How's everyone doing today! This week is " how to get a fussy toddler to eat their veggies" week. The only veggie-related food she seems to care for is corn and tomatoes provided it's in pasta or pizza sauce form. I have tried cheesy broccoli with little success, and am trying to incorporate different strategies in an effort to entice her appetite to expand a bit. Fruits are no problem and things like the little squeeze pouches that blend fruit and veggies are somewhat effective, as is juices to an extent, but she is so picky and I would like her to eat more raw veggies. Any tips are welcome from those who have been through this, and I have been doing online research for some ideas, which I will try and have set up links for below. I hope the following ideas may help any one else out there dealing with similar issues.
Some of the ideas mentioned in the link below involve presentation, dressing up a plate and making it look exciting, making funny faces like in a veggie pizza, as well as blending them in with ground meat.
http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/photo-gallery/get-your-toddler-to-eat-vegetables.aspx#/slide-1
This link provides some good tidbits more centered around behavior, but also helps with this issue by providing ideas such as getting them to cook with you, planning meals, and maybe using just a little sugar to entice better eating behavior
http://www.parents.com/kids/nutrition/healthy-eating/get-your-kids-to-eat-better/
I am looking forward to using some of these ideas in the near future and hopefully, if you have kids or plan to have them, these helpful ideas will be of use for you as well.
These are certainly tips all parents can learn from. I see too many parents give up on trying to get their child to eat what has been prepared and simply allow the child to decide. I like the ideas for presentation, especially the frozen fruit popsicles. The behavior link also had great tips such as getting the kids to help cook. These ideas can set a healthy pattern of eating for the rest of a child's life.
ReplyDeleteI made some homemade mac and cheese the other night with cauliflower in it and the kids loved it! Definitely going to make it again. I'm going to try and get more creative with hiding the veggies....because my kids definitely aren't going to eat them if they see them.
ReplyDeleteI found another webside with food art for kids that you may want to look at http://thedecoratedcookie.com/2012/06/fruit-pops-and-silly-veggie-faces-a-lesson-in-fun-food/. Does she make food with you? If not, she may enjoy eating the food more if she has a hand in preparing it. You could also sneak veggies into her regular food, like shredded carrots in sloppy joes, whole wheat noodles in mac n cheese (she will never know the difference), or fresh spinach on homemade pizza (cover it with the rest of the toppings so that she wont see it). Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteYou posted great tips that I will definitely use. Since I have an 11 month old baby boy, I will be using these creative tips in the very near future, As of right now it gets challenging trying to make sure its healthy and nutritious and tasty for a baby. Here is another great site you should check out. http://weelicious.com/. I will look forward to reading your blogs since I am a first time mom!
ReplyDeleteIn my grad class last week we learned about supertasters and to them some vegetables (especially green ones) are very bitter and they rarely eat them. We had to research ways to help them get their veggies in and a lot of the tips are very similar to getting a picky child to eat. The idea of hiding food was the most popular. Put veggies in everything like you did with the cauliflower and macaroni. Juicing them or making them into a smoothie with fruit to help mask the taste was another suggestion.
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids yet but I can imagine this has to be frustrating! Good luck! Hopefully she learns to love vegetables :)
Thanks for all of your feedback and the helpful links. I have alot of ideas to try....
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