If your child doesn't like vegetables do you insist that they eat them anyway?

[Podrick]

What are your rules about it if they don't want to eat vegetables?

Have you put a littel dish of carrot sticks on the table, not mentioned them, everyone else crunches away, without mentioning them. Do it for five nights and just watch and see if he ever wants to try one.

My DC eat uncooked mange tout and baby spinach as if they were crisps. They also love a whole carrot when watching telly.

The vegetables don't always have to be part of a sit down meal - maybe that's the way to go.

Podrick - just looked back through your posts and realised your DD is 9 so I'm going to completely ignore everything i said before and say this (as the mother of an 8 yo DD) - don't make food an issue!

Seriously, I'm not saying don't talk to her about the importance of healthy eating but I think at that age it's more important not to let food become a big deal. My DD who is generally quite a good eater started to play on one of my big food ?rules? last year by refusing breakfast before school. I begged. I pleaded. I shouted. I insisted she find something remotely breakfast-like to have even if it was only a carton of juice. She cried. She screamed. She swore she wasn't hungry and I couldn't force her to eat. It was horrible. So against everything i believed was right and ok, I backed off and let her do what she wanted. I did keep one rule which was that if she didn't have breakfast she couldn't take an unhealthy snack to school. So no breakfast meant toast or yoghurt or cereal bar for morning snack (instead of biscuits or crisps which is often allowed). She agreed. And since then she hardly ever goes with nothing. Some days she does just have juice or one single squeezy yoghurt. Some days she has juice AND toast AND cornflakes.

I think at that age you can still try and teach them what's good for them but you also have to show them that you're starting to trust them. So actually, I would keep offering her stuff but back off if she refuses. And still allow the occasional dessert but not all the time.

Of course the other thing you could try is to encourage her to help you shop and/or cook to see if she can discover something for herself that she likes. Maybe she likes fruit smoothies or raw celery dipped in cream cheese or something else unusual you may not have thought of. My fussy DS who won't eat a piece of roast chicken or a mince ball or anything with a sauce decided last week he likes mushrooms of all things! WTF?

don't know how any of that sounds...

My ds refused to eat any veg/friut from weaning umtil the age of three, depite my best efforts.

He had bad constipation as a result and I was so fed up with being seen as a lazy young mum who didn't care. I had some horrendous unfounded comments from nurses/pharmasists etc who just assumed I was feeding him crap and no veg or fruit as i couldn't be bothered.

One day (when he had just turned 3) I decided enough was enough and came over all mean mummy and served his veg first at meal times. If he ate it, he could have his mash/pots and tofu/quorn etc but if he didn't, it all went in the bin and if he was hungry later, there was friut, and if he didn't want that then tough. He starved himself at dinner time for three days, all food went in the bin... on the fouth day he got the message and ate all his veg. I continued serving the veg first for a few months, by the age of four he would eat any fruit veg that was put in front of him, and at nearly seven, still does.

I know that may sound horrible to some people, but he was the fussiest eater in the world, survivng on toast and yogurt, and he changed so quickly once he realised there wasnt a choice anymore.

Podrick - yes, he sorted it out himself.

My dd has watched dp and me eat veg every meal all of her life without pressure and the result is 9 year old who eats no fruit and veg at all. Time for change!

didn't realise it was a 9 yr old.

Offer her cookery lessons

I think veg are an aquired taste so the ealier you give them to dc and persevere again and again they do get to like them, IMVHO.

I do offer pudding for eating most of first course, but it's yoghurt usually.

We have a 'rule of three' to have pudding - if you have, say, lentil dhal, veggie curry & rice on a plate it's 3 forkfuls of each as a minimum. If it's quorn sausages, potatoes & peas then it's 3 bits of sausage (not that THAT'S ever a problem!), 3 potatoes, 3 forkfuls of peas.

If someone absolutely hates what's on offer then they can have a piece of fruit, which is always available anyway.

It works for us - ds isn't keen on veg, dd1 will eat a wide variety of food but has a tiny appetite & faffs for hours if she's not got an incentive to eat up. So far dd2 will eat anything, long may it continue!

Podrick
My ds is 9, and he has NEVER liked fruit OR veg. Even when I was weaning him, he wouldn't eat the fruity/vegy things, but would eat the meaty stuff.

Anyways, I don't like to make it a huge effort - i remember hating things as a child (had more to do with texture most of the time), that I now love.

Lately he has started to like more things. Like roasted butternut squash soup, and carrot sticks with hoummus (although the carrot is mostly to get the hoummus in)

I am keepng my fingers crossed - but I do now ask that he have a few bitefuls of a tolerated veg like corn or peas. It is a worry, but he doesn't really like sweets, so I'm hoping it will all just sort itself out

I, too, think veg is an acquired taste. I hated cabbage as a child but loved it from about 19 onwards.

yes juule! and I used to think blueberries were like eating a mouthful of grit - I couldn't understand why people would eat them. I was convinced I hated them until a few years ago, and they are yummy

DD is like some of the others here - ate everything on weaning but is fussy now - she's 4.4. She retches when she doesn't like something though, so I can't be too pushy or she could end up bringing up her entire meal. We went fruit picking and I persuaded her to try a strawberry - she retched and spat it straight out. Thankfully she will eat some veg; sweet corn (particularly on the cob) brocoli, asparagus,cauliflower, runner beans, carrots when disguised - or straight from the ground - but not from a plate!? raw mushrooms, but not cooked. The only fruit she will eat is oranges, but she will drink several types of fruit juice. I wish she would eat more fruit - now shes at school she won't eat any snack time fruit unless theres orange so she gets really hungry - any suggestions to help with this? She won't eat things like tomatoes or cucumber either - we have them growing in the greenhouse to try and persuade her but she still won't! Maybe she'll just grow out of it?