how many vegetables does your toddler eat... honestly?

[MamaChris]

ds is nearly 15mo, and has never been a great eater, but is getting seriously picky these days. most fruit and yoghurt are still safe bets, but with vegetables, we're down to just 3: tomatoes, sweetcorn and peas (and technically, tomato is a fruit too). sometimes I can hide grated courgette or carrots in a tomato sauce, but he's getting wise to that. It's getting hard to think of things to cook for tea, and he certainly isn't getting close to 5 a day.

A guy at work boasts how his daughter eats everything, so, please, tell me about your toddler. (Keeping my fingers crossed at least some of you have a dc as bad as mine!)

he has become fussier as he has got older ... tomato, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, potato and possibly sweetcorn. I think he probably eats more variety at nursery but no chance at home unless it is mixed into something else!

DD is 3. She eats carrots under duress, slices of cucumber, sometimes peas or sweetcorn.

She will eat any kind of fruit in abundance though.

Last week she tried a broad bean. I live in hope...

If I make a bolognaise/mince based sauce I put mushrooms, red pepper, onions and tomatoes in ....when he was younger he would eat it but now he is more likely to want to pick the bits out if he spots them!

MC have you tried him with broccoli .. most children like carrots and broccoli as they are sweet!

Um, broccoli and occasionally a cherry tomato.

She used to eat peas, sweetcorn, carrots and sweet potatoes. No more.

It is very depressing.

DS1 gave up eating at about a year. He's 7 now and his veggie repertoire is carrots, baby corn and peas (under sufferance). He will also eat cucumber and apples.

I would just keep offering all sorts and ignore his faddiness if you can. I learnt the hard way with DS1 and DS 2 and 3 do eat better but they do not "eat everything" - very few toddlers/children do IME

One bite of broccoli under compulsion. Carrots if cooked. Tomatoes if tinned & in pasta sauce. That's about it. I read it is unnatural for toddlers to want veg - not high enough calories.

all of 'em.

except tomatoes.

I blame Charlie and Lola.

DD-cucumber
carrots
peas
sweetcorn
brocolli
mushroom
onion
asparagus
cabbage
leeks
courget te
tomato(cooked in a sauce, never raw)
sugar snap peas
green beans
potato
sweet potato
butternut squash

DS the first 3 and potato only unless heavily disguised

DS 3.8 will eat any fruit and veg (raw or cooked) except aubergine but will not eat sandwiches. will eat bread, will eat butter, will eat the fillings but not all together.

sooooo frustrating !

mamachris... it may be about texture. have you tried giving raw or lightly cooked or well cooked veg? try the three options. my DS loves crunchy things but wont eat veg if its too well cooked.

All of them except raw tomatoes.

peas, carrots, runner beans, peppers, sweetcorn, onion,
all fruit.

15mo DS loves veggies. He eats lots of peas, carrots, broccoli, corn on the cob, courgette, tinned tomatoes in sauce.

He eats onion, cauliflower, spinach, parsnip, butternut squash, celeriac and various other things - particularly in casseroles and sauces. He'll chomp on some raw carrot and cucumber sometimes too.

He spits out chocolate though. DH and I can both eat a 200g bar in one go, so we have no idea where he's got his food preferences from (not quite true, we do eat a lot of veggies)

DD will eat broccoli, sweetcorn and tomato sauce (but not normal tomatoes).

She used to be good with fruit, but has started even to reject bananas.

Obviously, she eats most things at nursery, but will not even try most things that mummy offers.

DS2 (15mo) - pretty much everything i give him but not if it's 'wet', like cucumber, sliced tomato.
but...i don't tend to offer the more 'unusual' things as:

DS1 (nearly 3) fussy sod, will eat buckets of one thing for a week, then won't touch them for months and switch to something else.

currently:
red peppers
cucumber
peas & sweetcorn always
runner beans
mushrooms

erm, onion when it's in sauce.

don't stress, keep offering

DS will be 3 next month. He'll eat anything and everything

Honestly? None. We have an allotment, we grow most of our own vegetables, we eat extremely healthily, but the nearest dd (2.8) gets to vegetables is baked beans.

She ate more or less everything until she was about 15 months, then she became extremely fussy. She's mainly eating bread, breakfast cereal, (plain) rice and couscous and yogurt at the moment.

We used to hide veg in pasta sauce, but but we had a bout of winter vomiting disease before Christmas, and the last thing she ate before being sick was spaghetti, so she (understandably, really) won't eat pasta at all now.

DS ate everything under the sun until he was 2.

Now at 2.6 on the veggie front we're down to sweetcorn. And that's it.

I make the AK hidden veggie saucen ad he'll eat this on pasta.

Fruit, we're down to banana, green grapes and satsumas.

He won't eat chocolate either. Shame, guess who ate all his easter eggs

DD will refuse any raw veg even tomatoes. I offer, she looks at me as if I'm crazy and gives it back to me.

But if its cooked she'll eat

cauliflower in califlower cheese.
Onions, carrots, butternut squash, peas, sweetcorn,mushrooms, peppers .. well anything as long as its cooked

My ds has been a really picky eater in his time and still has a very limited selection of things he eats. However, fruit and vegtables have always been at or near top of his list.

He eats veg first at lunch and tea. He loves cucumber and carrot sticks raw. His favourites cooked are broccoli, baby corn, carrots, sweetcorn and peas. Has been known to eat the odd sprout, cabbage or green beans but that is rarer. My mum grow vegetables and he is keen to try the things he has helped look after (he is 3). Hers are the only tomatoes he will eat!

It's not always as good as it sounds, sometimes he can go for several meals without eating anything but vegetables which I don't think is great. He will only eat potatoes chipped, doesn't like food with sauces on (except spag bol or rissotto) and is reluctant to eat any meat other than mince, cheap ham or chicken nuggets (bleurgh!). Obviously you can't have it all!

does anyone find that the way it's presented will affect whether they'll go for it or not? FOr example, DS1 will happily eat cauliflower plain, but will not tolerate it in cheese sauce.

And there was me all smug pleased when he was a baby and eating anything. Sigh...

wow - thanks for all the quick replies. he won't touch cooked carrots or broccoli - not even potato! he pulls a face if he even smells cucumber or pepper at 3 paces (and always has). he used to enjoy spinach, so I knew he was getting some greens, but I can't even hide spinach in a curry any more

but he did chew on a raw carrot the other day, so might be some hope there. will try more raw/less cooked things, good idea.

very impressed at some of your dcs! perhaps buying a whizzer will be a solution Sazzles.

I do keep offering, and try and make sure there's something on the plate I'm confident he'll eat, as I don't want him to go to bed hungry, but also don't want to offer him another plate of food if he refuses the first.

DS is 2.2 and has always been quite good with veg. He loves most things, especially greens, strangely!

He's not perfect in that respect though. He doesn't like any mashed food (like mashed potatoes for example), mixtures of things are often viewed with suspicion (unless it's obvious what's in it and he likes everything) and he is not too keen on meat/chicken although he loves fish.