How Do Your Kids Eat Their Veggies?

have you tried to put them in a smoothie,(not the kids) fruit, milk,cinn, and a little vanilla, awesome. As far as raw veggies, my 3 yr. old grandson will eat them if I put out ranch, honey mustard dressing to dip, I cut up broccoli, cauliflower,carrots, and shaved celery in a bowl and we all sit down and munch, mix the dressings if we want until we are full. Try it.

Make it look fun? (ie, make a smiley face with nose and ears made out of all sorts of veggies).

My son is now 3.5 yrs and he LOVES his fruits and veggies. I started him young with raw veggies and a selection of dipping sauces (italian, ranch, honey mustard, etc). He always loved it when I made the plate look pretty with a pattern and toothpicks in the middle or whatever.

Could you make a game of it? "Blind taste test" game. Have the kids rate the taste of the 'mystery food' on a scale of one to ten.

A big part of it is repetition. Research with actual picky kids shows that they need to be exposed to a new food item at least 12-15 times before they will reliably accept it.

My son prefers most vegetables raw - peas, celery sticks, carrots, green beans, fennel, green peppers. We do not do ranch dressing or cheese on most veggies. He likes 'fun' veggies too - artichokes, edamame for example. I LOVE roasted veggies but he can pass on these.

He likes his salad without dressing (usually, we always ask). We put salad on his plate every time we served salad for maybe a year before he started eating the lettuce. Now he eats lettuce, spinach, arugula, watercress - any green that is in the salad. We didn't make a fuss about it, it was just there. Since it was there, while he was talking (that would be constantly) and there was food on his plate, he just started putting it in his mouth. And realized it tasted good.

He comes to the farmer's markets with us, picks out veggies and fruit at the supermarket, helps plant seeds in the garden and picks veggies in the garden. He also helps cook (chopping, mixing etc). I think he is more invested in food he has helped with/selected and more likely to eat it.

At our house, if my son didn't eat fruit and veggies, he would be pretty hungry. For dinner we usually have a protein/whole grain/bean item (for example grilled salmon, black bean chili or quinoa with veggies), 1 or 2 veggies and fruit for dessert.

What are you offering instead of fruit and veggies? I suspect that if you stopped offering the other things, they would try the fruit and veggies.

my daughter is a fruit and vegie hound. she LOVES fruit, and LOVES RAW vegies, she eats cooked also our problem is that she is not a fan of meat

I don't know "how" I did it--but my kid is a veggie monster--asparagus, red peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts--you name it--he'll eat it.

Maybe because they've just always been "there" as part of the landscape...not sure. All kids are different.

if you don;t have snacks in the house they will choose these and love them. Whenever I have "junk" in the house my daughter will put up more of a fight. Honestly she chooses veggies most on her own. Maybe the problem is that you're being too nice. You said you don't force them? I force my daughter to put her jacket on in the cold and eat veggies and fruit or she wont get a desert. Eventually their taste buds grow to like them. Also it helps if you eat them..my daughter always saw M. eating salad when she was one and used to eat it J. because it was mine and eventually grew to love it...OH and I told her that I could see her shrinking a few times and "showed her" and then she ate them like crazy...
also when she was little I'd ask her to be a dino and eat trees (broccoli) because she loved dinosaurs..i tried to make it fun and put them around fine glasses with dip in the middle and serve her like she was a princess when she was 2...BUT she also was not allowed to not eat them and get junk...if she passed shed skip desert.

They will eat raw them dipped in a little bit of ranch. We try not to over use the dressing. They really like salad. I avoid iceberg lettuce like the plague, it's tasteless and nutritionless, so we do the fancy lettuce mixes (roman/spinach/arugula...)

I also make them roasted, steamed, sauteed... usually with a little bit of olive oil, sometimes garlic, salt and pepper and a tiny amount of butter. Roasted ones I add some rosemary. Enough to flavor them but not to cover the taste.

Of course in sauces too, and if we make a yummy fruit smoothie, we'll add in a carrot or tomato or something as well.

