Getting 2 YO to eat veg

Lotus-eater

I can't believe I'm writing this....

My 2 years 10 months son won't eat any veg, just won't even try them.

Now and again he will eat a liquidized meal complete with some veg, but lately not even that.

He eats pears and bananas, but not even apples any more. I'm tearing my hair out wondering what to do.

I've done everything you are supposed to, been nice and not paid any attention, been horrible and tried to force him, involved him in buying and cooking. Not given him any dinner when he won't eat it, given him it lunchtime and dinner time.
I grow my own veg and he helps me in the garden, I've explained it all where it comes from and how it grows, he knows all that, he often talks about it.
He likes strawberries from the garden atm, yet won't eat one bite of dinner to get a strawberry, would prefer to go without anything till the morning.

I know he'd starve himself to death before eating what he doesn't want to, I am totally at a loss.

So do your worst, tell me what a bad parent I am and then tell me how to deal with this.

thehappybutterfly

I honestly wouldn't worry. When my son was that age, at one point all he would eat was tinned pasta - Tom N Jerry shapes was his favourite! I despaired of him ever eating regular food, never mind fruit or veg but he's now 20, strapping and healthy and a trained chef who will eat anything and everything! Didn't do him any harm.

marisco_2

My 9 year old still tells everyone he wouldn't eat any vegetables till a year ago. Little does he know. He has eaten every vegetable known to man since before he could walk, blitzed to oblivion and blended in with passata sauce, put on pasta, in bolgnese etc. Kids are easily outsmarted, if you are devious enough

thehappybutterfly

I remember trying chocolate coated veg from a certain frozen food shop in the hope that might entice my kids. They weren't impressed - can you imagine anything more revolting? Frozen carrots are horrible as they are, never mind coated in a vaguely chocolately type liquid......... bleurgh. Desperate measures and all that.

Whizzing them up and adding to bolognese or savoury mince is your best bet. Or give up entirely. The more you fuss, the deeper they'll dig their heels in, even at that age. But you already know this don't you?

Itismehonest

Hi Lotus

I was lucky. Mine ate everything.

I wouldn't worry too much. You can always do some clever camouflage work to make sure he's getting the goodness he needs.

One thing you wrote made me wonder, though.
If he's learnt all about the growing of veg & frequently talks about it, could there be something which has, somehow, concerned him enough to turn him off?
You know the sort of thing I mean. Like when children first learn where milk comes from & they have a _pale_ moment.
Maybe there's a reason which would be easy to rectify if you could discover it?

missprice

my son is in his 20s now and does fine despite for a whole 18 months (when about 6 years old) only eating Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. drove me mad at the time but he now eats virtually anything so stop worrying and know that a child will never starve himself:)

SqueekyMouse

You're not a bad parent

As Marisco says, hide the veg in pasta sauces, with mince in cottage pie etc so you know he's getting some. Possibly start giving him vitamin drops to make up any shortfall?

But don't stress about it. I'm sure it's just a power battle, he knows what you want him to do so he won't do it.

Keep offering him obvious veg with his meals, but don't pass any comment whether he eats it or not. No praise, no telling off.

If you remove the pressure to eat it and treat it like any other part of his dinner, eventually he won't treat it differently either

I heard (can't remember from where) that kids often go off red and green veg at some stage as they get more mobile as a protective mechanism. They go off red foods because they may be poisonous and green foods because they might be under-ripened. Not sure if it's true, but it's an explanation why a lot of kids who previously chowed down on all sorts of healthy stuff suddenly decide they don't like it any more

marisco_2

My niece got faddy about eating fruit, till my sister bought a blender and made smoothies. Now she loves it. Sometimes kids just cant be bothered to chew

Lotus-eater

marisco wrote: »

He has eaten every vegetable known to man since before he could walk, blitzed to oblivion and blended in with passata sauce, put on pasta, in bolgnese etc. Kids are easily outsmarted, if you are devious enough

I am really devious, he won't eat any sauce now, any teeny tiny bit of veg in there, forget it. A sausage, once he's convinced himself it's all meat, would be ok, a veggie sausage, forget it.

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

Whizzing them up and adding to bolognese or savoury mince is your best bet. Or give up entirely. The more you fuss, the deeper they'll dig their heels in, even at that age. But you already know this don't you?

Yes, but I've been trying not to fuss, if he doesn't want to eat it, he just stays at the table while we finish ours, then we have pudding which I tell him he can have if he eats his dinner, which doesn't work, so he just sits there getting more and more adamant he won't eat it.
I don't know where he gets his stubbornness from (this is at the point my MIL would dissolve into laughter)

Itismehonest wrote: »

Hi Lotus

I was lucky. Mine ate everything.

I wouldn't worry too much. You can always do some clever camouflage work to make sure he's getting the goodness he needs.

One thing you wrote made me wonder, though.
If he's learnt all about the growing of veg & frequently talks about it, could there be something which has, somehow, concerned him enough to turn him off?
You know the sort of thing I mean. Like when children first learn where milk comes from & they have a _pale_ moment.
Maybe there's a reason which would be easy to rectify if you could discover it?

No camouflage work, works! Honestly! It did for a bit, now it's stopped completely.

It all started way before he knew anything about veg from the garden, I've been trying to include him in it and tell him all about it recently, hoping it would help. It doesn't, although on the one positive bit, he really likes digging now

The health visitor lady said he must have had a traumatic moment with a vegetable to be this way apparently. He will have soon I told her, unless he sorts himself out....... which probably got me on the children at risk register. :rotfl:

Lotus-eater

SqueekyMouse wrote: »

You're not a bad parent

As Marisco says, hide the veg in pasta sauces, with mince in cottage pie etc so you know he's getting some. Possibly start giving him vitamin drops to make up any shortfall?

But don't stress about it. I'm sure it's just a power battle, he knows what you want him to do so he won't do it.

Keep offering him obvious veg with his meals, but don't pass any comment whether he eats it or not. No praise, no telling off.

If you remove the pressure to eat it and treat it like any other part of his dinner, eventually he won't treat it differently either

I heard (can't remember from where) that kids often go off red and green veg at some stage as they get more mobile as a protective mechanism. They go off red foods because they may be poisonous and green foods because they might be under-ripened. Not sure if it's true, but it's an explanation why a lot of kids who previously chowed down on all sorts of healthy stuff suddenly decide they don't like it any more

Good advice.

He won't eat cottage pie now, no green, red, yellow or white veg, any colour veg basically.

The list of what he will eat, is depressingly small and embarrassing.

SqueekyMouse

Lotus-eater wrote: »

then we have pudding which I tell him he can have if he eats his dinner, which doesn't work, so he just sits there getting more and more adamant he won't eat it.

I understand why you're saying this to him, but you know it doesn't work. Try not to make food into a reward.

"If you eat x you can have y" only reinforces the message that x is horrible and eating it is a chore he must perform before he is allowed to have some yummy y that is clearly more desirable

Instead,
a/ always let him eat his pudding without any comment
b/don't have puddings so you don't fall into that trap
c/ IMO the best option - make puddings something healthy you'd actually like him to eat and then always offer it to him regardless of whatever else he's eaten (or not)