Toddlers and vegetables

[sheeplikessleep]

Any tricks to encourage toddlers to eat veg?
DS (just turned 2) is fine with them in things - like in cheese sauce, spag bol etc, but always leaves them if they're as a side portion. I've heard the whole 'can take 15 attempts before a taste is accepted' but I dish up veg with every meal (if not in it) and they're just left.

Any hints/tips appreciated - thanks

I don't know sorry, just wanted to add my thoughts. DD doesn't eat veg. To be honest for me, plain vegetables are not particularly enticing. I eat them because I'm an adult and they make a counterpoint to the rest of the meal. The other thing I've been thinking is that in many other countries, vegetables are not plonked on the side of a meal, they're cooked in oil and garlic, used within recipes chopped up in vinegar. This is just me, I know plenty of toddlers who love handfuls of plain broccoli!

Thanks for posting. I do cook some in meals, but sometimes, it's a bit of fish, potatoes and veg is all I have time to cook though. It's like if they have some sort of 'sauce' around them, he'll eat them.

I think he even dislikes the look of green veg (oh to have ds eating just one floret of brocolli!).

Finally managed to persuade my 3 1/2 yo ds to eat broccoli by letting him pretend he was a dinosaur eating trees....with meat he is a carnivore, with trees he is the herbivore. Sounds daft, but worked!

If he's eating veg in some form does it matter he doesn't like them separately? Just keep serving them up.

But it is annoying. My dcs much prefer raw veg so I never bother to cook them. Also (and easier if giving raw) I serve them either before the meal as a starter or after - post tea, put on cBeebies and give them a bowl of frozen peas to eat. Not perfect parenting but at least it's going in.

Soups are a great way to get kids eating veg.
DD likes my smooth vegetable soups e.g. butternut squash and chestnut or courgette and tomato (sometimes with carrot) as well as my clear lentil soup which has chunky slices of carrot in it.

Speaking of carrots - I slow cook carrots with honey, cinnamon, ginger and raisins which she really likes because they are sweet. They are really easy - 5 mins prep and just leave them in the oven for ages (although a bit concerned that by the time she eats them they have been sapped of nutrients).

She won't eat broccolli whole (used to) but I make something called kugel with broccolli which is basically mushed up broccolli with eggs, a bit of stock and a squirt of ketcup. You can do this sort of thing in muffin tins or use a foil dish and cut into squares to freeze and defrost as you need. Got some frozen florets defrosting at the moment to make some as an accompaniment for supper tonight.

Only veg she absolutely won't touch (and picks out of my lentil soup) are mushrooms of any kind.

wow pecan, you've written some fab ideas, thank you! ds does eat soup, so i should definitely increase what i dish up soup wise.
thank you - i'll look into that kugel dish too - cheers for posting.