same old same old, Ds now four and still now eating his veg..any advice

[kjaysmum]

I've always presented veg on his plate, we eat with him, I haven't made a huge fuss but have encouraged him to try new stuff, have tried making it fun, have tried gentle bribary...he just will not touch it...what to do?

I meant not eating his veg of course!

No words of wisdom I'm afraid, but DS1 is the same. Not a single vegetable will knowingly pass his lips. Actually, I'm exaggerating, he now understands that sometimes he has to eat things, so will eat a tiny piece of visible carrot in a casserole. I am still chopping and blending veg into all meals. He was 4 in April. Same goes for fruit - loves fruit juice, fruit yoghurts... but won't eat actual fruit. It's so frustrating.

I have two DS's aged 4 and 7. They eat their veg without any real problems, although I wouldn't say they love it, and certainly would not mind a dinner minus veg.

I have also always told them that unless they eat all of the dinner, or at least most of it they will not get a pudding. After having this same rule forever I think they just get on with it. Also I never really make a big deal of it, and leave the decision upto to them. The lure of nice pud is just too tempting.

If this does not work for you, you could puree some veg into a tomarto based sause with pasta.

You've probably tried this, but making a bolognaise sauce and blending the vegetables so he can't see them?

Soups sometimes go down well, especially tomato and butternut squash and you can hide lots of veg in them.

Try crunchy raw veg sticks with dips, or getting him to make a smily face on a pizza base with veg.

Nothing of the 'fun' variety works with my DS. Bribery of a pudding does nothing - this feeling is set deep within him. He now feels that veg would hurt him in some way, and is 100% sure that he hates it. We eat a lot of veg as a family, so he hasn't seen this from us, and all of his friends eat veg, so I don't know where it comes from. DS1 will happily forgo a pudding if that's what it takes. Unfortunately DS2 is now heading the same way.

I've been reading a book called Mange Tout by Lucy Thomas. It has some quite good ideas. Give up the idea of him actually eating veg for the moment (except your nicely hidden ones) and introduce PLAYING with fruit and veg. Take him to the supermarket and give him 50p and tell him he can choose one piece as a toy, he doesn't have to eat it. Play with it, roll it around, describe how it feels, it's colour etc. Get him to practice his cutting on it (if suitable). But at no point suggest he has to eat it. At the end you could say something like "I'm going to make big monster teeth marks in the pepper (or whatever it is)" and take a chomp. Keep doing this for different veggies/fruit etc and then one day when he's into the game say "I bet you can make better monster munch marks than me" and see if he does. If he does LOADS of praise but still no mentioning of eating. Gradually gradually you might be able to help him to realise food isn't scary. I hope this helps, my DS is younger so it's not so ingrained yet! Good luck

Thanks for the advice, as you guessed we have pretty much tried everything, getting him to eat all his dinner is a tough one as he only seems to gravitate towards one thing on the plate, he hates sauces...think it must be a texture thing..Laura I think you know where I'm coming from with this, we eat such a fantastic variety of food in our house, I love to cook, saying that we're not really pudding folk so maybe if I start making nice deserts he may be persuaded to eat more dinner..love2bake..I will give it a shot, thanks. I do manage to sneak the veg into his diet so he's not going without always and he loves fruit so at least he gets that..it's just so frustrating

Fantastic advice Weegle, I shall try to get a copy of that book, sounds like just the sort of tactics we need, thanks a million!

you're welcome