Don't Vegetable Eaters

Have you tried Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook "Deceptively Delicious?" It is all about how to hide vegetables inside foods that kids will love. I recommend it if you're really having trouble.

Check out Juiceplus.com. It is a way to get your child the nutrients they need from fruits and veggies. There is also a children's health study that you can sign up for and for every adult that takes the juice plus capsules-you can get your child's for free. They make chewables that taste good and your child won't know they are eating fruits and veggies!

If you puree fruits and vegetables, after you cook them (spinach, carrots, broccoli, squash) you can hide them in muffins, pasta, hamburgers,tacos, and the child will not realize it. There is a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious with great recipes using purees. Also put a little of the whole vegetable on the plate. Ask them to take a "thank you" bite to show that they appreciate what you have fixed them. Also, put a small amount of what they like to eat on their plate. When they have finished that, let them know they can have more after they have tried their veggies or fruit. Using carrot sticks or apples with dip might be a good place to start. Also let the child help you prepare the veggies. Wash the carrots or strawberries, snap the beans. I have also heard of people growing a garden, and the children enjoying the food, because they have had a hand in growing it. Good Luck. My sister told me kids have to taste something 17 times before they get used to it. Don;t give up!

Hi - have you tried smoothies? they can be a better way to promote fruits. also you can make several dips for veggies. I agree with earlier post on blanching - way better texture for little palets (best ones to blanch are green beans, carrots, snow peas, broccoli, caluliflour).

Try offering fruit/veggies when your child is the hungriest and offer them often. We learned an invaluable lesson while traveling ....eat like a European. it has helped our whole family (and Mom and Dad's waist line!) Most of Europe eats their dinner in 2-3 courses : they serve a veggie dish first then meat/starch after. You can turn this into somethign fun... do some research on the web with your child in advance and plan a different day for a new country. Your child can help in the dinner preperation or shopping too. you can tie in a cool project like make paper place mats with pictures of the country, special hats for everyone to wear, etc. to make it fun and get the whole family involved.

we can hide veggies in foods and mix powders in our drinks (i personally like Juice+) but what happens when we are not at home and our children get older. Are they going to make good food choices? We set a powerful example by choosing fruits/veggies for ourselves. It's my humble opinion is anything you can to that teaches and reinforces healthy eating will last a lifetime instead of being a quick fix. they won't like everything but the rule in our house is you have to try one bite before you can say no thank you. the worst thing we can do as parents is to start battling over food....nobody wins.

good luck and please post the outcome.

The answer is simple: only offer fruits and veggies. Nothing else. Do not offer juice of any kind - the sweetness in it fortifies them and will curb the appetite. Processed food has chemicals in it that make normal food seem uninteresting. Once that is out of the taste buds, real food will become attractive again. What worked for me is growing a garden and being in it every day. My child eats snow peas like they are candy. Those are her treats and she is super excited when she gets one. Go figure. So garden and only offer what you know to be healthy. Nothing else. Good luck.

juice plus sounds like a great gimic but it's LOADED with sugar, it's the first ingredient. I mentioned that once to a juice plus rep who said "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down" actually, she's incorrect. The sugar in it destroys all the nutrients from the fruit and veg. I must say you have to remember that YOU are the mother and your child will not starve to death. Make veg, don't overcook them and tell them to eat them.
You can make a sauce with some tahini and lemon juice and a splash of tamari thin it down with some water. Don't make the sauce outweigh the veg as your kid won't learn to appreciate veg. The tahini is good b/c it's really high in calcium,, one of the best sources you can get, much better than dairy which will deplete calcium from the body (not to mention cause other damage and ethical issues www.notmilk.com)
someone mentioned cauliflower mash, great idea. You can make a soup with winter sqaush, carrots, sweet potato and a bit of white potato is good to bulk it up. You can also grind some almonds in it, you can put 1/2 an onion in to sweeten it some more. Blend them up and you can add some almond milk which is really good for you and then at the end add in some frozen corn pieces. You can also cut up some kale and put it in but not sure how much has to be hidden for the kid.

One other thing I did which was great is steam some broc, caul, zucchini, and kale and once cooked (add then in order of what needs longer) put in a blender and blend. Add to a pot with water and cooked brown rice. Add some miso paste (1 tsp per cup of water) and simmer for 3 minutes. Do not let the miso boil or it loses nutritional properties. You can try to add a bit of wakame seaweed too for extra nutrients but some kids are funny with that. My daughter loves it.

You can make bean soups with veg thrown in, usually cook down. One thing to remember tho is if you over cook the veg you're losing nutrients.

Good luck!

get a food processor and puree vegetables then you can hide them in things like brownies, sauces etc..but just keep trying. Hopefully it's a phase

Put the fruit and veggies on a kabob stick. My kids will eat any thing that is just presented in a new way. Also, stick with fresh produce....And raw produce (in the case of veggies) cuz canned or frozen just don't taste as good. Steaming veggies lightly (toss in some lemon juice) is good too. Though not a fan myself, try veggie dips -- Low fat. Try non-trad items...My kids latest favs are sugar snap peas and mango.

I hate hate hate most fruits and veggies but was more or less force fed them as child and so as an adult just never could learn in my own time to appreciate them. My kids love every thing though and I feel super blessed that they don't take after me. I have heard that people who can't abide veggies are often "super tasters" -- Meaning they have more and differently functioning taste buds. So you may have to work around this.

