4 year old refuses to eat veg!!! :(

radiohelen

I had a bit of crisis about my lo not eating his veg and someone gave me a bit of advice I have carried close to my heart for a while.... the first bit was DON'T PANIC! The second bit was - look at his diet over an entire week. If you focus on individual meals then you'll panic because he's not eating enough veg. If you look over the course of a week (Gillian "the witch" McKeith stylee) then it's much less scary. You have to count all the tomato soup, bolognaise sauce, hidden in mash stuff.... suddenly you feel a lot better about it all!

How about pancakes? My little one regularly eats spinach and cheese pancakes, we also have sweetcorn in them, peppers and ham and cheese... sling it all in the batter and fry it up, it's all yummy and you get the fun of trying to toss them!

loshypops

mrcow wrote: »

There are lots of ways of hiding veg. Making pumpkin lasagne, or spinach and ricotta canneloni, or bolognaise with onion and tomoatos finely chopped - all mixed in with the meal so there can be no picking.

I'm a 36 year old vegetarian (have been for 20 years) and hardly ever eat plain boiled veg. I don't like them. If you tried to feed me them I'd probably tell you I was full up too.

I do love veg - but I like it to me interesting.

mrcow - thanks. i dont think i could make a whole vegetarian dish - OH is a meat lover and he would not touch that and little one would follow suit but i on the other hand think it sounds scrummy! I LOVE spinach mmmm! may have to try and do that with some form of meat, dont know how little one would feel about green food though but its worth a shot - hulk food :rolleyes:

Soapy955 wrote: »

If he likes baked beans could you not mix some peas in with them. The colour combination of orange and green is nice and they taste lovely mixed together. Might work!

I'm not sure he would go for this but thank you!:D ive tried a mixed vegetable pasta sauce and he picked everything out

Zazen999 wrote: »

Bleugh. _pale_

Sorry.

I'm also an old fart of a veggie; 25 years and counting. I only ever have plain boiled veg with a roast and that's covered in gravy; everything else is either roasted, braised, or cooked 'in' some way. However I have a DSD who can pick powdered basil out of a pasta sauce; so I know how you feel.

I think the fact that he eats fruit is brilliant; and giving him the choice of peas or carrots but no afters until he has eaten them [after all, he chose which one to have]. My latest trick is telling DSD that the roast parsnips taste slightly different to the roast spuds as we grew lots of different types last year and they are the sweetest ones that we have saved especially for her. 3 months and counting on that one.

Parsnips may be a start - i could chop them up and roast with potatoes for sunday lunch and se if he can notie the diff with lots of gravy on

loshypops

radiohelen wrote: »

I had a bit of crisis about my lo not eating his veg and someone gave me a bit of advice I have carried close to my heart for a while.... the first bit was DON'T PANIC! The second bit was - look at his diet over an entire week. If you focus on individual meals then you'll panic because he's not eating enough veg. If you look over the course of a week (Gillian "the witch" McKeith stylee) then it's much less scary. You have to count all the tomato soup, bolognaise sauce, hidden in mash stuff.... suddenly you feel a lot better about it all!

How about pancakes? My little one regularly eats spinach and cheese pancakes, we also have sweetcorn in them, peppers and ham and cheese... sling it all in the batter and fry it up, it's all yummy and you get the fun of trying to toss them!

Thanks for that, i have been panicking but he isnt eating rubbish anymore so i suppose that was the first major step forward though he still has sweet and chocolate as a treat - my mother always said never deny a child or they'll be greedy - which in a way was how my brother and sister and i were brought up, - though we werent really fussy on food - my cousins on the other hand were not allowed sweets/ chocs / crisps etc and once they got their hands on any they would be gone in seconds!!! My sister once had an easter egg that lasted until September!!


I'm rambling now hehe!

tim_n

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

Some kids are cursed with the above ^^ My mother has it and just doesn't eat veg - it's too bitter. Any curries my dad makes where myself, my wife and my dad eat are too hot for her even though they don't even register to us as spicy.

If he's happy with fruit and can manage a few mouthfulls I wouldn't worry. I didn't eat much if any veg when I was a kid and I'm not obese or dead and I now eat veg.

loshypops

tim_n wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

Some kids are cursed with the above ^^ My mother has it and just doesn't eat veg - it's too bitter. Any curries my dad makes where myself, my wife and my dad eat are too hot for her even though they don't even register to us as spicy.

If he's happy with fruit and can manage a few mouthfulls I wouldn't worry. I didn't eat much if any veg when I was a kid and I'm not obese or dead and I now eat veg.

I dont think he is one of these but interesting read! - maybe im paranoid but i just want him to be healthy:o

maman

I'd agree with the 'don't panic' message but keep offering.

We find that putting veg in serving dishes for them to help themselves works really well. Children love the independence, feel they have some control/choice and will often copy others if you ever have visitors round when he's there. There is a tendency to try to take too much of, eg.sausages, but that's where you say 'only two each' or whatever. And make sure you and OH talk a lot during meal with lots of praise for each other and yum! yum! Persevere you'll get there!

Definitely no snacking between meals so he's genuinely hungry. And do keep the sweets/crisps/choc as a rare treat.

charliee_3

when my brother was little he wouldnt eat cooked veg at all, but he liked raw, so he;d have the same dinner as everyone else but with raw cauli/ cabbage/ carrot.. but if a pea dared to get on his plate the whole lot was contaminated!! lol

he eats veg fine now (he is 30) so i wouldnt worry too much if hes eating the frut, just keep offering it but dont make a fuss if he doesnt eat it..

loshypops

Thanks maman & charliee - I try not to fuss or let it get to me but im a born worrying type and it is eating away at me!

PollyFlinders_3

I'd echo all the above comments about not panicking - some children like to eat the same things over and over again and don't seem to get bored like adults do. My two are like that, and after a while they'll go off their old favourites and be willing to try something new - especially if "Grandad/best friend's mum/Daddy grew it"

My 6 year old sounds a bit like your son - she eats lots of fruit but with veg is very limited. Some of it she just hates the texture of (anything like mashed potato, baked beans or parsnips make her gag) and some things she doesn't like the taste. But she's also an independent little so and so for whom reverse psychology works a treat - so when I dished up Kale and said I was sure she wouldn't like it, she declared it was her absolute favourite and cleared her plate. And now she'll eat just about anything green if I tell her its a type of Kale...

midnightraven3

soup is a great way to get littlies to eat veg
my 19 year old says she doesnt like celery, i always put it in soup, blend, and she never picks out the taste

i am quite funny about veg, i love veg, but raw
a lot of veg smell a bit ick when cooked
i will eat raw turnip, and white cabbage, but hate it cooked
i make colesalw from red cabbage, what about trying that? it looks very pretty so may attract him, and you can have carrots, onions etc in there as well

what about something like vegetable fingers or spring roll type things, my son was a lazy eater, he could not be bothered picking lots of peas up when he was little, so i made a cross between croquttes & veg fingers, diced up some veg and made the filling with that, once he could pick it up and munch, he was well away
i still make the now, and he eats them cold in a pack up
but he came to eat veggies "normally", most do