Help! My Daughter Does Not like Fruits and Veggies!

My son wont eat veggies (he loves fruits...apples,oranges,peaches) if he sees and identifies them as veggies but when I make something like a beef stew or something like chicken and dumplings where the veggies are covered with the sauce and small he likes them fine. Since she is old enough to see and realize its veggies...first always try to convince her to take 1 bite before dismissing it (I tell my son that if he just tries one bite and doesnt like it he doesnt have to eat it) most of the time he says "MMMM, this taste good".I always encourage trying it ATLEAST once. But if that doesnt help it would be a good idea to buy a juicer and give her fruits and veggies to her in a juice form. Pre-make like a strawberry and bananna or apples and grapes and put it in a container in the fridge for her to drink and if asked tell her its something new u bought at the store.GL

Hi T.,
My name is R. and our family owns a grocery market in Tyrone (The Village Market). We started an organic produce co-op a few months ago and just recently started doing prepared meal packages. We are in the process of trying to put together some cooking/nutrition classes for children and families. If you'd be up for it, you could bring your daughter in for a "field trip" to the store. I'd love to be able to work with you on this. I work with several picky eaters daily (we have 3 boys). Maybe if she could hear about the benefits of eating organics (or just fruits and veggies in general) and taste some samples...could be worth a shot. Give us a call if you'd like more info or to set something up. ###-###-#### or we also have a website...it's www.villagemarketoftyrone.com
Hope to hear from you,
R.

Sweet potatoes with brown sugar topping. You can either serve ita as a baked potato or mash it up.
spagetti sauce with frozen (better nutrients than canned) mixed veggies in it, or just spagetti sauce (it's tomatoes)
orange juice, or try V8 smoothies, serve it as a daqueri.
ALWAYS< as I am sure you know give her vitamins. If that fails try an enriched drink for kids.

hi! Have you tried making a smoothie for her with the fruits and veggies? My mother in law lives with us and my son is he exact same way as your daughter (except he's 2!). And she started making my son these AWESOME smoothies so that he could get his vitamins in and he LOVES them. Doesn't hurt to try it! Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Hi T.!
I have the same problem with my 9 yr old son, except that he loves fruit. He'll gag or throw up whenever we try to make him eat veggies. He used to devour veggies when he was a toddler; now? forget it!! He'll tell you he only likes raw carrots. One solution I've tried is buying chunky vegetable spaghetti sauce. The veggies in there may be cut small, but at least I know he's eating some. So, we have spaghetti quite often at our house. Another thing that I've gotten him to like is pizza with spinach as a topping instead of pepperoni. I'll get a pizza for lunch and bring the leftovers home, which he'll devour. Other than that, I make sure he takies a daily vitamin or drinks some pedia-sure. I don't do the pedia-sure too often though b/c it is expensive. Good Luck! I'll check back on others advice since I could use it too!

There are plenty of ways to add veggies to a pickie eaters diet without them knowing. Puree carrots, green peppers, and almost anything else and add them to your spagetti sauce. Instead of mashed potatoes boil and mash cauliflower (the texture and taste are so simular even you will not be able to tell the difference). Have carrot cake for dessert and call it something fun. Have you tried stir fry? What worked best with my pickie little heathen was having them help with dinner every night. It's hard to cook something without even a taste. Turn it into a game or mom and daughter time where no one is aloud in the kitchen except the two of you. Good luck!

Wow - you're the first person I've met whose child also does this! My son (almost 5) does the same thing. People always told me to just "make him" eat it (and even to make him clean it up if he threw up), but I just couldn't do it. We started (just a few months ago) making it a requirement that he eat 4 bites of the veggies, just to try them. It's really helped. He gagged the first few times, but now can get them down. He still raises heck about it, but at least he's being exposed to veggies. When he turns five, we'll up it to 5 bites.

We also give him a vitamin every night and he gets milk with ovaltine and carnation instant breakfast at night. I know it's not the same as getting vitamins from food, but it makes me feel better! ;o) Good luck!

M.