my almost 3 years old totally refuses to eat any kind of vegetable.

[syl1985]

This is soooo difficult and it only seems to get worse with this little man. He does eat it when he doesn't recognize it as a vegetable.

Most of the time I hide them in the sauce, soup etc.

There's nothing wrong with the taste because he does eat it when he doesn't know he eats it.
If his eyes notice that there are vegetables on his plate. His lips will be firmly closed and he runs from the table.

He then totally doesn't eat anything from his dinner.
We try to get him to eat something by telling him he'll get a piece of meat. He's a real meat lover. When he takes a bite.
But nothing.
Ice cream, sweets etc after dinner and again nothing.

He's brothers are getting a nice ice cream or some other lovely dessert or sweets. Because they ate their plate or a part of it.

Then he gets angry, but still refuses to take a single bite.

My middle one loves vegetables. He always eats all of them and often asks for more. The oldest does like some vegetables, but not all of them. He doesn't always eat everything, but he does always taste and that's ok for us.

We don't give our fussy eater anything else in the evening if he refuses to even take one bite from his food.
He seems to be ok with it. He doesn't ask for anything. He's only upset when he sees that his brothers do get a dessert and he doesn't. But that's all.

The next morning he eats more then normal for his breakfast. That's ok with us.

Anyone with some good ideas on how to deal with this incredible, unbelievable fussy eater?

Thanks,
Sylvia

Stop asking him to eat vegetables. Serve them on a side dish...give him his pudding and leave him alone. He will begin to eat them when he is ready...the more you push, the less likely he is to begin to eat them.

Continue to hide them in other foods, don't label him a "fussy eater" they pick up on these things and it's all self perpetuating..meaning you're feeding his habit of not eating vegetables.

Witholding dessert won't help either...it's using food as a weapon which is wrong.

I have a nearly four year old like this. Won't touch fruit. The weird thing is her older sister absolutely loved fruit and tucks into it all the time. Even with this shining example in front of her dd2 won't touch fresh fruit. She will eat puréed or dried fruit though, which I suppose I should be thankful for.

As long as he's getting some of his five a day I wouldn't worry too much just yet.

My ds1 is 4 1/2 and until 2 weeks ago refused to eat any form of vegetable. He had feeding difficulties as a baby which has resulted in a food phobia and fear of trying anything new. I can't hide veg in sauces as he won't eat sauces - only dry things like chicken nuggets and sausages. Like your dc, he would freak out at a veg on his plate and cry "take it off, take it off!" I started off by getting him to tolerate the presence of say a fe peas on his plate - he didn't have to eat them, just let them sit there. After a while, the hysterics stopped, and although he eyed them like they might leap up and bite him, he ate the rest of his food and didn't make a fuss. Then I tried the 'just take a lick' approach - that took a while too and required a bit of imagination where I pretended to make the peas / carrot sticks talk to him. He still won't eat a pea but he will lick one, and with this approach he has recently started to eat raw carrot sticks. Given his history of feeding problems this is nothing short of a miracle! All I can say is, slowly slowly slowly. Don't let them see how stressed and anxious you are about their diet. Don't lose it and get cross when they won't eat what you have lovingly prepared for them. Ds1 is healthy and well despite a very poor diet! You can get Dalivit vitamin supplements if you think there is need to - ds1 has those. I can recommend a great book called "Just take a Bite" - deals with all sorts of eating problems from fussy eaters to food phobias. Really worth a read. Sending you a hug as I know it's not easy.