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

Sharra

You've had some good practical suggestions, but as jinky says, my first thought was for you/OH to talk to his mum. Find out what he eats at home (he could be playing games for attention), and find out how she deals with it - if he gets the same treatment re veg with you as he does at home, you're likely to make more progress.

loshypops

jinky67 wrote: »

on the other hand, your house.....your rules:D

Could your OH and his Mum not try to come to some agreement about how to deal with the situation?

Not to get into this much but OH's ex isnt really the agreeing type! He is not disciplined in any way at home so it makes it harder still when he stays with us and we try to have some rules - bedtimes, homework before playing etc so ofcourse the food thing is an issue - though he doesnt eat veg at home we know that - but coming to an agreement so the same 'rules' apply would not be possible:rolleyes:

thanks for the input anyhoo!

jinky67

loshypops wrote: »

Not to get into this much but OH's ex isnt really the agreeing type! He is not disciplined in any way at home so it makes it harder still when he stays with us and we try to have some rules - bedtimes, homework before playing etc so ofcourse the food thing is an issue - though he doesnt eat veg at home we know that - but coming to an agreement so the same 'rules' apply would not be possible:rolleyes:

thanks for the input anyhoo!

I hear you;):cool:

donny-gal

You can mix well cooked cauliflower into mashed potato served with gravy on a roast dinner, used to do that for DS.

Sweetcorn is also nice and sweet so may prefer that.
DG

When making a shepherds or cottage pie, cook some veg and blend it, then mix it in with the mince and gravy so it just looks like a thick gravy in the pie, and he will at least eat some that way and get used to the taste, then as said before maybe try tiny pieces later.

[Deleted User]

My DD has five children aged from 5-17 and some like veg and some go through a stage of not liking it.She just dishes up the meat, potato's and three veg on the table, and as long as they eat a portion of at least one ,be it carrot,cabbage, cauli ect then they can have a pud, but no veg at all, and they get no pudding.No ifs or buts, that's her rules.She is firm but fair and eventually it gets through that they can't get away without eating at least one veg no matter what.Seems to work for her.Her youngest prefers sliced boiled carrots, whereas the rest like carrots roasted and drizzled with garlic oil,so she does them both ways, so that way they all eat their carrots. Tough love but it seems to work.

evie451

Similar situation Loshypops and i do the same as JackieO's daughter it all goes on the table in dishes and you pick what you want but you better pick a veggie at some point! my DSS is 6 and has recently started to 'not like' things he was eating, i do the same with him as i did with my older ones leave him to it and give him a choice of veg/salad he tends to eventually pick something! Its great when the older ones pipe up and tell him that one of the veggies tastes nice but if its just the one you have thats not going to work too well for you!

Dunno might have missed someone mentioning Spag Bol? its a great one for hidden veg, i got one of those veg cutters that cuts it all up small and it cooks down to the same colour...

i feel i overcompensate and worry more about the stepkids diets than i did about my own as i dont want OH getting a hard time off the ex cos of me!

Paulie'sGirl

Hi,

We had this with my brother. We just "hid" the veg. My mum would make big batches of a "base sauce" which was full of different veg (carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onions, sometimes green beans) and then blend it up and keep in the freezer in portions.

She then used that as the basis for chilli, spag bol, lasagne, Italian chicken etc. Masses of veg hidden in the sauce.

You could mash carrot into the potaotes and call them golden potatoes. Or carrot and swede. Even mash up peas? Covered in gravy he's less likely to notice.

As a kid I used to go mad for (and still do truth be told) raw carrot sticks, raw broccoli and cauliflower. Offer it up as part of a fruit platter, he might like it?

Baby veg has novelty value too, baby carrots, sweet corn etc. If its "special, grown up vegetables" he might accept them?

At the end of the day though, so long as he's full of fruit, he'll be ok

PGxx

valk_scot

My DD didn't like hot or cooked veg of any sort when she was small. She was fine with cold raw veg though! So she would have a plate of chopped up veg as a starter...salad stuff, of course but also carrot sticks, cold tinned sweetcorn, raw pea pods, pieces of pepper etc etc. DS would eat veg, but only a few. Peas, carrots, tinned sweetcorn. No salad stuff at all.

But...I kept persevereing and kept offering the same cooked veg as OH and I eat in the same sort of dishes and they both got used to seeing them and then eating them. DS (now 13) will eat any veg now, including mushrooms and such. DD is eight and still getting there but she will. I don't belive making an issue of eating preferences,,,,the food is presented, they're told what I would prefer and eventually, they do it, even if it takes a few years lol. I never did the "hide the veg" thing with any of mine either, have to say. What's that teaching them about eating veg? That they are so disgusting that they have to be hidden to be edible?

Jammygal

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

Hi,

We had this with my brother. We just "hid" the veg. My mum would make big batches of a "base sauce" which was full of different veg (carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onions, sometimes green beans) and then blend it up and keep in the freezer in portions.

She then used that as the basis for chilli, spag bol, lasagne, Italian chicken etc. Masses of veg hidden in the sauce.



PGxx

This is what I do.....I chargrill 2 x onions, 1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper in the oven and blend with a tin of toms. This makes a sweet sauce as the veg are naturally sweetened by oven roasting.

I then use the sauce as the pizza sauce, with meatballs, spag bol , pasta etc. They have never turned a hair.......courgettes etc are a little more apparent whereas the above are undetectable;)

Also mash a sweet potato with your other potatoes....much more nutritional and again not a problem for fussy eaters

maman

Newbird wrote: »

mrcow wrote: »

I'm a 36 year old vegetarian (have been for 20 years)
QUOTE]

mrcow - so that makes you 56 then really?

OP - Have a HM soup for starter, whizzed up in blender. Maybe if you can find veg he likes the taste of eg. peas, you should be able to add other veg in, but not so much the taste changes a lot from the pea soup base.

I'd say give a reward, but not choc or usual treats after he's eaten up, how about , a new pc game or a trip to the park/cinema - whatever he likes doing, after he's eaten his dinner and I'd do a pud as a reward and to take away the veg taste....If you try this with a few different tastes and a few different rewards, he'll get the idea that veggies aren't so bad after all!

My kids have always loved pea soup, and still ask me to make it now they're grown up!

Absolutely not! Plenty of praise, your time and the park at the outside.