Picky Eater - Lone Grove, OK

Get the cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. It's full of meals adding friuts and veggies to recipes so picky eaters will eat them. You can get it on Amazon for $10.00.
There is also one called The Sneaky Chef.
Good Luck!!

My son is 5 years old and is autistic, so he does not have the best eating habits. He is taking a liquid multivitamin that is made for those that are picky eaters that refuse the veggies & fruits. It's made by Animal Parade and it smells and tastes like V8. We've only found it at Sun Harvest so far. We give it to him once a day and it provides him with the vitamins he lacks from not eating veggies.
Hope this helps...

Ask her to help you to cook. Clean the corn, rinse the tomatoes, break the pieces of broccolli, scrub the potatoes. Or, put out different little bowls of dips to try and make it fun to dip veggies into ranch, italian, etc. Good luck!

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld was the answer for me too. It has revolutionized our lives. My daughters (and hubby...lol) who will not eat fruits and vegetables are eating them and loving them without knowing it. It's great!!! At first I felt really overwhelmed by the book but after applying it and getting a routine down, it's very simple. www.deceptivelydelicious.com

Try the cookbooks called "The Sneaky Chef", and also "Deceptively Delicious". They are two cookbooks using the concept of putting fruit and veggie purees into the foods the kids already love. Like sweet potatoes into mac-n-cheese. I am still a firm believer that you still need to offer the veggies she needs on the side, even if she turns up her nose every time.

There is also another good cookbook I got from the library called "Kids favorites, made healthy". Even my picky husband liked several of those dishes.

A lot of moms believe that if you involve her in the shopping and the cooking, she will be more inclined to eat the foods. Growing fruits and veggies might make eating them more fun too.

Good Luck.

Our kids our 9 and 7 and will eat nearly everything at any restaurant--including fish, veggies, and fruits. They were horribly picky eaters at age 4 and 2, but it is the parents roll to teach kids that fruits and vegetables are necessary for their bodies. So, at age 4 and 2 we ate one dinner with grownup food--including fruits and veggies, and then the next night, my husband and I ate leftovers while I prepared a more kid friendly meal for the kids--still including fruits and veggies. If our kids didn't eat their grownup dinner (very reasonable portions) then they met it for breakfast the next day. No matter which part of the meal they found "yucky" it was saved for the next meal. No snacks in between. Parents are in charge and have more sense than a child's undeveloped taste buds.

Kids today are taught that "taste" is the only reason to eat, and this absurd notion has yielded young adults with nutritional deficiencies. The tongue is only 3 inches of a very long digestive track! Parents that demonstrate that taste is a valid reason to not eat asparagus, will teach that eating is only for the tongue. An appropriate allowance is for each person to have two healthy foods they don't care to eat (my son chooses summer squash and zucchini!). Just two!

There are two food ingredients that are very seriously destroying our children's taste buds: natural flavoring/MSG, and SUGAR. Read Dr. Blaylock, MD (Exitotoxins, The Taste that Kills) information on MSG & natural flavoring and work very hard to eliminate these ingredients from child's diet. They are exitotoxins and overstimulate the brain, creating an unnatural brain response to taste. The child then craves that overstimulating flavor every time they eat and fresh fruits and veggies don't have it. (not to mention the neuron damage caused for later learning deficits!) Second, stuffing sugar into a child all day long (juice, high fructose corn syrup, glucose providing crackers and noodles, SODA!, cookies, candy) only develops the sugar taste buds, plus it feeds candida albacans in the body which only stimulates more desire for sugar. When my kids were age 5 and 7, one summer we removed all noodles, pasta, white bread, candy, juice, corn syrup, cookies, and artificial sweeteners from our diet--Great for us too! When the kids wanted a snack we went to a large fruit bowl which I stocked with a WIDE variety of fruits (I put weird things like star fruit, kiwi, and mango in there too!). We drank filtered WATER! We bought all kinds of nuts--a handy snack. We nibbled on sugar snap peas instead of sugar. We were amazed that summer our kids developed a taste for SOUR and Bitter!!! They could enjoy grapefruit and plain yogurt. We even started making our own fermented sauerkraut which the kids loved the tangy zing from live fermentation. Sugar and MSG type ingredients are destroying our children's innate sense of taste and nutrition.

