Advice on how to get dd to eat a larger selection of foods...

[naughtyorouttacontrol]

she used to love veg, but never ate salad (other then tomatoes) or friut.

Now she is eating less and less veg, still loves tomatoes and eats a little fruit.

What the best way to get her eating salad and fruit and veg??

I tried to bride her by saying if she eats one new food everyday then she gets a sticker and after 1 week gets a toy. She then said she has enough toys and does not want to eat her cucumber

Help

A few tricks that have worked:

disguise them - put loads of veg in a spag bol for example, or make smoothies. i used to hate brussels sprouts, and my mum mashed them into potatoes which apparently I wolved down!

Get her to help you get things ready. You dont say how old she is but Im assuming shes quite small. That means you need to be careful with knives obviously but if she gets involved helping make the food shes more likely to eat some of it.

Try an activity for the reward and not a toy. Eg if you eat your salad sandwich for lunch, we will go feed the ducks this afternoon (or something else she likes) if shes quite small, eating for a week can be too long in one "bite" (boom boom).

And just keep offering it to her, and dont get stressed if shes not for any of it, just take it away and dont give her replacement snacks, show you are consistent and firm, and dont turn it into a drama.

Sure there are loads more good advice out there, good luck with it!

I peeled courgettes as dd spied them straight away and refused to eat them. she's been eating them for a month without realising now! she now likes swede if I mix it with carrot and mashed potato. She is the same as your dd, I keep serving it up, and just hope one day she'll eat more variety.

Thanks for the tips, I do put veg in spag bowl but she picks it all out and moans about it. I'm going to make pasta sauce with aubergine and courgette and blend it so she will never know

I think I will try the thing of we will do .... that might be a better way of doing it

Blitz a veggie and tomato pasta sauce with blender? Add loads of veg-think there is actually a Jamie recipe for one. Ditto for soups. You could add sausage or something to the pasta to make it more appealing?

O, and don't say, o it's veg soup/ sauce; make up names- it's broth, or Florence sauce, or something!

How about getting a load of fun exotic fruit and just have a bit of fun with it? Passion fruit and mangos are so much more interesting than a boring old apple or banana. Cut them up together, talk about what they look and feel like, make a fruit salad.

She might find herself wanting to taste a bit just to see what it's like. Don't force her to eat it at the time, but I think being involved in food preparation can sometimes help.

Another tactic is to tell kids they are only allowed a tiny bit of a new fruit or veg. They then wonder what is so special about it and pester you for more. I did this at my day nursery and had kids fighting over who got the largest bit of raw purple sprouting broccoli, broad beans and runner beans .
Smoothies can hide a multitude of sins, I hide broccoli in ours.
Growing veg makes it more interesting too, DD is now a cucumber snob and will only eat it freshly picked.
I second the playing with food, it helps kids become familiar with new food without the pressure to eat it.
To get a sense of how it feels for the toddler, think how you would feel if you went to a restaurant and the waiter poured custard all over your roast dinner then stood over you saying "try it, it's good for you!"