Do your toddlers eat veggies?

[MartiesMom2B]

Martie only eats carrots, broccoli, and corn on the cob. She also eats tomatoes in ketchup form. Is this a good variety of vegetables. Impress me with your kid. What veggies do they eat? And if there are parents of older toddlers, give me hope. Did your toddler grow into a big selection of veggies?

-Sonia
Mommy to my Strawberry Shortcake lovin' Martie

[August Mom]

DS is fairly sporadic on this. He almost always eats bell peppers and onion. He usually eats potatoes, especially mashed potatoes or french fries. He sometimes eats broccoli and asparagus. He thinks it's fun to eat corn on the cob, but really doesn't wind up eating much corn.

Interestingly, DS really likes salad.

So, it's sort of hit and miss, but the hardest part is getting him to try a veggie at first. Often, if we can get past that, he likes it.

[wendmatt]

DD eats cooked baby carrots, canned green beans with no salt or sugar, green bell pepper in a p-nut butter sandwich and she'll eat brocolli, cauliflower and zucchini if it's chopped up really small with melted grated cheese. Also corn on the cob cut off.

[zuzu]

Sarah prefers raw veggies to cooked most of the time. She will usually eat bell pepper strips (orange and yellow are her favorites), cucumbers, and carrots. Often she will eat corn and sweet or regular potatoes, mashed or as fries. Everything else is hit or miss (more miss than hit, these days ). She does like the dehydrated veggies, and oddly, loves artichokes. I try to incorporate lots of veggies into things like quesadillas, pizza, omelets, and lasagna, and she eats those all pretty well. Covering things with cheese or letting her dip them in cheese also helps. She will go a day or two without touching veggies sometimes though.

I'm hoping she grows into eating more.

Melissa, mom to Sarah (5/03)

[muskiesusan]

Not unless they are fried or seriously hidden in something. DS1 has some weird texture issues and I am mortified at how long it's been since he has eaten a fruit or veggie straight. DH says he was the same way as a child and now eats anything, but I am still worried. Now DS2 is starting to be picky as well, and he eats on a totally different schedule than DS1, so I doubt it's the influence.

I am so frustrated at meal times anymore, I hardly even want to make the effort, but I keep offerring, and it continues to be refused. I did everything "right" when we introduced solids, so I'm not sure where I went wrong.


Susan
Mom to Nick 10/01
& Alex 04/04

[amp]

Well, then Martie eats more veggies than Jacob! He will only eat corn. Occasionally a pea will pass his lips, but it's rare, and he will either not eat or will spit out broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green peppers, green beans, etc.

Thank goodness he loves fruits! I know it isn't the same, but I'm just grateful I can get something healthy in the kid!

ETA: I totally forgot that the kid loves, loves, loves black olives. Whoda thunk? Anyway, they don't have any nutritional value, but hey, at least they aren't cookies, right?

[hjdong]

Jamie eats everything (it makes up for my/his sleeping woes sometime - we don't have eating woes). Artichokes (peels them himself) to zucchini (sp?). He eats things I don't eat.

My only suggestion that may be helpful is that he will refuse something one day, only to eat it the next. Except for hot sauce, we never say "You don't like that" when he asks for something,e ven if he didn't eat it the last time.

Much like his sleeping problems, however, I would say this is more personality than anything I did or didn't do.

ETA: My ped. told me that at this age, they get the same nutrition whether they eat fruits or veggies, so don't stress out over forcing the veggies. It must be a common problem, because she shared without asking about his eating habits.

[MartiesMom2B]

"I am so frustrated at meal times anymore, I hardly even want to make the effort, but I keep offerring, and it continues to be refused. I did everything "right" when we introduced solids, so I'm not sure where I went wrong.

Me too. It's very frusterating. When I was pregnant I swore that my child would eat lots of healthy things.

-Sonia
Mommy to my Strawberry Shortcake lovin' Martie

[houseof3boys]

Ryan loves peas! He has now transitioned his love of frozen peas to the dried peas from Whole Foods.

He eats the occasional piece of broccoli and corn. Will eat anything fried (okra, zucchini...) too!

He won't touch any type of mashed potato or sweet potato either and of course will only eat french fries with gobs of ketchup.

[slknight]

Alex loves raw peppers (green, red, and yellow). He also likes raw carrots, corn, green beans, and asparagus. Honestly, he would probably eat more veggies, but the problem is that *I* don't really like veggies so I don't serve enough variety of them. So I don't need to work on him, I need to work on me.:o

[crl]

Just had to say, same here. DS eats all sorts of vegetables happily, but is a lousy sleeper.

He frequently eats congee (rice soup) for breakfast with carrots, peas, green beans, lima beans and corn in it. And he eats plain cooked broccoli like there's no tomorrow. He also eats potatoes and sweet potatoes in various forms. Cooked carrots are a hit--I just mircowave the baby carrots with a little water. And he'll go for cauliflower (how do you spell that?) too. He'll also eat asparagus and zuchini. He wasn't too fond of the raw tomato I gave him, but he loves pizza so he gets some that way.

Definitely not anything I did though. DS is adopted and came home at 14 months. He's eaten veggies like this the whole time he's been home--he's almost 2.

