Kids Wont Eat Veggies!!!! Help!!!

How about spooning peanut butter on celery with little raisins on top - Ants on a Log. My mother would make a big joke about us chomping on ants "Eeww!"

Have you tried layering zuchini or squash in lasagna? That's one of my latest tricks. The sauce hides the veggies.

Hope you get some good advice! Good luck!

It is probably just a phase... at 2 and 3 years old they tend to be kinda picky... my daughter loved veggies but wanted nothing to do with any kind of meat... What you need to do is continue to offer them... make sure there is a serving on every plate but do not try to force them... they will begin to see it as some sort of punishment. In the mean time make sure you let them have plenty of fruits (apples, bananas, grapes, and melons tend to be favorites at this age) and also find a multi-vitamin that they enjoy. (I've found the gummy vites work wonders!) and that will help you to feel sure they're getting the nutrition they need daily. Don't stress so much over it... kids tend to shy away from stuff mom puts a lot of emphasis on. One thing that's helped my daughter develop better eating habits is making sure I mention as often as I think about it; how much certain foods help you grow big and strong and even make a growth chart and every time you measure them and they are a little taller make note of all the fruits and veggies they must've eaten to grow so much. Good luck and most of all try not to stress about it; you'll need that energy for plenty of other things soon enough!

When my daughter was little, she went through a phase where all she wanted was yogurt and scrambled eggs. Her pediatricain said to let her have what she wanted, as long as it was good for her, but to continue to offer small amounts of other things. He also recommended adding a multi-vitamin to her diet, and NO junk food. No chips, no cookies, no candy, no soda, no "juice drinks" (the ones that are only 10% juice and the rest water and high fructose corn syrup).
I let her eat scrambled eggs and yogurt until she got tired of it, and she started trying some of the other things I put on her plate. If she was thirsty, she got water, milk, or 100% unsweetened fruit juice. She liked the taste of V-8, but not the thickness of it, so I thinned it with water for her. Between meal snacks were bananas, raisins, apples, or other real fruit (not Fruit Rollups), a bagel with cream cheese, or whole wheat bread with natural peanut butter - yes, you can get peanut butter without added sugar (and without artificial sweeteners either - just pureed peanuts with their own oils retained to make it spreadable) at Albertson's.
By the time she was 5, she was raiding the dinner salad and stealing the mushrooms. She's now 17 and has better eating habits than most of her peers.

K.,

I have 4 and 2 year old sons. And they don't eat their veggies either. I found this recipe for veggie muffins and they love it. I make small mini muffins and put it in their lunch. They are pretty quick and easy to make. I'm not sure how good it is for them, but it makes me feel better.

http://www.recipezaar.com/128256

A. K

we had nothing but veggies on our plates for a week and that got my son in the habit really quick. the trick is to not offer snacks. if they don't eat it the plate is put in the fridge and when they are hungry later they can eat it or not. use spinach in cream pasta. grate zucchini squash and carrots into red sauces and soups. make the veg absolutely unavoidable. broccoli with a very little corn over rice. the reccommended adult serving of meat for the day is only three ounces (smaller than your avg filet and probably about as much as four chicken nuggets) so don't worry that they won't get enough meat. your kids will not starve themselves i promise you. don't let them increase their intake of milk, because they may use that as a way to keep from eating.

if all else fails there is a new cookbook coming out called deceptively delicious, that has recipes for hiding veg purees in recipes. good luck.

No potatoes - they don't like fast food French fries? If they do, try slicing potatoes to look like fast food fries and bake or roast them in the oven. My family loves them like that. Try vegetable juices. Or sneak the veggies in. In one of my magazines (can't remember which one) I recently read that Jerry Seinfeld's wife Jessica has just published a book titled "Deceptively Delicious", which includes recipes and tips on how to do just this - for example, by pureeing cauliflower to add to macaroni and cheese, and by adding greens to the meatballs in a spaghetti dish. The kids are eating their veggies and don't even know it. I think the book is about 20 bucks.

I saw this on Regis and Kelly and just yesterday on Oprah... there's a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious and I think it's written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife (forgot her first name) but they claim these foods that include pureed veggies are "deceptively delicious" and kids can never tell. I'm tempted to try this out myself. good luck!!

Here's an idea. I like to make beef & veggie stew in the crock pot, but I hate cooked carrots. I found that I can sneak in the carrots on myself if I grate them & chop them very small (you could use a food processor). After cooking all day in the crock pot, they pretty much disappear into the gravy. Also, I usually throw in some frozen or canned peas & corn to cook with the beef roast & some chunks of potatoes (red work best).

It's pretty much a phase but while they are going through that I would advise to get the V8 smoothie or fruit juice mixes. They will get the veggies they need in that.

Always offer the veggies with dinner or lunch though. You never know when they'll decide to start eating them :)

The one veggie my kids love is spinach and that is because I make a spinach and egg omelet. I didn't tell them it was a veggie in it but they eat the heck out of it. Maybe try something like that or even start putting cheese on the veggies...not the healthiest thing but it might open a door for you.

Good luck!!

There are alot of good ideas for "hiding" the veggies below, but I'll add a few more. Shredded carrots, zuchinni, etc. are great in meatloaf. Sometimes it is the texture kids don't like, so make a big pot of veggie soup and puree it in the blender. Throw in a can of corn (which you said they will eat), and they may just eat it. My kids ate things as long as I had ranch dip. Kids that age are picky by nature, so keep offering it. I use to tell my kids, "Oh, that's right, you won't like that until you are a big girl or a big boy." They would then say, "I'm big!" My response, "No, you aren't big yet if you don't like your veggies." I can't tell you how many times they would eat them to be big! LOL Keep trying, but don't worry!

I also have a 2yr and 3yr old. At one time they would not eat any veg. at all. I mean nothing! I continued to offer them daily and one day they just started eating them. They will not eat all of them but some is better than none. I started adding a little butter and Tony's to green beans and that is their favorite. Have a great day!

cheese!!!! that's what worked for me. my daughter is 4 years old and will eat just about any veggie with cheese!!!
good luck

HI, OPRAH was JUST talking on this very subject yesterday. Go to her website and check out Jessica Seinfield's recepie book, 'Deceptively Delicious'. The basic idea is pureeing veggies and sneaking them into foods that they like, including mac & cheese and chicken nuggets! My son is 18 mons and eats his veggies w/o problems, but if he gives me problems as he gets older I will definelaly use that idea. GOOD LUCK!