dd wont eat veg

[Dooles]

HI Im new to this but i need help for my 5yr old dd who eat any veg at all. Can you give my any advice..........

For a start do you eat lots of veg yourself?

Let her choose it from the greengrocers, let her pick it up and touch and smell it in the shop, then help you wash and chop and cook it at home.

Try growing some yourself - maybe wrong time of year now. You could go to pick your own place and pick sweetcorn - ask them at the farm as they usually pick corn themselves but will let children do it if you ask.

Try really sweet and tasty raw veg such as small new carrots, baby corn, cherry toms etc. Arranged on a plate they look pretty and appetising. Try a dip she likes with them - mayonnaise, sour cream , 1000 island, hummus?

You could hide veg in a soup, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, etc. Some children will eat veg blended in foods.

Any good, do you think? you may have tried all these already...

reading the charlie and lola book about not eating peas resulted in my ds1 eating peas.
a kid's vitamin reassures me.
baked beans count as one portion of veg. fine chopped chips of parsnips and sweet potato roasted are similar to chips.
frozen blocks of spinach dissolve to nothing in stews and so on.
termpura (sp) battered veg is nice with a dip if your'e not too worried about frying.you can buy the batter mix at tesco.
mine like to select their veg from bowls on the table with baby corn, grated carrot, spinach leaves, cucumber and so on - then make up their own tortilla wraps with stir fried chicken.
magimix steamed cauliflower with olive oil and you won't believe it - almost nicer than mashed pots!
make your own pizzas.
peer pressure - send her for school dinners
educate her - this veg will do ... for your body.
this is the really hardcore one - add gelatin sachet or veggie equiv to fruit juice and veg juice (use v8 and pj smoothie if you can't do your own) and you have a lovely jelly to eat with icecream!

The key is to not make an issue. Do not persuade or bribe to get her to eat.

Prepare your meals, just give dd small portions of the things you know she won't like. Make sure the rest of the family have the same. Make the mealtime relaxing, chatty and just get on and eat your meal ignoring what dd does. If she says i don't want that, or tries to move stuff off plate, just say "ok thats fine but leave it on the side of your plate please. .........are good for you because ....... they help you grow big and strong/give you shiny hair/make sure you eyes work really well etc." Then just change the subject to something else. Do this repeatedly at mealtimes praising her for what she has eaten and most children will end up giving it a go out of curiosity! If she tries something but says she doesn't like it, say 'thats fine' and praise her for trying. Continue to give to her when the rest of the family are eating it.

Growing veg in your garden and picking and preparing together can also be a good way of getting her interested.

HTH!

When my daughter was younger I read that children have to taste something 10 times before they accept it - nature's way of protecting them from poison etc. So I used all types of bribery and disguise to get things like broccoli into my daughter's mouth, just one mouthful on each occasion and she eventually accepted them and now eats them easily.

It did help to say things like the broccoli florets are flowers and she only needs to nibble to flowers off the stalk, creating pictures with her food as well as the usual vitamins talk which is now well drummed in!

Good luck, I know how worrying it is as my daughter wouldn't eat meat for over a year.

DD (3 at the time) wrote all the foods she did like on a big A3 sheet, she drew little pictures under the words, and stuck it on the kitchen wall. It was a great incentive for her to keep trying foods so she could add them to the list (once proven by being eaten at two separate meals). The main thing is to keep trying the foods, even if they've tried it before. If they still don't like it each time, they don't have to finish it.

Sorry that should say I did the writing, she aint no Doogie Hauser .

My dd won't eat veg if given to her in 'veg' form...so I hide everything!
I puree and freeze lots of veg and then add them to her meals.
So...pureed carrots gets added to baked beans sauce and she scoffs it down.
Pureed red peppers get added to pasta sauce...
Pureed brocolli and all kinds of other veg get added to mashed potato with a little cheese and she scoffs it down too.
I do the same with fruit. Pureed fruit gets put as a sauce over ice-cream and stuff like that.
Mine will eat sliced tinned button mushrooms and onions if you put them in an omelette but she won't eat 'fresh' mushrooms.
I always serve some 'whole' veggies on the plate too and hopefully, one day she'll grow out of this phase and just eat them straight!
I think veg tempura (suggested by someone else) is a great idea - yum!

Try mashing them into the mashes potatoes if u havent done it

Does she eat fruit? If so... just make her eat more fruit but offer her some of your veg.

The only thing thats got my dd eating veg (apart from carrot sticks which is the one thing she does like, and baked beans) was school dinners.

my son won't eat fruit or veg. We eats tons of it, dd eats tons of it,,,he has just never liked it. He will have tomato sauce (i often do home-made, and sneak in some veg. Not too much because he will know!) I have better luck with fruit juices.
Since having him I have totally changed my mind - I used to think that if all they were offered was good food, then thats all they will want. My ds has taught me differently. i think he just has particularily sensitive taste buds.
btw, he only really likes bland food - pasta, sandwiches etc, doesn't really like sweet things. 9 times out of 10 if we are having a treat, he will turn it down. I give vitamins, and try not to make a big deal out of it. I hope he will grow out of it, and he worries about it too