Now we have a "Candy of the Week" program, where our kids eat one piece of candy on Saturday which they choose from their ever burgeoning candy boxes in which they store all the candy they receive. This puts sugar back into it's rightful position--a nice treat on the weekend, but not something to eat 5 times daily!

Pack kids lunches--school lunches are filled with natural flavorings and corn syrup.

Finally, plant a garden!!! With your kids help, of course. My friend in Ohio says her daughter will eat any veggie she finds in their own garden. We live in Houston and got raised garden kits in order to plant in a small space. Homegrown veggies taste better and are more nutritious than canned or frozen.

Yes, our kids eat anything now, but I hope you're up to the challenge because it wasn't easy and today's child is faced with candy opportunities everywhere they go. Be strong mother and father--train your child up in the way he should EAT and he will not depart.

You must own 2 cookbooks!

1. The Sneaky Chef
2. Deceptively Delicious

They are great ways to sneak veggies in and your child will NEVER know!! Good Luck:)

Jerry signfield wife's has a new book out tastfuly simple (I am not sure if that is the name). There is suppose to be some great ideas in there.

Hi K.,

You know I am a bit old fashioned. I have 3 kids myself 19 16 and 7. my 19 year old did not like meat, my 16 year old did not (and still does not) like veggies. I had to get into this zone in my mind where I told myself they do not like to take medicine either, but its needed. All you or I can hope for is if you train then enough they will learn to like them. Myself I think it is just a mind thing with some kids. My 7 year old is starting to say she doesnt like them either, I am just telling her what? how can you not like them they are soo good.. I tell my 16 year old to play along. She had a babysitter that told her veggies were yucky when she was little also. I think that if you can get through to them on that level it may help, if not just keep making her try and eat them :) good job mom!

I just watched a Dr. Oz show on kids and veggies. On the show they mentioned that it takes 10 bites (over a period of time) of a food for the palate to adjust to it. I have a one bite rule for new foods and then I continue to introduce that food over a period of a few weeks. My 4 year old son will now eat broccoli and cauliflower raw.

My little brother who is downsyndrome/autistic was the same way! For a while he wouldn't eat veggies but we realized how much he liked ketchup so we gave him green beans with a side of ketchup and he loved it! He thought they were green french fries. I'd also experiment with veggie juices like the v8 variety or maybe even sitting down with her and letting her "sample" different dipping dressings and see which one she prefers. Try making fruit smoothies with yogurt or applesauce and fruit and ice. ALso, try giving her a mulitvitamin, Sam's sells the large bottle of "Gummi VItes" it looks like gummi bears but it's really a vitamin! My Mom used to make a veggie tray for us when we were kids so we'd have different varieties of veggies to tempt our palates. Try baby carrots, celery with peanut butter, apple slices with peanut butter and raisins, cucumbers, pineapples, strawberries and grapes were almost always a hit too. I wouldn't give her too much fruit juice though because it is just empty calories, just be persistant!

the only thing that i can think of is that it might be a texture thing..my son will not eat veggies cooked cause of the way they feel but he loves them raw

I am an adult and I am still picky and don't like veggies. One thing that I do is drink V8. They make the vegetable and the fruit ones. Try freezing them so that they look like popsicles. She might like them that way.

for health reasons you can get her vegetables and fruits in
a chewable tablet they taste good and give her the vitamins
she needs.
does K. like to play pretend? I would fix food and give it crazy names like that went with whatever they were interested in...super heros, pirates, jungle animals, etc. Its easy just a little imagination and give them names like
pirate treasure or pieces of eight (carrot circles) kyrptonight (spinach) wiggle worms (grapes on a toothpick) anything that relates to her world, If she likes Barbie mashed potatoes with just a little beet juice mixed in or pink food color makes a great pink Barbie fluff. also just do one thing a day dont force it often becomes a power play game. "You can serve it but you cant make me eat it."
sometimes I would make the fruit or vegetables look like animals or birds or whatever my boys were interested in.
another way is to get them to help you cook or make the items
often raw fruit or vegetables will be eaten over cooked ones and they are better for them anyway. My grandchildren will eat almost any vegetable if its dipped in Ranch Dressing Fruit hidden in jello almost always worked while she is growing out of this dont forget the vegetables and fruit in
a tablet.they can be crushed and put in food or you can put vegetables in other things like pancakes, muffins, meatloaf, there are books in the book store that give you recipes for this Most important dont let the food fight become an issue or a wedge between you they are small for such a short time.

