Kids Eating Vegetables Tricks

[eratmama]

Give me your best ones.

We serve vegetables at every meal, and have better luck with Carrot, although when her older sister is picky, she will follow suit.

I do some "sneaky chef" tricks (stirring pureed veggies into the meal) but if Zucchini is helping me cook, then I can't.

My ten year old is beyond picky. (read: food control issues we are trying not to feed into).

And a vent: Her doctor told me yesterday to give her calorie rich foods--extra butter in the potatoes, etc. I don't want to make two meals, and that is not going to work so well for my waistline.

[twotrue]

Sauces - Give her sauces of any sort that she can dip the veggies into.
Salad - Jelly Bean loves salad and I think it's because of the variety of veggies.
Hummus - she can dip veggies into it.
Burritos - if it's wrapped up it's harder to notice the veggies.

[ct]

does she do better when she cooks them herself or helps you prepare them?

As for the extra cal thing, we've done that with rosebud and I just add the butter/cream/ect to a small seperate portion of the larger meal since none of the rest of us need it!

[eratmama]

Sometimes she will eat it when she helps, sometimes not. I thought of adding calories to a seperate portion, but if she thinks it is "special" for her, she won't eat it at all (control). And Carrot gets mad, "why does she GET medicine? I want medicine?" "Where is MY special portion?"...

Any favorite recipes--like the banana mashed in the breakfast balls?

[Deleted]

We are struggling with the same thing with Owl! I'm interested to see what answers you get.

[hensmum]

When I make lasagna, I put kale or spinach in between two layers of cheese.

Burritos or quesadillas are great too.

[joyseattle]

Not an expert on this, but I do know about these books:
www.amazon.com/The-Sneaky-Chef-Strategies-Favorite/dp/0762430753
www.amazon.com/Deceptively-Delicious-Simple-Secrets-Eating/dp/006176793X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Have you looked at those at all?

[never2amazing]

I have no advice, the Kiddos can eat a plate of broccoli, green beans, peas...they love their veggies and Peanut LOVES fruit.

ETA: I didn't mean for that to sound insensitive. We've had our share of food issues (which EI was very helpful with), and I know it's frustrating.

[thiswillbe]

I'm pretty sure our strategy wouldn't be appropriate for your kids, but we have trouble getting them to eat their protein sometimes, and we encourage them to eat the things they like less by limiting the things they do like.

For example, they love steamed broccoli but not chicken. So we give them a small portion of the broccoli along with their portion of chicken, then when they ask for more broccoli, we tell them they have to take X number of bites of chicken before they get more broccoli. Then when they've done that, we give them a tiny bit more brocc, and repeat the process. It gets tedious, but they do eventually get in enough of their less-desired food.

[2brides]

you probably don't want to hear that we've basically given up, huh? Before 3y, my kids were awesome veggie eaters. Put a plate in front of them and...gone. Then they turned 3y and and went to preschool and became picky little things.

they will both eat carrots (uncooked) and will choke down green beans (well, 2 of them) and peas. Grayson is much more willing to try stuff, but will typically take one bite, declare it "Mmm good!" and then refuse to eat another bite of it ever again.

We don't make a big deal of it, make sure they see us eating veggies/salads, offer a variety of options, make sure they have fruit and vitamins daily, and just wait it out.

[kershnic]

Do they do any better with foods where the vegetables not hidden but are cooked in rather than a side dish? (Fried rice, stir fry, casseroles, etc.) I feel like they're a lot less noticeable that way. I partially agree with 2brides though - especially when you have control issues, sometimes offering and modeling but not stressing about it is better.

[ssg73]

I don't know if this will work for older kids but my mom always did crunchie snacks before dinner. While she was cooking we got to watch a show and she would give us frozen peas or corn (still frozen) to munch on. Peas are really sweet and really good. We would eat plenty of veggies in this zone out time and then at dinner my mother would serve us veggies but never made us eat them because we already ate plenty of crunchie snacks. Ella loves them and actually prefers them frozen over cooked.

[eratmama]

Thanks, guys. We will keep offering abunch and see what happens! The dr reaassured me that if she loses a few more pounds, or doesn't eat much other than brown rice and a multivitamin all year, she will be ok.

We do lots of dips & sauces--I think the modeling at their new school will help (there is no school lunch, everyone brings their own. Lots of other crunchy parents, so hummus isn't strange

If I am making smoothies when no one is looking, I will sneak some cucumber, spinach, or kale in there.

I like the frozen veggies--I do that with Pumpkin (he LOVES frozen peas and red pepper) but never thought to offer to Carrot--who likes fresh veggies, but not cooked.