M.,
The trick to getting your kids to eat veggies is to make the vegetables tasty and fun. My son hated vegetables in the beginning, but I was able to turn him around with a few creative ideas. Feel free to try any of my recipes at www.artfulveggie.com.

Try Juice Plus gummies! My son doesn't eat them either, but I can rest assured that he's getting the nutrition of 17 fruits, vegetables & grains everyday! My daughter's taken them for two years with great results. For more info, please feel free to call me at ###-###-#### or go to my website www.lisamurphyjuiceplus.com

Good luck!
L. Murphy

cook cauliflower the way you would mashed potatoes, boil, then mash up...
addvedggies to spagetti sauces
try a carrot souffle, the presentation is more like a dessert

Hi. Ok, this may sound crazy, but I blanch string beans (boil water, then place the fresh green beans in for a minute or two till they turn bright green. Remove from water immediately. They will remain crispy.) then put a drop of sugar on top of it (natural sugar of course). My kids eat them like french fries b/c they are crispy. They now have moved away from the sugar thing and will allow me to put garlic powder on them, too.
Good luck.

As we age, our taste buds change about every 7 years. I used to hate onions, now I put them in and on everything. Even though I hated onions, my mom continued to put them in her recipes. If it's the only option, kids will learn to eat it. Give him fresh fruits as a snack instead of anything else. With no other option, he'll learn to eat them. It may mean, he goes without dinner a couple of nights, but eventually, he will come around. I wasn't raised with seafood and to this day I don't like it. But my son was raised with shrimp, crab and calimari and he thinks nothing of eating them. I used to prefer canned green beans, but I raised my son on fresh green beans. To this day, he sneaks a fresh green bean here and there out of the pot while I'm cooking them. We never gave him an option of eating anything else, and he learned to like most of it (really, his favorite veggie is Lima Beans, of all things.) If worst comes to worst, get Shoshana Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious and sneak those fruits and veggies into his meals. When he gets older, he'll be surprised to learn he's been eating the foods he thinks he hates all along.

I put a T or two of soy sauce in my water when I steam my brocoli. So much better!

Just make it fun. My daughter loves peanutbutter with her apples. there's caramel sauce too (not as healthy, but it may get the apple down). Also, yogurt is just as good. If you get the go gurt ones, get a piece of bread or crackers and he can "decorate" before he eats. I shred carrots into meatloaf, it keeps the meat moist, and the kids never know! There are ways to hide everything!...One last thing....my daughter LOVES to dip her blueberries and her sting beans into ketchup...I know it sounds gross, but she loves it and that's all that really matters

Yes, hide them in foods. My daughter is usually pretty good about eating, but when she wants pancakes, which a boxed pancake mix has next 0 nutritional value, I throw an egg in the measuring cup and then top it off with water. So if the directions ask for 2 cups of water, I toss an egg in the measuring cup and then add water in the cup until we reach 2 cups, including the volume of the egg. That way I know my breakfast includes some protein.

Hi M.,
It is absolutely possible to change your child's tastes and their food choices. It takes some time and more than anything role modeling and consistency from the parent. I am a nutrition educator and teach classes to parents that focus on just this. Trust me, you are not alone, but you are wise to look for some advice. The relationship between nutrition and disease as well as nutrition and learning and behavior problems is huge, and a diet rich in Fruits and Veggies is the answer to neutralizing the damage to our cells.
I do also suggest Juice Plus as a way to start getting some fruit and vegetable nutrition into the kids right away, but it should come with education about why eating this way is so important, and how we can get more of these foods into our families daily. Feel free to call me and maybe we can set up a class in your home for a few mom friends. The class is fun, simple and practical…you will love it! My number is ###-###-#### and my email is ____@____.com The web for my course is www.drsearslean.com and for Juice Plus www.wejuiceplus.com . And the company and I will cover the cost of your child's Juice Plus for free if you do decide you want to give it a try. Looking forward to hearing from you M..

Healthy Blessings,
C. Soave M.S.Ed
Family Nutrition Educator
Sales Coordinator, Juice Plus
###-###-####
____@____.com
Building a wholesome world, one family at a time!

Og course, fresh, raw fruits and vegetables are the best choice, but if it's not happening, then you may want to consider a supplement. Not a vitamin, a whole food supplement. My kids, fortunately, eat many fruits and veggies, but they still take Juice Plus (as well as my whole family) because I see it as a "safety net" since I know we're not eating all the servings that we probably should. Juice Plus is REAL, FRESH, RAW fruits and vegetables (17 of them) with some added grains in a chewable or capsule form. The chewables are what my kids eat and they are like gummies and taste delicious - no artificial sweeteners or anything, no preservatives, just whole food. If you want to learn more, check out this website: www.JPGotHealth.com You could even get it for free for your child for up to 3 years! Also, feel free to contact me direct if you have any questions. Best wishes!

my son when he was 2 would not touch anything that looked like a veggie or fruit. i would make him what he wanted for dinner or lunch and have veggies with mine. he always had this habit of having to have a bite of what mommy had...it was the only way to get him back into eating fruits and veggies. you can always try v-8...i personally wouldnt drink it but there is juice now that has fruit and veggies in it put out by v-8. just wish they had it when my two were younger...would have made all the difference i think..lol. good luck with the picky eater.