I bought Deceptively Delicious and made several recipes that my daughters like. The book also gave me some ideas of my own. Another idea that works with my 7 year old is to get her involved in cooking. I have her snap the green beans, or help me put in the broccoli in the chicken brocolli stir fry, or help "stab" the sweet potatoes before they go in the oven. I bought her an apron and a chef's hat. She eats more fruits and veggies when she is involved. I limit the junk food in the house, so she doesn't have a choice between junk food and healthy food. It is all healthy.

My basic advice...Hide them. If you want any of these recipes, e-mail me directly and I will send them to you.

Make spaghetti sauce with pureed carrot, tomato, roasted red pepper.

Try to make sweet potato casserole, just mash canned sweet potatoes with some butter and brown sugar, top with mini marshmallows and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Once she gets a taste for it, you can reduce the sugar and marshmallows and add raisins if you want.

Try making Ratattouille. Get the recipe on the internet. Small eggplant, zuchini and yellow squash. Slice them very thinly and bake them with oregano and spaghetti sauce...watch the movie as you eat!

We love a casserole made of yellow squash, cheddar cheese and ritz crackers...sure you can find it on the internet.

Try zuchini or pumpkin bread. My kids love pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes...just put 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin in your regular pancake recipe and a few chocolate chips (add them to the batter, not to the pancakes or the chocolate will hit the pan and burn when you turn them.) We don't us syrup on them because they are sweet enough with the chocolate.

How about fruit juices? As long as it is some sort of fruit intake. Smoothies, yogert with fruit pieces in it. There is a brand called Lala, I hated yogert until I tried that brand. Fruit popcicles? There's those V8 smooth drinks. If worse comes to worse, Im sure there is some sort of vitamin that covers the daily nutrition a child needs. How about asking her pediatrician or even a pharmisist.

I would try the Deceptively Delicious book from Jessica Seinfeld. It teaches you to puree you vegetables and add them to certain dishes along with the recipes. I'm sure you could do it with fruit too. good luck.

My boys didn't like cooked veg much. Have you tried raw? My guys loved frozen peas. Tell her, with a wink in your eye and a smile that they are garden candy. Make it fun.

There is a cookbook out called Deceptively DElicious by JEssica Seinfeld(YES, Jerry's wife). It is all about hiding vgveggies in the food. The book has a pink cover w/ a woman on it w/ a long brown pony tail.
I have seen the book @ Target and Sam' s club.
Good Luck

This age is about learning how to control and their place in social order, and gender roles.
Perhaps she may want to plan a menu based on the food groups that will be healthy for her family.

Don't force her to eat anything. Let her choose what she will eat from the table
Her choices are only what you serve and that is it. No treats, no junk, no rewards.

I totally understand. "Eat more fruits and vegetables." Over the years, people have found countless ways to ignore that advice. "I don't have time." "It's too much trouble." But as scientists and nutritionists continue to learn more about the disease-fighting and preventive powers found in fruits and vegetables, it's advice we ignore at our peril.

There is no substitute for eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, at least 7-13 servings every day. But if you're like most people, you don't eat enough fruits or vegetables or enough variety. And those fruits and vegetables that we do eat tend to be over-processed, over-cooked, or too far removed from the field.

That's why there's Juice Plus+. It's a convenient, affordable, and natural whole food based nutritional product providing nutrition from 17 vegetables, fruits, and grains.

Juice Plus+ is not a vitamin supplement, providing a limited number of handpicked nutrients. Juice Plus+ is a whole food based product providing the wide array of nutrients found in a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains.

