My 4 Yr Old Will Not Eat Vegetables & Fruit

My 7 year old eats no fruits or veggies either -- used to eat very few and now none! It's an exhausting battle. I try to make sure she gets enough fiber/whole grains. Whole wheat toast, bran flakes, whole grain pasta (the Barilla Plus tastes exactly like reg pasta). But she still has some constipation issues from no fruits/veggies and we had to see the doctor. Doc said "Juice Plus" -- it's actual fruit and vegetable pulps. We got the gummies and it's working out well. Link: http://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/pages/Welcome.soa
Hang in there, I know it's hard. Good luck!

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Okay first you should know that I'm not a mother but this trick has worked with almost all of the kids I've looked after. She likes chicken right, next time you cook it bread the chicken in either baby food or your own mashed up vegetables and serve it like they're chicken strips. This has been successful almost everytime I've tried it.

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I don't know about you, but I never used to season my vegetables well. Now that I do I like to eat them better. Try garlic powder on the green beans and peas. A little brown sugar in you r cooked carrots. Try corn on the cob, that's always fun to eat for a toddler. At least my 4 year old daugher, anyway.
As far as fruit goes, i buy other fruit besides apples. The fruit cup are always good, their not good of nutritional value, but may work. I also get strawberries and cut them up, grapes kids usually like, watermelon when in season, and cantalope.
Try to change it up a little. Even a banana. What I do is give options, I cut up a little of a few different fruits. I can't say I ever had to worry about this, because my daughter has always loved fruits and vegetables.
After I go to the store, I always try to cut everything up so it's ready to eat. A lot of times bags of different fruit are here breakfast in the car.
I notice that if I'm eating it she usually wants to too.
If she doesn't see it being eaten that could be all the more reason to fight it.

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Hello , how about doing what Jerry Siendfelds wife does ? She wrote the book Deceptively Delicious , she purees veggies and sneaks it into food . I do it sometimes , like when i make spaghetti i might add to it red and yellow puree or squash puree. I believe if i remember right she adds cauliflower to her mashed potatoes. Her book has recipes and will tell you how much to add. Good luck !
Jen,

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"Deceptively Delicious" Cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. It's all about pureeing and they never know what's really in it.
J.

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Stay away from the gummi bear vitamins, etc. They are actually loaded with sugar and some contain lead. Oprah featured an article on this june 2004. It was very scary...stick with the juice plus. All natural and organic!! My kids love it and stay a lot healthier!!

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Have you tried smoothies? Spinich blends in nicely leaving no taste and a green tint.

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Get Delightfully Deceptive by Jessica Seinfield. It tells you how to add vegetable purees to food so that your child is getting healthy food and doesn't even know it.

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W.,...My 6 yr old son is the same way...he also wont eat red meat....what I started doing is buying him the drinkable yogorts....and the other stuff for extra vitamins...I cant think of the name right now..please for give me..my dr told me the chewable vitamins are basical full of sugar anyways, so try those drinkables and good luck.

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Hi W.,

Don't worry too much, your 4 year old is just being 4. Try buying some Pediasure which has all of the vitamins and nutrients she needs and give her a couple throughout the day or with her meals. Also try grapes, cherries and pineapple rings and make fun shapes, out of the fruit. You can do this with the veggies too. Try making her favorite story out of the raw veggies and fruit and cheese and nibble on some as your putting the story together and use fruit yogurt and ranch dressing as dipping sauces and see what happens.

D. S. Mother of 5 (25, 19, 16 and 2- 15 year old) 4 girls and 1 boy.

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Don't worry too much about your toddler not eating vegetables. I read a book (I think it was the Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollen) that explained it's in toddlers' DNA to not like vegetables, like broccoli, because of the bitter taste. That actually kept them from eating poison at one point in history. It's not your fault, and your child will eat healthier one day when her taste bud are ready.
My kids eat a lot more fruits and vegetables in summer, when they are fresh. They especially like picking them out from farmer's markets.
I do think it's important to put veggies on your kid's plate at mealtime, but don't force it. I remember my mom forcing me to eat zucchini growing up, and it still makes me gag.
My kids love getting their gummy bear vitamin at night. We bought ours at Costco, but I'm sure regular drug stores carry that kind, too.
Good luck! You are a great mom to be concerned about your daughter's health. If you want to get more information on nutrition, I'm sure you could check some out from the library.

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Hi W.,

I actually was looking into this for my older kids... I'm not sure if their laziness is attributed to approaching their tween years, or if they're just not getting enough of what they need. My kids however, love their fruits and vegetable (last night they were fighting over who gets the last brussel sprout). I jsut fear that my convenience driven cooking style is short changing them somehow. I don't think many people get enough fruits and veggies. Here is an interesting piece of info, discussing the affects of inadequate intake.

sorry - forgot the link http://www.parentsofallergicchildren.org/supple.htm

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not fanatical, I just want the best nutrition for my kids. I also don't want the added cost of supplements like juice plus, which I am sure are absolutely great, but it's not in our budget so if i can get it elsewhere I am going to.

my kids love muffins and quick breads like banana, zucchini, etc. a slice of banana with some strawberry jam spread on it is yummy! zucchini bread with a smear of ranch dressing is also good. try some carrot cake - what kid doesn't love cake?! or a pumpkin quick bread is good too -mmmm i'm getting hungry :)

try allrecipes.com to find some really good recipes for these things. if you make it homemade, you know you're getting actual banana or carrot, or whatever in there.. .and not some processed banana flavoring :)

what about green bean casserole with the crunchy onions on there?

try V8 juice - my kids love the fruit and veggie combo ones and they can't even tell there is vegetable juice in there.

I also know there is a couple books out that help mom's hide veggies in their kids foods... i can't think of their names off the top of my head, but their titles are descriptive of this problem. try borders maybe?

Good luck to you!!

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Hello W.

My son went throught a similar boycott on fruits and veggies but in the end had no other choice but to eat them. I snuck it in food and served it to him cooked on the side and raw sometimes with a ranch dip for the veggies. Don't offer up french fries and mashed potatoes or when you mash potatoes keep the skin on and try sweet potato fries. I like the book Deceptively Delicious by: Jessic Seinfeld the web site is
http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/
It is easy to follow and yummy, simple recipes.

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My Daughter will not eat any vegtables either. Have you ever tried V8 juice??? Or they also have VFusion with vegtables and fruit mix. My Daughter will dring both.
Hope that helps.

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