15 Month Old Twin Boy's Refuse Vegetables!!!!!!

Hi!
I have a daughter one month older and she is very picky about what she eats. Sometimes she loves strawberries and other times she pushes them away. You never know how a meal is going to go. Keep trying, and hopefully they will start to eat more foods. Good luck!

Nope, don't worry, and don't make a big deal of it. They are still babies. Continue to offer. You can also blend veggies into things that you make....like spinach into waffle batter ;-)

HI S.,

I am not being mean but your the one who I am guessing does the shopping and the preparation of the food. Eggs, cheerios, fruits are good for them. I would watch the intake of waffles and grilled cheese. Its ok once in a while. But they tend to be very fattening. Have you tried carrots in a dipping sauce ( I make mine from yogurt), you can par boil them so they are not hard. Cucumber sticks, there are so many things you can do. You can hide veggies in a healthy pizza, believe me they will never know!!! or in a kids size burger you can hide spinach! Baked sweet potato fries are yummy. I bet if you google "How to hide veggies in a recipe for kids" you might find some delicious recipes for your little ones! Sounds like your doing a great job!

D.

Hi S.,

My 20 month old LOVES soup and he will eat veggie soup, lentil soup, minnestrone or chicken w/ wild rice. Give soup a try they put lots of veggies in there! Sometimes he starts off with a spoon, but he prefers to drink it by either tipping the bowl into his mouth or sometimes I just pour the soup straight into a cup (less spilling). good luck - let me know if it works for you. p.s. he won't really eat veggies either if they are just sitting in front of him (maybe just corn)

Hi S.,

My daughter is 19 mos. and is similar in that she won't eat that many veggies. Once in awhile she'll eat the green beans in the premade Gerber dinners for toddlers or a bit of squash - only yellow. But, in general she's not a veggie person. One thing I've done and it's good your boys like eggs - is to put kale in little pieces in her scrambled eggs - she gobbles that up. Another thing is you could blend carrots with cheese (the color change won't be great) and then put it in the grilled cheese; or, if they start liking mac n cheese, it's easy to put the blended carrots or squash or zucchini in that. But, I'm not too concerned with my daughter. She eats well, a lot of carbs and dairy and fruit, like your boys; and she is growing well according to the doc when I see him. I figure as she gets older, I'll keep trying new things and eventually she will be able to eat raw veggies and maybe like that . . . or try new veggies. Oh - another thing, if she sees me eating something different from her, she usually wants to try it - often mine has veggies, so she gets a little veggie that way. Good luck!

Hi S.,

Aren't twins GREAT!!!!!! Double the problems :) I have b/g 20 month olds that don't seem to like their veggies/fruits (except banana's and applesause) since I took them off the jared food. I was thinking about starting to hide them in regular food (pured). I belong to a mother of multiples group and I will pose the question tonight at our meeting and see if they have any other suggestions. you could always look up your local twins group and pose the question on the website. I belong to a group near New Bedford....southcoast mothers of multiples. Good luck and I will email you back if I get any good suggestions!!!

S.

with my girl we made a big deal of "dipping" her veggies in either salad dressing or hummus. Potato wedges dipped in ketchup was also a big hit.

They sound like my son - big eater of "tan" food like waffles, sandwiches, PB, fries and not much else. You have to keep introducing foods but you can do a great job hiding vegetables in their regular food. I made pancakes with all kinds of stuff in them - I used high protein soy and whole wheat flour, flax meal, fruit, even pureed broccoli! I made a whole bunch on the weekends and then froze them with waxed paper in between, then quickly heated a couple for breakfast in the toaster oven. I made "Power French Toast" with whole grain bread with lots of holes in it, and then a power batter of eggs and soy protein powder that soaked into the holes. I cooked the slices in the pan and sprinkled cinnamon on them - it turned white bread into the same color as whole wheat bread as far as my son was concerned, so when I switched to better and better breads, he never noticed. The cinnamon makes it sweet without calories (it's also very good for you) and so he needed less syrup. I gave him real maple syrup instead of the stuff that is all high fructose corn syrup. The bottle is expensive but it lasts because he didn't need much.

