Hi Everyone. I am looking for creative ways to get my daughter to eat her green veggis and meat. She'll only eat meat about once a week (during a good week) and its usually only 1-2 ounces. She also avoids anything that is green in color. I am mostly concerned that she is getting enough iron in her diet and she is still too young to take vitamins. She loves all fruit and pretty much all yellow and orange veggis. She also loves whole wheat bread, cereal, yogurt and eggs. The only limitation to her diet is that she is sensitive to cows milk so she eats soy yogurt. Thank you in advance!
She CAN take vitamins. Both my kids, as babies and even my toddler boy, took a Doctor prescribed "Polyvitamin" liquid drops, WITH iron. You put it in their milk etc. Ask your Pediatrician about it.
Also, I recommend researching and reading up about "soy" milk.. .there are lot of contraindications on it. It contains natural occurring "estrogen" and it can negatively affect/damage a child's (boys and girls) hormonal and physical development. A good alternative, is Almond Milk.
Try making smoothies... and pureeing soft cooked veggies, and add the purees into anything you cook... like spaghetti sauce etc. A good book for this is Jerry Seinfeld's Wife, who has a cookbook on it... sorry I forget the name of it.
As for meat, lots of kids don't like the taste of it. But for protein, try eggs, peanut butter (but only when she is after 2 years old), or beans. Or try fish.
*oh just wanted to add... a baby's or child's "taste buds" are still developing...THUS, the aversion or liking of foods... it is an acquired taste for some foods. They won't like everything, all of the time. Their food phases will ebb and flow, ALL their life. So be prepared. Not even adults want to eat everything and some grown ups are very picky with food as well.... so are children. So, they don't have to "like" or eat everything we give them. For me at least, I'm okay with that with my kids. I play on their "strengths" as far as eating.
Oh! I also learned, for my kids, that they like Hummus. So, it's healthy, and has protein in it too.. .I give it to them as a dip for ANYTHING, or with the traditional pita slices. And Ranch Dressing is also a popular "dip" for my kids their veggies or ANYTHING, meats, fruits, bread etc.
Sorry have to run, but hope this helps,
Susan
Hi,
Susan about covered it -- there's only one other thing I've tried that worked. Try making characters, etc., out of the food. There are whole books in the library dedicated to the subject of creative food prep for kids. Hot dog race cars, fresh fruit animals, clown face burgers, you get the idea. I tried it with my picky eaters and was absolutely floored when it worked. But it didn't work nightly; novelty seems to be the key. Once or twice a week -- or on request -- seems to work pretty well.
Good luck! :-)
PS: just remembered one other tidbit: when my eldest was about 8 months we started a garden. As soon as there were little baby green bell peppers and tomatoes growing, he'd crawl over and steal 'em. I used to find tiny, half-gnawed, drool covered veggies scattered all over the place. We didn't have the biggest harvest, but it sure instilled a love of vegetables in my son. He still loves his veggies to this day. Not that you should encourage your child to eat out of the yard (!!), but supervised 'veggie snatching' might be as fun for you as it was for us.
For iron, you can add baby rice cereal to her yogurt or applesauce. I used to do that with my first baby, and she didn't even notice.
I buy seasoned Tofu from Trader Joes and give a stick to my 1 year old when he needs more protein. He really enjoys it. Another food that is really good that your daughter might like is vegi falafel. It's made out of chickpeas and vegis. You might also try chicken & vegi pot stickers, they come frozen and just need to be boiled or fried. I get them from Costco.
Hope these ideas help.
Hi Cerissa, I used to chop of meat and vegies and put them in mashed potates, most kids love mashed potatoes. Julie L.
Hi Cerissa - Other than eating the whole food, the best way for you to ensure she's getting enough green vegetable nutrition (as well as other fruits, veggies and grains) is with Juice Plus gummies. They are awesome, like a nutritional seatbelt. They're different than vitamins - they're not vitamins at all - because it's actually the nutrients, antioxidants and enzymes from 17 of the real fresh fruits and vegetables in gummie form. There is also more independent gold standard research proving the health benefits of Juice Plus than any other nutritional supplement. My kids have been taking them every day for 4 years and their immune systems are strong. Feel free to check my website at www.wethriveonjuiceplus.com. Another great source of info on the research is the free recorded health info hotline: 800-942-1260. Feel free to call me at 949-922-8072 for more information or to order. I'd be happy to help.
