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!)

Everything offered, but I eat the same at same time which I think helps.

oh plimple, we eat with ds too, but it's no use. if it's peas and sweetcorn I could be in another room and he'd eat it. but if it's (say) the nice sweet potato curry (that he used to eat, dammit!) I made today, then I just have to sit calmly by while he pulls a face, spits it out and tells me he's hungry.

Everything except potato. Which, given that she's half Scottish and a quarter Irish, is just odd.

I used to hate cooked veg as a child, but would eat almost anything raw - well worth a go. Still hate cooked cauliflower, and cabbage anything more than stir-fried.

DD loves most vegetables and eats mountains of them. I actually have to dissuade her from eating her vegetables sometimes and to concentrate on eating the rest of the meal.

However she will not eat any fruit (or only under duress). Wish I knew how to persuade her to eat it!

2.6 ds eats brocolli, peas, cooked carrots, cauliflower, peppers (as long as they are chopped up small), potato of any style, green beans - as side servings. He will eat any veg if its part of a sauce / prepared dish. He's a mini human dustbin. He eats everything at nursery, and usually has seconds .

He refuses to eat cucumber or lettuce though. Just picks it out and says "yuck, leaf".

Bummer! I think I'd prob say, you can't be that hungry if you're not eating, no worries though and remove the plate and carry on another conversation. If he used to eat it I'd assume he was being fussy for no reason.

My toddler eats everything, my 3yr old does not. She did at the same age though so think of that when listening to your colleague

a la here

Oh yeah, If DD1 doesn't or won't eat anything, it gets blitzed and servied on pitta/ pasta/ rice/ noodles/ cous cous.

Little Ff is pretty good, and will eat most things. However, now she is a bit bigger (14 months) she has a definite order of preference.

Whereas a few weeks ago, a hopeful looking dog hovering around the high chair would get a handful of everything thrown at him, yesterday I watched her look thoughtfully at a bowl of sausage, mash, and broccoli, then offer the poor dog some broccoli.

Needless to say, he wandered off looking less than impressed.

MamaChris, how is he with cheese sauce? Lots of veg can be hidden in that.

My boys are 2 and 4 and have always eated everything which always includes lots of different veg. They especially love brocolli as its little trees which will grow in their tummy

DS (2.2) will eat: peas, sweetcorn, carrot (sometimes), tomato (sometimes), butternut squash (in risotto). And that's it!

He ate almost anything until the age of about 14mo so I have been taught never to be smug about DC's eating habits.

DS used to be very good. No more (he's 2.8).

He loves potatoes and cucumber. He'll eat carrots (which amazed me the other day) and he usually likes tomatoes. He'll eat onions in a sauce, but I don't really count them. He would probably eat hidden courgettes but I don't buy them out of season and I always doubt their nutritional value compared with many other veg. The best way I've found to get veg into DS is to make soup, which he loves. That way he'll also eat sweet potato, peas, parsnips and various beans.

He won't touch peas on the plate, broccoli (which he used to really like), cauliflower, cabbage, etc. and now won't eat baked beans either.

DD1 (9) will only eat carrots, potato, butternut squash and parsnips.

DD2 (4) will eat everything but peppers, mushrooms and onions. Unless they are all mushed up!

Kids are monkeys and they change their minds constantly. As long as they get enough fats in their diet they will be fine.

DS likes broccoli, cauliflower and leeks in cheese sauce, carrot and swede mash, herby potato wedges, honey roasted parsnips, mushrooms cooked in butter, stuffed aubergines and peppers.

Oh and baked beans and butter beans thoug they aren't strictly vegetables.

But isn't keen on what I call boring vegetables - carrots, peas, sweetcorn etc.

looks like a whizzer and soups are a possible way forward ... summer soups, mmm.

cheese sauce is a no - although he will eat cheese and drink milk, so go figure!