It's the next best thing to fruits and vegetables...because we don't get nearly enough of the real thing every day. I'm a mother of 3 children, who don't care for vegetables too much either. They been taking Juice Plus for almost 3 years and the results have been remarkable. My daughter ( 8 years old) use to suffer from eczema and she hasn't had an outbreak in over a year. My son, (14 years old) suffered with asthma. He's hasn't needed his medication is 2 & 1/2 years. I just started my 21 month old son on Juice Plus 2 weeks ago. We've been using Juice Plus for 3 years now and last week I decided to become a distributor. I've been recommending the product to my patients for a while now. They come back with amazing stories on how much their lives have improved health wise. It only made sense to me. Here is a link to my website http://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/pages/Home.soa?site=ab00393

Research this product and let me know if you're interested. It's being used in hospital around town, MD Anderson Cancer center, Hermann Hospital...ect. in combination with other studies. Good luck.

Your patience will pay off. Continue to have your child
take at least one bite of everything you serve at each
meal. Our third child (she's now twelve) was this way,
and wouldn't eat anything but meat and apples, but our
rule was one bite of everything that was served at every
meal. She understood that, and as everyone else is posting, childrens tastes are different, and it takes
them longer to adjust to a taste and texture of a food.
She now loves green beans and corn, and prefers to snack
on fruits and yogurts. As long your child is getting a
variety of food groups in juices, dairy and other items,
patiently wait her out. Best of luck to you.

how about what she can dip it in celeray with penutbutter is realy good and you can but raisins on it too like lil ants on a log... uuummm baby carrots with ranch... brocley with cheese... my son loves all that and thats the only way i can get my nephew to eat anything... the fruit make koolaid and freeze it with piecies of fruit in ice trays... or she can dip diffrent slices in penutbutter chocolat syrup yougert icecream whipcream... or miz it with jello

K. I'm a registered dietitian. Try to make the fruits/vegetables fun. Add cheese to broccoli, dips with raw veggies or yogurt dip for fruits. Continue to offer a variety. It can take a child up to 15 tries to really enjoy a food. Let them pick the foods out at the market and help prepare them. Good luck!

Invest in the book by Jessica Seinfeld--a sneeky way to put in stuff they do like.
"Deceptively Delicious"

My suggestion is to give them to her raw. My kids can't stand for their vegi's to be cooked. They eat carrots, cauliflower, broccli, green beans, you name it, they love them uncooked. To get them to eat cooked vegi's is a different story. Good luck!

A friend of mine had great success with allowing her picky eater to use a toothpick for picking up her food. She said she was even able to get her to eat broccoli! I hope that helps!

Turn a flower bed or large flower pot into a small garden for her. My girls' sitter would "Borrow" them for free if she had a picky eater coming for the day...so they could set the example. They'd eat anything. They loved to go with my husband's grandmother to the garden to "Pull or pick lunch"... They loved salads for snacks. Weird children...LOL... Try offering a Chef Salad for lunch.

T.

I like the Deceptively Delicious idea, but only as a bonus. Not many children (or people) like vegetables naturally, and I think it is important to teach our kids that they need to make good choices. On the other hand, I think children's feelings (including hunger and fullness) should be respected. Our food policy: 1)very limited junk food in the house 2)if you're not hungry or you don't like what is served at a meal, that's okay, but nothing else till the next meal 3)second helpings of main dish, i.e. carbs and protein, are allowed after a proportionate serving of veggies is gone 4)snacks, for those who ate their last meal, are fruits and vegetables 5)less nutritious food like corn chips and cookies may be eaten as a dessert after a nutritious meal, in proportion to how much the child ate. If he ate six bites of dinner (including veggies), then a just a tiny taste of dessert is appropriate.

Hello K.,

If she likes apple juice or any types of juices. Maybe you can include a nutritional drink in those juices called limu moui - a brown seaweed. I give it to my 3 year old and my 7 year old. Actually my 3 year old has been drinking it since she was born. She loves it in her milk. But, my 7 year old likes it straight. He drinks it like water. It includes over 70 vital nutrients including immune-supporting antioxidants, polyphenols, amino acids, glyconutrients, vitamins and minerals, and Fucoidan. It has also been on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX news. It tastes great!
To find out more about this amazing product go to www.discoverlimu.com and make sure you enter my referral number ###-###-####. Good luck.

