, or anything else. Fair play to anyone who does want to do that but here it just gets served and either eaten or not eaten, no strings attached.

Wonderful

I think it’s quite a normal phase to have a few years where they become wary about saucy things which they loved when tiny. I tend to do the putting a bit on the plate even when I know they won’t eat it. Mine have been quite inspire on occasion by an ‘eat the rainbow’ chart we have and if I put out a mix of varied colour veggies they will give it a go. My 3yr old won’t eat cooked peas but likes to pick the raw ones from sugar snap peas. Putting out carrots, cucumber, sweetcorn etc when they are starving and waiting for main meal sometimes works. Playing a game of this is delicious and it’s all mine. Also games about how I can see them growing a little since they ate the broccoli etc, let’s eat a bit more then go and measure you kinda thing. And lastly no pudding if you don’t eat 3 carrots kinda nonsense!

I purée carrots and green beans into tomato sauce. My son only eats broccoli as a veggie. So this is my only way.

Ds(4) is pretty good with veg but to get extra in I make a basic pasta sauce with:

Tinned tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Stock (veg usually)
Splash of lea and perrins

Then blend it so it's smooth - you could easily add in some carrot or sweet potato/butternut squash. I also add croot/Peppers to bolognaise sauce.

I also saw that twsco are now doing "meat and veg" products - the meatballs with added veg went down well here.

Told them it was Mummy's grown up treat and they couldn't have any. Relented eventually and let them have some vegetables when they said please.

Dear god don’t add salt like pp said.

keep offering them, get them involved with the shopping, the cooking and the growing too if possible. Describe them, offer them raw, play with them when you cook, smell them, make it fun.

i used to do mashed potato croquettes that would have very finely chopped veggies in. Frozen chopped spinach is fab for chucking into pretty much any dinner as the bits are so tiny. Soups can also be good to get the veggies in too as well as cakes- courgette cake, beetroot brownies etc.

But I always, always tell the child what’s in it, once they’ve eaten it, in a lighthearted way. They will never know they like something unless they know they have enjoyed eating it. Obviously it isn’t necessary if they’ve helped prepare it but most of the time they won’t have done. Good luck!

Repeated presentation with no pressure to eat is the main for long term success.

In the meantime:

Mix them into a tomato sauce and use for pasta or as the base to pizza (or with rice or as a dipping sauce or just with anything).

Tomato ketchup to dip them in. Or other dips.

Let them help you chop/cook and offer them a taste of everything (make sure you taste it too). Or offer them a bite of everything as you prep the veg.

Sit down to eat with them and have the veg on your plate but not theirs so it's instantly more interesting.

Try soup. Smoothies.

Just keep trying. My daughter never really ate any veggies or salad bits (loved and still loves fruit). For meal times I always put a variety of things on the table and then she can choose what she wants. She amazed us by suddenly loving tomatoes and cucumber and eating up her peas and broccoli.

Thank you so much for all the fab responses and suggestions.

Im just doing bedtime so will read through properly. In the meantime, two questions:

1. Assume during the period where you keep offering and putting it onto the plate, there's a lot of waste and you just accept you'll be buying and binning lots?

2. I really want to avoid creating a fuss so should I literally not mention it or do the old-just try 1 and you can get down....you can't have pudding etc?

Thank you 😊

1. I put a smaller portion out, if it gets eaten and they want more than I can make more or can give them some of mine.

1. I never withhold pudding and I never use food as a reward. My DC are allowed their pudding whether they eat their main or not because its part of the meal, why would I stop them eating part of their meal?

I also don't make them have a try, no "eat three and then you can go", no asking them to just have a bite, none of that at all. If they are finished and want to leave the table then they're allowed to excuse themselves whenever they like.

The central rule in our house is we don't fuss over food.

I wouldn’t bother either. Between the ages of 2 and 20, DS would eat nothing green! He did however eat carrots, so we had carrots with or in just about everything. As an adult, he eats most green vegetables.

My friend used to put a token sprout on each of her kids plates and then throw 4 sprouts in the bin after none of them ate them.

I never bargain or withhold pudding or anything like that. I ask if DS wants to try something but make no comment either way if he does or doesn't. I comment positively on nice table manners but nothing about the food.

DH used to make an Annabel Karmel hidden veggie pasta sauce - think it was carrots & courgettes. We all loved it & DD never suspected a thing!

I have no idea what you mean by “There's not much in veggies that you can't get in other types of food”

Vegetables really are very important.

@OperaStation I love veggies and eat them a lot and clearly they should be the basis of a healthy diet but is there anything you can only get in veggies? Fibre/roughage is probably the main thing (but there are some other sources) but there's not much that's unique in veggies. Clearly they may be the best source of certain nutrients but they're not the only source especially if the rest of a diet is pretty good (whole grains, dairy, lean meat, fish etc).