11 Months Old Hates Vegetables

Hi B.,
First, don't ever let your child hear you say that they hate vegetables. It often takes 10-20 exposures for a person to get a taste for something new, especially new textures for the little ones. My suggestion to you is to keep putting a few pieces on his plate every meal and show him that you and Dad are eating them too. Try the method of everybody taking a taste together, or have a race to see who can eat the green bean first. Something else to think about is that toddler's taste sensors are much more sensitive than ours so foods are much stronger to them. Limit or eliminate salt and seasonings because they are just too intense for littles ones. Stick to fresh or frozen. Start with carrots, peas and squashes because they tend to be a little milder in flavor than beans or leafy greens.
Just keep exposing him to the veggies and don't stress too much about it.
Take care,
B.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi B.,
I had a similar issue with my daughter that is now 2 and a very good eater. After a number of trial/errors, here are a few things that work for us. I puree carrots, yams, or butternut squash and add a tablespoon to her yogurt. I know if sounds bad, but she never noticed a difference and eats her yogurt everyday. I also add one of the purees and a little refried beans to mac and cheese to make it a little healthier. Pureed carrots and spinach with spaghetti sauce is quite good. There is a book called Deceptively Delicious which has a number of different recipes for sneaking in various pureed vegetables and fruits. You should still continue to offer the whole veggies, but if he doesn't eat them at least you will feel a little better knowing he is getting some extra nutrients. My daughter also loves the Amy's organic lentil and black bean soups which are a great source of protein and have a number of vegetables. A friend of mine suggested adding the pureed veggies to meatballs because her child loved it. However, my daughter had no interest in it. In addition, once a day I also add liquid vitamins to her milk. Good luck! I hope you find something that works for your child!

I agree with Lori. Green smoothies are the way to go.

Here's how I do it:
I cut up an apple or a pear and put it in a blender with about a cup of frozen mango or some other kind of frozen fruit. I add just enough filtered water or oj to help it blend smoothly. Then I add in a cup or two of a leafy green (spinach, kale, chard, and collards are my favorite). I buzz it up until smooth, sometimes I add some stevia extract or lemon juice to improve the flavor if I think it isn't sweet enough. Depending on your ratio of fruit to greens, you won't even taste the greens. Start at about 60% fruit, 40% greens, and increase the greens as you and your children develop a taste for it.

I personally don't mind the green color, so sometimes I add berries, and sometimes I don't. In fact, the berries plus the greens make it brown, and I'd rather drink a green smoothie than a brown smoothie, but whatever. They both taste good.

Dark leafy greens are so important to get, but rarely do people eat enough of them. It takes me a long time to chew through a cup of spinach, but if I put it in a smoothie, I'll get it easily, quickly, and deliciously.

I make a big one in the morning and me and my kids share it throughout the day.

My daughter also loves baked sweet potatos. I bake a bunch of them at one time, peel them, and slice them in to rounds. I then place them on wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they're frozen, I put them all in a big freezer bag, and thaw as necessary. So easy. So healthy. And they're really sweet, so your child probably will like it.

Good luck!

Echoing here that it takes 10-12 exposures for kids to adjust to a new flavor. With my dd, she eats Korean foods--except the really spicy stuff, and she just asks me to take the spicey off. She's 2.5 years old. We started out similar to you and I got emails from several of the mom sites I had signed up for when she was a baby that said keep trying, don't over expose too many flavors at one time. So we tried to follow that as best we could. I started taking her food from her plate to eat it OH! I want yours! That looks so good!! she had 2 responses one to take my food then (same food mom is still happy) or to stop me and tell me it was hers. We still have those games somtimes except now she knows it is a game, but hey she still eats her veggies!
also for recipes, I got a great book from one of the retailers on Amazon, I had checked it out of the library and then bought it...it's called First Meals by Annabell Karmel. She has a lot of cook books for babies and toddlers. I still use some of the stuff in the book for my 2.5 year old. This book goes through different stages of the kid, when to add different textures, and what works well together for smoothies etc. They are quick and easy to, always a plus.
I also just found a website I am using and enjoying
http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/

Good luck!
one of our favorite sayings is "shrimp! You love Shrimp!"
and she does...

Along with all of these suggestions, you can check out Jessica Seinfelds book, "Deceptively Delicious". She has recipes like mac n cheese, grilled cheese, etc., where you can hide the veggies by making purees. You will still need to continue to present the actual veggies at mealtimes, but I have been doing this with my 16 month olds for 5-6 months and they love the recipes and occassionally will eat the actual veggies, but at least I know they are getting the nutrients without stressing out about it so much. Good luck!