They LOVE fruit. After school snacks they can have a cheese stick and/or fruit. If you don't have other junky foods around, and those are the only options available, than they will give in.

As for sensory issues, I had major sensory issues with food, to the point where I was hospitalized for an eating disorder. That's why I take it so seriously now. My kids aren't traumatized and not really forced, just given options and they choose to eat the veggies/fruit in order to get the other goodies available. For the sensory issue thing, while I know it is valid, it can often become an excuse/crutch... they will claim that on most things healthy, but somehow, junk food and things like pizza/hamburgers... they don't have issues on? I know some things will be hard, if it's stringy or whatever (I still have a hard time eating oranges, so I carve them really well), so you just have to find what words.

But they also HAVE to eat their veggies. They must eat them or no more fruit, no more bread, no more chicken, no dessert... They whine at first, then in a little bit they are asking for seconds. It's a habit you have to establish.

You ask how do you get past that? I don't know! I have one picky child and one child who will eat normally. All the little tricks to get kids to eat more veggies or try new foods work GREAT with kid #2. Nothing in the universe will work with kid #1. I believe it is sensory for him as he has other sensory issues and I just hope that one day he will outgrow it. We talk about it a LOT. We have the rule that he has to take one bite and really taste it...that if he does this enough times one day his mouth will be more used to it and he will eventually like it. Has this ever worked in 8 years? No. But I have hope...I can hope can't I? My picky eater likes 4 veggies but only if he can put on salt or dip them in that powdered parmesan cheese. My 2 years old has always hated celery but today she was intrigued when I put peanut butter on a stick of celery and ate the whole thing and wanted more. Can you make smoothies with different fruits and will your kids drink them? My picky eater will not. Can you chop up veggies super fine and mix it with their rice? I hear this works great for other kids. It works for my daughter but it has never worked with my son. Good luck!

My oldest only likes certain ones raw in salad or dipping form.

My youngest will eat them any and every way.

You can sneak the pulps and juices in a lot of their stuff they already like. Check out the book "deceptively delicious"

Against their own free will, lol.
Cheese helps, Ranch dressing helps.

I see a lot of answers on how to cover the veggie with cheese sauce or ranch dressing, but our house is the opposite.

With veggies (peas, broccoli, green beans, corn, carrots), lightly steam them and serve them plain. They will occasionally dip them in ketchup, but that's about it. The instant we try to gussy them up, both kidddos will balk at eating them.

You could try edamame. They are fun, because you take them out of the shell. If you serve them once a week, let the kids remove the beans from the shell, even if they don't eat them (i.e., they'll remove them and give them to you to it). Eventually, they will probably want to try one.

And if you can, plant something like shelling peas (or other veggies). My daughter was sooo excited when the pods started to fatten up. We would go outside and pick pods and eat the peas right there.

My boys don't like cheese on any of their veggies, but they will dip in ranch, humus, even honey mustard. However, my go to, to get them to eat their veggies is a little bit of butter/margarine with a little bit of garlic salt, especially with the broccoli and cauliflower. They devour it that way. I've also realized with my youngest it has to be cooked to his liking. He doesn't like it too crunchy and too soft he gags.

Also my kids taste for veggies go in waves--one week they devour their broccoli the next they won't touch it. The only veggie both my boys won't touch are green beans, don't know why that's one of my favorites and I ate them a lot while pregnant with both?

Our daughter loved raw carrots, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, jicama, snow peas raw. She ate other vegitables lightly steamed. She was not fond of sauces.

We just always have had such an abundance of fresh produce. At the grocery stores and farmers markets, they give out samples and for a quarter you can "pay the pig" for a pieces of fruit or small cup of fresh veggie sticks at some stores.

I always have a huge bowl of fruit on the counter. In the fridge, I try to keep lots of sliced veggies.

Her day care served fresh fruits and veggies also. I was surprised at how the children ate everything they were offered at daycare. But sometimes, I had trouble getting her to try new foods the first few times they were served.