There are some great books about sneaking vegetables into foods - like butternut squash puree being the same color as macaroni & cheese, broccoli puree going into spaghetti sauce, and so on. Someone mentioned Jessica Seinfeld's book - I know there was a lot of controversy about whether she plagiarized someone else's book. There is also The Sneaky Chef which is actually geared toward getting men to eat better, but you can adapt it.

When I steamed vegetables, I also saved the nice green water in the bottom of the pan, and used it for anything my son would eat that absorbed all the water - rice and couscous, for example. Don't waste it on pasta where most of the water is thrown away. I saved it up in little freezer containers and just heated it when I had enough.

You could try not making the veggies so mushy - maybe they don't like the texture so much?

There is also a fantastic kids supplement called Now for Kids from Reliv. I just came back from a conference of 5000 people and heard incredible stories of how their kids have done so well on this, reducing colds and flus, getting rid of allergies and eczema, and all kinds of digestive issues. I heard from numerous MDs about how they use this in their practices to get kids the nutrients they need. It's a great value and I'd be happy to give you more info. My friend's child got rid of pneumonia-like symptoms and constant use of nebulizers, and another friend's child no longer has his 50 food allergies. It's a great addition to your situation to help you with your worries about him not getting the nutrition he needs.

My kids love to eat their veggies frozen! Because of my busy schedule I use frozen veggies and just give them their portion frozen in a bowl. I think because they have a little bit of a crunch to them that it doesn't gross them out. Good Luck!

Hi,

I don't think it is uncommon. My daughter used to eat absolutely everything so I was spoiled, but now she is more picky. I put pureed broccoli or spinach in her scrambled eggs and she doesn't care at all. I also put pureed veggies in her cottage cheese and she doesn't notice. I have heard over and over not to make mealtimes a battle, because you will never win. Just keep trying different things and hopefully you will find something that they like.

Check our www.wholesomebabyfood.com and www.wholesometoddlerfood.com for ideas. There is an oatmeal banana cookie that I make with raisins and sweet potato instead of banana and that is popular. Or take a look at Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (or there is another similar book that came out at the same time. They are recipes for hiding fruits and veggies in your meals.

Good luck

D.

I'm curious what advice you get. I have 16 month hold b/g twins and my son is the EXACT same way! I try to sneak it in with one dish meals but that only goes so far. Good luck (and congrats!)

My recommendation is to leave the mush behind. Veggies can be cooked soft and cut into little pieces. My 7 month old is already refusing mush, so we are starting to do this. Fortunately, I don't need to worry much about balanced nutrition yet because he's still nursing quite a bit, since he also has no teeth so we're limited to things that can be cooked very soft. I'd recommend steamed or boiled carrots, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, chopped up green leafy veggies mixed in with eggs. I don't recommend really hiding the veggies too much though -- you want to teach you children to eat their veggies, not make them think that they don't have to.

My daughter is not a huge fan of vegetables either, although she will eat them at daycare!!! Occasionally I can get her to eat them, but more often than not, she will refuse them. My solution (this comes from the pediatrician) is V8 Fusion (1 serving = 1 full serving of fruits/veggies) and a vitamin (I think he recommended 1/2 of a fruit gummie vitamin until she turned 2. Talk with your pediatrician and see what he/she says!

S.,

Most kids do go thru this stage of eating. One thing I have done with my daughter is to hide the veggies in her other foods. I grate carrot and zucchini into her mac-n-cheese for the last 2 minutes of cooking then make as usually. I also can add small pieces of tofu after I've made it and she hasn't noticed the additions.
I have also grated carrot, zucchini and apples as well as mushed bananas to her pancakes.
I've boiled chicken then put it in the mini chopper til it is like eraser shavings and added that to many things - mashed potatoes and soup.
My daughter loves soup - creamy soups. Butternut squash soup, carrot and corriander soup, potato and leek. You can try that. She doesn't like the chicken and noodle type soups but you can try it too.
We also do hummus on crackers and sunflower butter - really good.

Just a few suggestions to try,
Good luck,
L.

I second the V8 fusion suggestion. My little guy gives us a hard time eating his veggies but he enjoys veggie & fruit drinks.