toddlers eating salad

[Toddmummy]

Any suggestions to get 3 small children (under 5) to eat salad/raw veg? they will happily eat cooked broccoli/carrots/peas (leaving potatoes) but not salad - ie tomatoes cucumber. I have tried the 'just keep offering it' method, and it's not working. they love hummous, but resort to fingers with it. I am starting to feel like a failure of a mum because at other people's houses they just avoid all the salad.

blimey, sounds like you are doing REALLY well. Plenty of time to worry about salad. As long as you are getting some veg into them they you are doing better than most mums

It's nothing to worry about, like MP says if you are getting veg into them that is great.

Having said that, I found that chopping cucumber and tomato really small and mixing it in with the hummous helped with DS1. He'll eat it by itself now. He also loves watercress which surprised me, but I suppose it has more flavour than your average salad veg - maybe worth a try?

Agree with morningpaper.

Raw vegetables cut into sticks (so carrots, cucumber, radishes) with a little sauce for dipping (pink sauce for girls - tomato with some cream) is a good fun way to start them off on salad IME.

blimey quick responses. i will try mixing the veg with the hummous, and let you know - but won't be till weekend till next family meal now!
Doesn't help that daddy doesn't care for salad too much either

Baby cherry tomatoes are a big hit here, they're so sweet. Cucumber only in strips with the skin taken off. Carrots are sometimes acceptable if cut thin - julienne style. DD used to eat red & yellow pepper strips with gusto, but usually spits them out now. Everything is better with a dip of some sort, so great if they eat hummous.

DD totally does NOT GET lettuce, she gamely tries it when we have some but just cannot chew it and it gets stuck to the roof of her mouth. I'm sure she wonders why it keeps appearing on the table!

Have you tried offering raw veg they already like and would recognise? e.g. fresh peas or carrots?
Or have you tried avocado?
But as MP says, I wouldn't worry as long as they're eating veg in some form.

another one here to say your doing really well

I used to pop out a bowl of salad rather than on to plates. get one of those fresh dips with four flavors in..and let them pick out what they wanted to try and dip away..

raw cauli, carrot, cut cherry tomatoes, cucumber.. lots of different leaves of salad. etc

we also grow our own salad.. dc's have a pot each.. and have growing competitions LOL..

I'd say as long as they are willing to hold , handle, make faces with it on their plates, taste it etc.. your going in the right direction.

they won't eat raw carrot or cucumber or pepper'sigh' i must have wasted a whole garden full of 'em trying. it's annoying because they will eat loads of cooked veg - even leeks(the dog likes it though because it means he gets meat and gravy most nights!)
i am going to try a diffent 'dips and whizzes ' approach.

My dd who is 21 months won't eat raw cue or pepper unless I blend them with yoghurt. Then she scoffs it down. Same with beetroot.