Cheese, I can't put cheese on anything and they will eat it. :)

My kids ate cooked veggies when they were young because I put butter and powdered cheese on them! Now when they are older, sometimes they eat them and sometimes not.

When my son was about 4, I was eating a salad and he just leaned over and asked for a bite...he LOVED it and ended up eating the rest of it! When my older daughter saw him starting to ASK for salads, then she tried them and liked them too. So now they will even order salads sometimes when we go out or for their school lunch. So I don't fight to much with them to eat the cooked veggies cuz they are really good about eating salads.

The kids are good about eating fruit and love apples and bananas with peanut butter but will also eat them without.

I think you just have to keep asking them to try things and hope that they will all of a sudden love it! Good luck!

My kids will eat almost any fruit or vegi imaginable. Not sure where they came from cause I wont eat many vegi's at all. I love corn and green beans though. My husband will put cheese on anything corn, brocali you name it he cheeses it. So you might try cheese. Or on corn I like butter. With carrots or brocoli you can dip in ranch. Unfortunatly if you give them the choice and don't at least make them take one bite they wont try it. When mine where little that's how we got them to eat stuff. They woudl say they didn't like it so we would say eat one or two bites. Usually they would like it and eat it all. I would not make them eat much more than that if they don't like it.

Good Luck and God Bless!

I feel your frustration! My daughter is 4.5 and is VERY picky with food, ALL foods. Since she was a baby she's had issues with the texture of foods (as does my hubby). I do smoothies with her, I add all kinds of veggies into those and of course fruits. I got some good recipes from Google for fruit & veggie kids smoothies. Also, my daughter LOVES to help me cook & one day started eating raw veggies as I was cooking! So now, she WILL eat cucumbers, radishes, carrots & celery. I put a small plate on the counter for her & she picks out what she'd like to 'explore'. I agree too with a previous post, the more they see you eating these foods, the more likely they will be to have them. Good luck!!!

Luckily my son loves all fruits and vegetables. I truly believe that it is because we have always had them in our houses, have introduced and re-introduced since he started eating table foods and monkey see monkey do...my husband and I both eat healthy in front of him. (Don't get me wrong, we still have cookies, cake, choc., etc), but we don't substitute with these kinds of food, if he doesn't eat the healthier foods first.

Have you tried brown sugar carrots...not as healthy as plain, but you give and take! My little guy eats them like candy!

Good luck!!

Corn and green beans have never really been too much of a problem in our house but everything else had to have melted cheese on them.

That is the only way they would eat them cooked. Raw they had to have ranch to dip them into.

Fruit has never been an issue with us.

Our kid's have honestly never been picky when it come's to eating veggie's. I always add bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and sometime's shredded carrot in my meatloaf and they love it! Try making a veggie based soup and throw in some goldfish cracker's, they just may like it. Always give them the option to eat a variety of veggie's and dip. I know they have veggie cutter's to where you can cut bell pepper out and make it look like a dinosaur. Make cheesy broccoli or cauliflower. There are several options just make it fun! Good luck!
Add- I also have the cookbook called "deceptively delicious" and alot of the recipes are wonderful! I have yet to try and make the brownie recipe with the spinach!

Have you tried stir-frying? Even I don't like steamed broccoli but love it stir fried. Same with string beans. Just olive oil, garlic and soy sauce. My kids also love frozen creamed spinach. I think Green Giant. I don't give it to them much but they do like it.

I have always tried to involve my daughter in helping me to prep foods and cook with me as much as she can - I know that helps a lot to get kids to try new things. But as far as her eating veggies and fruit I think we just lucked out because she loves them. I do however call them funny names sometimes if she is being picky some days. Carrots become carrot cookies and broccoli are always little trees, celery are little smiles and cucumbers are boat triangles - sounds crazy but it works. I also put things like cinnamon on apple slices and we eat smoothies like they are going out of style around here. My daughter is definitely not a fan of cooked veggies though but she eats them so well raw that I dont fight it
Good Luck