My 13-month-old is the same way. So for the time being, I'm still pureeing veggies for her and she'll scarf them down that way. Must be something with the texture of veggies? Not sure. We give her meat and fruit as finger foods, so she's still getting practice at feeding herself, but I've just resigned myself to feed her the pureed veggies. I'm hoping she grows out of it soon, though.

Continue to offer it, vary it up, try baked sweet potatos, even baked potatoes, frozen peas were a huge hit with my kids,
crunchy yummy softer veggies that maybe with ranch dip on them. I agree V8 is loaded with sodium, so that isn't the best way. They do have lower sodium version but I think it is loaded with a lot of citric acid. If he has a lot of teeth, my kids LOVE raw veggies, chopped up for your son, but they love yellow, orange and red peppers, they are sweet and crunchy. I cut up carrots strips very thinly and give them ranch dip.
Try putting pediasure in his milk for added nutrition, or add carnation instant breakfast. You don't want to give him a bunch of liquids.
Steam green beans instead of commercial baby food. My son hated baby food after 10 mos.
Just keep offering. If he is still taking formula, there is toddler formula too that contains all he needs to get in a day.
Just do not allow him to be picky by offering him just his favorites, keep offering.
It took ten or twenty times of serving up brocolli rice dish to my four year old, now he loves it.

Frozen Peas and corn, the only good advice my mother in law gave me. The still eat them at least once a day at 3 &4

Don't give up! It sometimes takes kids up to 10 times or more of trying something new before they "like" it. Your son is also a great age to mix things together. We would usually serve a fruit and a veggie at meals and would try each alone and sometimes put a little of each on the spoon. Sometimes our son wouldn't want the veggie alone, but would eat it right up with a little bit of fruit at the tip of the spoon.

You can also "trick" him by giving him a couple of bites of something he really likes and then sneaking in a bite of veggie every so often.

You may also try steaming frozen veggies rather than using canned. They taste a lot fresher and have a lot less sodium.

You also have to remember that commercial baby food tastes a lot different than if you were to puree the veggies yourself. Although he may like canned baby food peas, for example, real peas may taste very different. It is just something he has to get used to....and he will. He is still very young. (Imagine trying to get a 3 year old to start eating more veggies! Yikes!)

Try thoroughly cooking the veggies and keeping them in bite size pieces for him to pick up. That may interest him enough to eat a few extra bites.

Does he like spaghetti? Puree some veggies and mix with the sauce.

I personally wouldn't go for the veggie juice. He will fill up quickly on the liquids...and at this point should be getting more and more used to solids anyway.

Also, try to serve only one thing he "doesn't like" during a meal...and keep the rest of the meal things he eats more readily.

I hope these ideas help. We tried many of them ourselves and our 2.5 yo son is a really good eater (including veggies). (He was never fond of commercial baby food, however, as we usually pureed our own veggies.) Luckily your son is young enough that if you keep on the right track (introducing new and healthy foods to him) he should be a great and healthy eater!

make sure you rinse the green beans really well.

my kids love green beans at room temperature. I serve it plain and then ask if they want dressing on it. They say yes then I pour some Balsamic Vinegar on it. They LOVE it.

My mom also has a trick she does with food. Small portions. + whenever she gives my toddler new food she also says, "mmmmmm....yummy!! I like it." It's the only way my toddler will try it.

As far as you can ditch the canned veggies unless they are homemade. They are full of salt and sugar and nutritionally low value. Fresh frozen, tastes better, has more nutriants and a better texture. Kids usually love to eat them frozen, "pea pops". You can control portions better, since you only take the amount you need.

Keep it simple. Avocado, fresh peaches. I wouldn't worry if it is a fresh fruit or veggie as long as it is organic. Shelly Young has a great kid tested cook book called "back to the house of health" and her husband Robert O Young. You can look up the recipes on the internet. S.

Get a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. She was having problems getting her kids to eat veggies too and was tired of fighting with them about it. She uses vegetable purees in all the recipes. She offers vegetables at lunch and dinner, but b/c the food has sneaky vegetables in it you don't have to worry about whether your kid is getting the right nutrients. They taste good too. There's another cookbook that's similar by a different lady, but I can't remember the name of it. GL

My DD didn't much care for veggies when she was that young either. However, I always made them a part of her plate...now that she's 4.5 she LOVES broccoli, peppers, etc. To start we just gave her milder veggies such as avocados and let her take her time getting to know them. I always eat mine, and as I mentioned they are in most of the things I serve.