Useful link BB - lots more refusals to look forward to

I was a very fussy eater as a child (eat anything vegetable now). Perhaps ds is just my penance so I learn to understand what I put my poor parents through...

mine used to eat everything. He's the sort of kid who would pick out all the peas, then the corn, then the carrots, etc. and scoff lentils like they were chocolates. He has been known to put down a chocolate biscuit in order to eat vegetables.

However bang on 24m, he has suddenly begun ignoring carrots, and won't have them if offered. I fear the beginning of the end...

i hide veg in tiny pieces in a cheese sauce then cover it with mashed or jacket potato and grate some chhese on the top, my 1 and 2 year will eat it this way if find. hope this helps. i also put some fish in the cheese sauce too.

Mine will eat the odd cominations that you can buy in those Ella's pouches and coleslaw. That is it.

He only eats the Ella's pouches because i gave him the fruit ones for a week before introducing the vege ones. He just thinks they are fruit

Bizzarely he will eat mountains of coleslaw, i make it myself and put allsorts in it.

He thinks he is being murdered if i approach with a carrot or broccoli!

He is 2 the end of next month.

dd(4) and ds1(2)... none, unless you count potatoes and ds1 will eat sweet potatoes

bizarrely though they think those vie vegetable drinks are a treat so i give them those a few times a week in the vague hope they might actually have some nutritional content

they also don't eat meat... occasionally chicken and they'll eat ham for my mother but no other meat ever. they both like fish though, even prawns and stuff so i try and get them as often as possible... although our fishmongers van has disappeared the last few weeks and most freezer stuff has wheat on it.

they won't eat most fruits eccept for apples, pears, bananas, grapes and dd eats mandarines, ds1 just sucks the juice out of them. they think they like strawberries, melons, raspberries and blueberies and keep convincing me to but them only to take one bite and turn up their noses at them. they will eat loads of dried fruits though.

dd is intolerant to wheat and mildly so to cows milk so there's a whole range of foods she can't eat too.

she doesn't like sauces on things although they both quite happily lick the gravy off meat and leave the meat (proper homemade non salty gravy before i get jumped on). they're also partial to mayonaise and ketchup to dip food in but dp is freaked out by those so to avoid his grouching i don't let them have them often... although they would quite happily eart frogs eyeballs if they were dipped in mayonaise

but, after 4 years of dealing with dd's crazed eating i have learned to approach it all with a zen like calm, she gets given a plate of food, she either eats it or she doesn't, if she does she gets a treat, if not then no treat. as long as she keeps grwoing i figure she's not starving to death and i give her load of filler snacks during the day which i make as healthy as possible. same applies to ds1 since he's gotton weird with food too.

PT why is dp freaked out by dips? I always used to roll my eyes at kids who would only eat everything with ketchup poured all over it. Then I had DS. He went through a fussy stage and wouldn't eat anything so I tried giving him dips to see if the novelty would encourage him to eat. And it did. So I decided I'd much rather give him a fairly healthy diet and have him dip it in ketchup, than have a severely limited and mostly unhealthy diet and not have him dip it in ketchup.

Mine eats spinach in spinach and ricotta tortellini/ravioli. He will eat all kinds of veg if secreted in bolognaise (apart from courgette) and likes corn on the cob. He will not eat boiled veg on the side and won't eat sweetcorn if it has been detached from said cob. It's very odd because he loves his pasta smothered in pesto so it's not like he has a big downer on green things.

He eats quite a lot of pulses - baked beans, felafel and houmous. Oh and potatoes but I don't really consider them a veg either

Dd2 eats loads toms/cucumber/peppers and beetroot is her fave. Also brocoli/carrots/sweetcorn and peasand jacket spuds. Dd1 however eats no salad stuff and will only eat brocoli and carrots and jacket spud.

Ds2 eats no salad or veg whatsoever

DD (14mths) will eat all veg & fruit (thank the Lord as she is dairy/soy intolerant)

DS (3.7) will eat happily: broccoli, carrots, apples, grapes, pears.

However will eat tomatoes if in pasta sauce, courgette if diced and he doesn't notice and sweet potato in a curry as I tell him its carrot