Toddler and fruit and veg. Tips please!!!!

[Littleraysofsunshine]

Tips please when your toddler would prefer chocolate or biscuit to fruit and veg?

(Especially when other family members and other people offer your hold those gongs sometimes without you knowing)

Have the same problem..smoothies, soup & raisins work here as a means to sneak fruit & veg in. Will be watching to hear other people's ideas!

mine have always liked dipping things, so I used to do lots of crudites (cucumber, carrots, red pepper, etc) in houmous, philly etc. Can be done with mayo or mayo/ketchup mixed. Or sometimes I make vegetable fritters (sweetcorn, courgette etc) to dip in to tomato ketchup.

Soups. I regularly round up all the veg in the fridge and make a soup. Both love it.

The best I've found is to make a stew with lumps of meat. Serve it with something they like e.g. Pasta/potatoes. Before you serve, spoon out the veg and liquid, blend it and then mix the lumps of meat back in. Leave a few lumps of veg. DS leaves all the lumps of veg, especially if green, but eats the "sauce".

Mine loved guacomole, mild when she was tiny, and liked to cut up her own crudities. I'm fortunate as my child doesn't like sweet food. Try making tiny fruit kebabs: tinned pineapple, orange ,apple etc.It's fact that some of us are "super tasters" and for them fruit and veg taste nasty. There is a theory that poisonous foods taste bitter. Don't try too hard or you'll end up pplaying them at thier own game. My daughter has informed me she no longer likes lettuce, rocket, radish etc, because her friends don't like them.Don't have sweeties in the house full stop. They'll eat when they are hungry.

I give DD sweetcorn, grapes, blueberries, sliced banana or sliced carrots in a little rice bowl when she's glued to CBeebies. The fact that they're in a special little bowl and not part of her dinner I think makes them a little bit like sweets. She munches away. Might be worth a try?

I make a big deal out of brocolli being "little trees"

I call celery "crunch crunch" and challenge her to see if she can crunch it and chew it louder than I can

Asparagus I call "swords" and tomatoes "moon balls"

All of this sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't fussy little bint-

Mine like making their own fruit salad, you can get child safe knifes so they don't cut themselves. We also add fruit to their cereal like ready brek with chopped banana or weetabix with raisins.

How often are other people feeding chocolate and biscuits and how old is your Lo?

We have never really had a huge problem with dd not liking fruit or veg. She will happily munch her way through a little pot of fruit or will dip ritz crackers into red pepper hummus. We always make sure that there is fruit or raisins within easier reach than sweets or crisps as she snacks constantly and does love these too. Since she was old enough to eat proper food, not mush we have had a fruit and veg box each week which she helps to unpack so that she gets used to different looking things, we have loads of soups and do do the broccoli trees etc. I have stopped buying small bottles of drink and instead buy smoothie cartons (pricier but worth it :) ) Milkshakes (with proper fruit not milkshake syrup) fruit juice jellies, ice lollies etc have worked.
I always feel that a small amount of what you fancy is not a bad thing, but in moderation though.

We have some of the above plus avocado (under cheese) on pizza, plus courgette and carrot muffins from a recipe on the Cbeebies website.

Agree with Perchance, a bowl of chopped up fruit in front of the telly just disappears without a murmur.

I've also discovered recently how different veg taste when roasted, so we have roasted cauli, roasted carrots, roasted onions etc etc

Also sweated cabbage in a pan with garlic and pancetta - it was tolerated, 'better than plain boring old cabbage'.

Pasta sauce with hidden veg. Asda do a great one if you haven't got time to make it. I also add grated carrot and other veg to cottage pie and I make smoothies which ds absolutely loves!

I do sweetcorn, carroty and courgette fritters, called 'sunshine fritters" or "traffic light fritters" depending on which veg are in them.

Banana (and choc chip) muffins.

Scotch pancakes, very little sugar in the mix, but blend in a banana and a grated apple. Serve with blueberries, or drop blueberries on them when cooking.

Crumble - sweet and fruity , or savoury, cheesy and veggie.

Red sauce - basically a ordinary tomato sauce, with a sweet potato added (fry an onion, mix in two tins toms, half a chopped sweet potato) and any other veg you have. Cook til all veg soft, blend, blend, blend and strain. Serve with pasta and meatballs.

Both DC will eat raw mushrooms and consider them a treat!

Falafel.

Corn on the cob.

hide the biscuits and chocolate and tell DC that you ran out, all you have is Xfruit or xveg.

really important that proper meals, veg and fruit come first in our house, only then are sweets or biscuits offered. and if mine don't make a good attempt at their main course, then definitely no sweets or biscuits at all.

I felt DD was having too much sugar in her breakfast so i now mix a lot of rice crispies with her coco pops. I told her the shops stopped selling the "other" kind of coco pops and they only had the special ones. she grumbled for a few days and now doesn't mind them at all.

Good tips here. I have a great recipe for sugar free flapjacks if you want it. It's basically just oats, apples and raisins (the pectin from the apples holds everything together). DD LOVES them.

My daughter went through a phase of only liking frozen veg. As in sweetcorn, peas and mixed veg. I think sometimes we try to hard, lots of people I knew hadnt really tried these?

Obviously I didnt give it to her frozen

Sorry to butt in, scarlettlady would you be able to share your flapjack recipe please!