I don't necessarily agree with 'deceiving' your child into eating a veggie. They will eat them on their own, happily and willingly if you give them the chance. But at 11mos their tastebuds are not quite ready for most of them.

this was the only thing I ever heard that made since: Children don't like bitter (vegetables) for safety reasons. When we were cave people, you didn't want your baby eating everything as it could be poisonious.

So no kids really love vegetables at first. Keep trying. Get Deceptivily Delisious by Jesica Seinfeld. It was awesome for ideas of hiding the veggies. Try cooked babby carots with a touch of brown sugar. also, squashes worked well for me.

but keep bringing it on. My 4 year old finally tried spinach salad after years of having a pinch od salad onher plate. she likes it...with blue cheese dressing, of course.

I borrowed DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS, by Mrs. Seinfeld, from the library, it's a great resource for ideas to hide veggies in different dishes. I've a friend that uses the recipes a lot, and it's worked out great so far.

(The cons of this essentially circle around the idea that kids need to learn to love & eat veggies simply as veggies.)

try pureeing veggies and putting them in something else. i knew a lady who did this to get her HUSBAND to eat veggies. she would puree squash and mix it into spaghetti sauce, or you could use colorfu veggies like carrots to make mashed potatoes more interesting. while you keep trying to get him to eat veggies straight out, doing this might get him the veggies he needs and slowly get him used to the taste. i've hear that it can take up to 30 times of offering a food to a baby before their taste buds get used to the taste. so just keep trying and maybe try combing the veggies with stuff he already eats. good luck.

My daughter has very similar issues. It could be the taste or the texture of the vegtables. She will eat tomato based sauces and pureed vegetable soups (butternut squash, sweet potato, etc). My doctor also said since she has 5+ servings of fruit a day I shouldn't worry too much about her getting all the vitamins she needs. Just keep offereing them. Sometimes it takes 20 times trying something to learn to like it. Good luck.

I am a huge veggie mom, and always offer them at lunch (raw) and dinner (cooked). My three kids' tastes have changed over the years, but I just keep on giving them no matter what. They know that they don't get seconds until all their veggies are gone. When they were this age, I steamed and pureed frozen veggies and added them to whole wheat pancake batter. Then I made a huge batch of pancakes (they loved the green pea ones and squash ones the best)and was able to freeze some. We always ate them warmed up and plain - no syrup or anything. I would even pack them with me as an on-the-go snack. They get to eat it in a fun way, but it also does have a hint of the flavor so they learned to like the different tastes. They also loved cut, peeled and de-seeded cucumbers as a snack at that age. Good luck and keep up with it!

Hi B.,

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Good luck!

A.

Frozen and fresh veggies always worked best for us. You can give some of the veggies, peas, corn, etc. frozen. That's a huge hit for our littlest one. We also tell our boys that they have to eat X amount of whatever veggie at the start of a meal. Such as, 2 green beans for the 2 yo, 5 for the 5yo. 2 bites for the 2yo, 5 bites for the 5yo. We tell them that at the beginning of the meal before they start and they are not dismissed until they finish that. Our 2yo has suddenly been asking for green beans. He's hated them since he was first given them. We don't usually have an argument, although we sometimes have to add desert as an incentive. Favorite fruit often works for dessert. If you want to have canned veggies, the only thing our kids eat is Del Monte corn. Frozen or fresh other than that. GL!

Hi B.,
Keep trying with the veggies, it takes a child 10-15 different times of trying a new food before their taste buds start to say it is good. I would also stay with fresh veggies, even green bean, my pediatrician says canned veggies are cooked so long that the good stuff is gone and fresh is much much better. My son likes fresh green beans just quick boiled so they are slightly crunchy and then a bit of grapeseed oil, actually a good oil for you, if you can find citrus flavored it is great with beans, and quick sautee them, he even likes sesame seeds sauteed with them.
Keep trying,
SarahMM

Hi B.,

Dont get discouraged, it take 10-12 exposures for a child to beging to like a veggies.

Making smoothies will help mold tastes for fruits and veggies.We make smoothies with, blueberry, bannana, strawberry, pineapple, spinach and kale, carrot, etc. Adding fruit/blueberries hide the green and bananas mask a lot of the veggies taste. Start with milk, water, oj, soy, or rice milk etc.

It is still important to put veegies on the plate.

One favorite is "circles" baked sweet potato with cinnimon.

My son kept getting sick at this age and I started him on juice plus. there are 17 fruits, veggies and 2 grains in a gummie form. research shows juice plus supports the immune function and I have a VERY, VERY healthy 3 year old boy!

check it out www.DenverJuicePlus.com