So.... How many toddlers will eat salad?

[Wearegoingtobedlehem]

Just wondered really, in this hot weather I would love to be able to eat salad as a family. But dd1 & dd2 both not keen at 2 and 3 years.

Do your toddlers eat salad- if so what?

Yes, ours do. Tomatoes, celery, cucumber, strips of pepper, asparagus.
DT1 also likes salad leaves and watercress, but DT2 won't!

Mine doesn't not fruit. Her limited repertoire is cucumber, carrots (raw only), 'orange' melon and pineapple. The child doesn't like grapes!

My DS who is 6 won't touch anything remotely salady. My DD who is 4 loves its all.

Nope just cucumber

But then I always say salad isn't food, it's what food eats.

So there's no hope really for them!

Yes my 3 and 5 yr old will eat cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, olives and lettuce (as long as the lettuce has salad dressing on it).

Mine do (dd7 and ds9) and have done since they were little. I got them to eat leaves without using their hands or cutlery and make bunny ears while doing it totally fell for it and love eating salad now! They can eat it normally now but it was fun

My 14month old will eat anything you give her except melon or cucumber.

Get them to watch 'How animals eat their food' on YouTube, that should help too

Carrot sticks, cucumber, and cherry toms have always been popular. Maybe not lettuce so much, or creamy things like coleslaw.

My DS who is 3 asked for salad for tea today and often chooses it in restaurants too. He bloody loves leaves, onions, radishes. There's nothing he won't eat but salad is a definite favourite.

Dd1 eats most salad she eats raw spinach, lettuce, cucumber, sweet pepper, raw carrot, sweetcorn. She won't eat tomato, beetroot or avocado.

Dd2 eats all the above plus tomato, beetroot and avocado.

Neither of them like raw celery.

Oh and dd2 eats mushrooms. Dd1 does not. Neither like olives or radishes.

None really. She will suck the seeds and juice from a tomato but thats it. She always asks for cucumber and 'letters' - lettuice, raddish, beetroot and either tries and spits out or just leaves it. We find a better approach to salad is to have it self serve in a bowl rather than directly on her plate. The first way she asks and tries rather than asking us to take it off her plate.

I spent over a year putting a little bit of whatever salad I had to hand on dd's plate (think one cherry Tom, couple of leaves, strip of pepper or even less) and then throwing it away as she wouldn't eat it. However over time she gradually started trying little bits here and there and now she's pretty good! I do really recommend the approach of just letting them have healthy choices and then they'll make their own way, it has really worked for us.

DS1 is way beyond toddlerhood, now, but has always loved salad. He's been a bit meh with lettuce in various phases, but things like cucumber, tomatoes, peppers and carrot sticks have always gone down well.

DS1 (at 13) is only starting to eat salad now, and it depends on what type whether he'll eat it. DS2 is not interested in salad. He'll happily steal all the pepper off the chopping board while I'm cooking, but doesn't eat it if I put it on his plate. He generally seems to prefer his vegetables cooked.

It doesn't really bother me. DH doesn't consider salad a real food, so I wouldn't be making just salad as a meal anyway.

I found mine would eat them if they were cut into sticks, so I would give them cucumber, yellow and orange peppers, lettuce rolled up with ham, cheese, celery - all arranged in a nice colourful fan on their plates.

Never managed to get them to eat tomatoes though, they still will only have tomato if it's in a pasta sauce or ketchup!

Keep trying. My 2 year old wasn't keen at first, for quite a long time. Eventually she tried bits and now will eat anything, but not avocado. Don't offer anything else, just put the meal out.

"Don't like a leaf" has been the refrain in our house for toddlers! I keep persevering and DD 13 started eating lettuce a couple of years ago.
My 2.6yo eats tomatoes, cucumber and peppers.
My 14 month old eats olives, peppers grated carrot, peeled cucumber and tomatoes, he attempts lettuce but only has one tooth so struggles.

I add things like cubes of cheese or parmesan shavings, croutons, warm pitta bread chopped up, crispy bacon or pancetta, grapes or strawberries and different dressings to make them more exciting.

Mine all started off eating stuff, then between 20 months and 6 start refusing odd tHings. Eventually they start trying them again. I've stopped worrying about it to be honest

I found that DS1 only really likes 'fancier' salads. He is really not keen on lettuce, tomato, cucumber and some salad dressing. He does like caesar salad, tomato and pomegranate salad, a kind of Mexican salad of avocado, red onion, sweetcorn, coriander and lime juice, and a salad of cucumber chunks, onion, feta and mint.

Mine seem to find leaves impossible to eat - it just gets stuck on the roof of their mouths. DD is now 6 and can manage crunchy bits of lettuce like the stalk bits of Romaine.

All other salad stuff gets consumed at a rate of knots, their favourite tea is 'snack plate' which is basically crudites with some cubes of cheese and breadsticks.