Cerissa, for some inspirational ideas...you'll love these 2 websites (my favorites):
AND http://wholesomebabyfood.com/
DELICIOUSLY YUMMY!!!
ENJOY!!! : )))
LOL,
Leah (MAMA to 13 month old Dylan Orion). : )))
she doesn't need meat. it produces uric acid, the processing of which can cause a strain on her baby kidneys. I would stick to the veggies she likes. steam some beets for iron and see if she likes those. most kids do as they are kinda sweet. keep introducing the green vegetables a little at a time. It takes children about 10 times to adopt a new food especially if it is not in the standard salty, sweet palate mix.
best,
My daughter is 13 months and has been on veggie "strike" for about 4 months. She used to love them and now won't touch them. I agreed about keep trying...but in the meantime, this is what worked for me for about a month.
Smoothies (milk, yougurt and pureed veggie of your choice. I did squash, bell pepper, or spinach ..etc. You can be creative)
Scrambled eggs. If I puree the veggies and then mix with the eggs she can't even tell. Green veggies too.
My friend just suggested "veggie quesadillas"
Hope this helps!!
Does she eat tomato sauce on pasta yet? You can sneak a lot of different types of pureed veggies into tomato sauce. I wouldn't worry too much about meat if she is eating eggs and soy yogurt. Things like hummus and pureed white beans can be really taste for them and have lots of good protein.
Cerissa,
Try shredding the vegetables. Also you might want to use purees. Which means that you would have to bake the vegies and then put them in the food processor. There is a cookbook out by Jessica Sinefeld that has some great tips and some really good recipes.
Check it out and good luck
Kristine F
Mom of four here. Your daughter is still just a baby. Her diet will round out in time. Kids in this age range who are not pushed into eating foods they do not seem to care for end up having a much more diverse diet later in childhood. Do not be concerned about the nutrition aspect. Just keep offering her different meats and green veggies during meals and eventually she will go for them. You might want to try that book by Jerry Seinfeld's wife about how to cook with veggie purees, but I think that is for kids who are a bit older. Your daughter is still very young.
How about spinach-berry smoothies? I can't do cow's milk either, so I use bananas and frozen fruits and a little bit of juice, throw it in the blender, and voila!
I used to blend the baby pureed veggies into his omeletts, You can hide a lot of pureed stuff in an omelett. The parenting magazine also has some good recipes where you can hide spinach/blueberry puree in brownies. As for meat, hmmm... I make him quesadillas with ham or ground meat, and hide some veggies in there too. That seemed to work for my son.
kids go thru color phases and it can change on a daily basis so just keep trying and show her you eat these as well and make yummy noises while you eat...good luck
Hi Cerissa,
It sounds like your daughter is a pretty healthy eater already. To help her develop the taste for green veggies, you may want to steam them, puree them and add them to some of the foods that she normally eats. Jessica Seinfeld's Sneaky Chef cookbook has some great ideas along this line.
As for meat, she may not be a natural meat eater and I wonder how important it is to for her to eat meat at this point in time if she is eating a variety of other healthy foods. Maybe you should consider giving her some non-meat protein sources instead like rice and beans, tofu and such. There are some really good books (cookbooks as well) on this subject and you can always consult your pediatrician to see what he/she has to say.
My daughter was similar at that age in that she didn't enjoy eating meat. I think she didn't like the texture. She loves tofu, so occasionally if I felt she wasn't getting enough protein I would give her some tofu or just make her an egg for dinner. She does love taking bites of our chicken drumsticks and lamb chops - I think mainly because mommy and daddy are doing this - but also because it is fun for her. I made rack of lamb the other night and when she saw the lamb on our plates she got excited and asked to have some, too. She also prefers when her meat has been cooked in a soup - again perhaps this is due to the texture. Rice and beans may be another option. She has always loved vegetables so I don't have any advice about sneaking them in.
I would check out Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld..... She has a lot of great ways of getting kids to eat vegis. Good luck !
Hi Cerissa,
One way would be to make her a smoothie. You can make it taste yummy by adding some organic frozen berries or a healthy juice. The flavor of the fruit will cover up any veggies you add to the smoothie. Try adding some carrots or deep leafy greens. Start slowly so that she doesn't notice that there are veggies in it. Obviously adding meat to it wouldn't be advised, but you could pick up a good protein powder and add a scoop in to ensure that she is getting the protein in her diet.
You will need a good blender, vita-mix, or a magic bullet to mix everything up nicely!
Email me with any questions and good luck!
Carri Tanaka, DC
www.naturallifechiro.com