Sincerely,

T. R.
###-###-####

we have the 2 bite rule in our house, you have to take at least two bites of everything on your plate. it takes a while but she will get to where she will eat anything (takes about 10 tries for each thing) and have much healthier eating habits.

when my new baby is born i'm putting in a no fast food rule, to try to win the fruit and veggie battle before it becomes impossible

Deceptively Delicious! It is a GREAT book by Jessica Seinfeld. It does take a little of your time to first get everything ( your mixes ) made, but once you do that, It's GREAT. My 3 y/o son has no clue that his chicken nuggets have been dipped in spinach. Hope that helps you!

A. M
Kilgore,Tx

I have an 8 year old that has been picky since we started him on solid food years ago!!! He does, however, like raw carrots and canned green beans but that was where he drew the line in regards to veggies. His favorite dish? Spaghetti. So I started shredding carrots and zucchini into the sauce, same with pizza and chili.

We also made it a priority to sit down every night together and eat our supper. I always have a fresh salad right in the middle of the table and a few months ago he served himself some salad. He put a little bit of ranch on the side and he dips lettuce and whatever else he likes from the salad into it. My little one has actually tried broccoli!!! Now, he eats salad frequently. As long as he's not drowning out his veggies with ranch I think it's perfectly fine.

I hear that your taste buds change every few years so keep introducing these veggies and fruits to her. We always make our son try one spoonful of something so that he can honestly say whether he likes it or not. This has actually helped him to discover that there are foods out there he likes besides junk food. Be persistent. You don't have to be forceful, just encourage them.

P.S. We also explained what healthy eating does for your body versus junk food. Hoping the best for you and your daughter. Believe me, I know how discouraging it can be.

Hi K.,

I have the same problem with my 5 year old. He does not like most vegetables and we have a hard time getting him to eat them. A friend of mine recently told me about a book called Deceptively Delicious. Basically you take different vegetables and fruits, puree them and add them to some of their favorite foods and they never know they are eating veggies or fruit. For example, butternut squash is one of the veggies I used. I cooked it and pureed it and since it makes a lot I froze 1/2 cup size portions and take it out of the frezer as I need it. One of the recipes is for french toast. You put the fruit or veggies in with the eggs before you soak the bread in it and cook like normal. It really works. My son calls it Cowboy Toast and wants it for breakfast all the time. We made mini pizzas the other night and I had put the butternut squash and spinach in his favorite sauce. He even helped spread the sauce and cheese on the pizza and never knew. He loved it!!!!!!! There are lots of good recipes and it tells you how to cook and puree everything. Once you get the hang of it you will start putting it in all your recipes. My 1 year old also loves it all. I am trying to start him off right and hopefully skip the picky stage.

Good Luck!!
K.

make frozen pops with the fruit. if she like soup blend the veggies and add to the broth with noddles. also milk shakes with fruit, most kids grow out of this faze, mine all did, and i have 3 that eat more veggies and fruit than meat now that they are older. good luck. D.

If possible, try to mix them in with other foods. For example, use a food chopper to mix up carrots and green beans (or other veggies) and add it in your meatloaf. Use fresh tomatoes and bell peppers (in the food chopper) for spaghetti sauce. Make banana puding, maybe the pudding and cookies will draw her in and she'll eat the bananas too! Make fresh fruit smoothies, tell her it's icecream. A friend of mine made a fruit pizza once. It was a big sugar cookie cake with a cream cheese frosting I think and sliced fruit. Maybe that will work too as a desert after dinner. Do a search on google for help coming up with recipes for picky eaters. Hope this helps!

Dear Kim

I just got a cookbook Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Sienfeld. It has great ways to incorporate veggies into the meals. I have already used it and the recipes are good. I also have my daughter help cook with me and she is more likely to eat the food.

Good Luck
M.

i am 33 now, and i remember i would not eat any fruit or veggies - i remember being made to sit at the table for hours until i had finished - but i still would not eat them.
in the end my mother gave me vitamins, fruit juice to drink and fortified cereals, and plenty of milk.
i grew up to be 5'8 get a doctorate, have 2 babies and am perfectly healthy.
if youre child wont eat them then there is not much point in forcing her, one tiny bite of broccoli does not give hardly any nutrients and may put her off more trying to force her to eat them.
i love fruit and veg now i am all grown up and can make my own decisions

Does she see you model good behavior? Try making a smoothie out of frozen fruit and yogurt.