[ett]

DS's favorite is zuchinni and squash. Brocolli used to be a big hit too, but is less so these days. Depending on how it is prepared, DS will also eat carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, peas, and corn. He's a big fan of tomato sauce, but not tomatos. He used to love sweet potatoes, but they're on the outs too. He still eats white potatoes.

I'm glad to hear that they get the same nutrition from fruits and vegetables. DS loves fruits and I defintely find it easier to give him a greater variety of fruits than vegetables.

[jadamom]

Found a recipe for oven fried vegetables. Maybe this would work?
OVEN FRIED VEGETABLES

1 c. seasoned dry bread crumbs
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp. water
1 zucchini, cut into 1/2 x 2 inch sticks
2 c. cauliflower florets
1 c. broccoli florets
1 pt. cherry tomatoes

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In small bow combine bread crumbs with oil. Stir in Parmesan cheese. In another bowl lightly beat together egg and water. Dip zucchini, cauliflower and broccoli into egg mixture, letting excess drip off, then coat with bread crumbs. Place coated vegetables on nonstick baking sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until crust is crisp and vegetables tender. Place on serving platter with cherry tomatoes and serve with your favorite dip.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1950,149172-237193,00.html

[lizamann]

Nora ate spinach once. And broccoli once. She even said, "more broccoli!" But that's it. I'm not kidding.

She eats a lot of dried seaweed, the only green thing she'll touch. But they taste more like chips then vegetables anyway.

And she'll dip baby carrots into hummus, but never eats the carrot. So I have in my own twisted way placed hummus in the vegetable category, and offer her lots of it.

The thing that really gets me is that she doesn't like fruit, either, except for bananas. She often wants to try it, but spits it right out. Spits out the fruit chunks in yogurt.

Whoever said that it takes 20-30 introductions before a kid eats new foods didn't know my dd. She gets offered veggies and fruits all the time, and is never interested except for the above 2 times.

I've decided to absolutely not worry about, and just keep offering her bits of what I'm eating. I hope that eventually she comes around, mostly because they are just so yummy and I feel bad to have her missing out!

[alkagift]

DS will eat corn, broccoli and carrots easily. Peas used to be a favorite, but for some reason they're not popular anymore. He will occasionally eat cauliflower. He keeps trying asparagus but spits it out (at least 10 times). No go on green beans, either. I thought green beans were supposed to be easy! He will eat any bean you put in front of him as long as they're not green.

He will eat spinach if it's cooked in lasagna. He loves sweet potatoes and grape tomatoes but won't eat any other tomato, if you don't count ketchup and pasta sauce.


Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, who is TWO!

[alkagift]

My kid loves black olives too--the California kind that you get in a can!

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, who is TWO!

[MartiesMom2B]

I don't care about Martie I want some oven fried vegetables myself!

-Sonia
Mommy to my Strawberry Shortcake lovin' Martie

[dotgirl]

I don't think my guy counts as 'older', because he's about 20 months old, but I'm going to post anyway.

He'll eat *most* veggies. He likes squash, spinach, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, and avacado. However, he can't deal with them unless they're steamed and mushed up. Not into a fine paste, but into sort of a chunky consistency.

He will *not* eat onions, tomatoes, or lettuce. In fact, if you feed them to him, he'll take them out of his mouth and hand them back to you.

I figure as long as he's getting one green veggie and one orange veggie per days, it's all good, you know?

[momtoB]

Someone on another board I frequent posted this recipe I'm going to give a try using Bisquick:

use an 8x8 pan, but have also halved the recipe and used a small corningware dish. Takes 20-35 minutes to cook through, depending on the size dish you use.

1 cup Bisquick
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
Big Handful Chopped Veggie (see below)
Big Handful Shredded Cheese (see below)

Mix altogether and put in pan (sprayed with cooking spray and cook at 350.

I have used Zucchini with Mozzarella cheese as well as steamed broccoli with Cheddar cheese.

I think I'll try that other recipe posted above. My ds won't touch a vegetable. Thank goodness for multi-vitamins!

Cheryl
ds-4/21/03

[hellokitty1]

Sonia-

I think Martie's variety is pretty decent given they are all different colors.

Sydney is very wishy washy about what she eats. There really isn't a lot that she absolutely won't eat; she's just either in the mood or not. Like she'll eat brocolli one day like it's going out of style and the next time she won't touch as if it has already gone out of style. But, we've started holding back on giving seconds until the entire plate is clean. For example, last night we had pasta and brocolli and Sydney looooves pasta. So we put a little pasta and brocolli on her plate. She whined about the brocolli so I told her to put it on the side of her tray, as opposed to on the floor. Then when she finished all of her pasta and asked for more, I told her she had to finish the brocolii before she got more pasta and she did.

Anyway, holding off on the stuff she wants until she eats what she thinks she doesn't want seems to work for us a lot of the time.

Great, i've jinxed myself.



Vivian
Mom to Sydney (4/24/03)
www.thelins.znot.net (FINALLY updated 6/15/05!)

[Puddy73]

DD likes corn, peas of any kind, broccoli and carrots, but her current fave is sweet potato fries. These things are great! They are in the frozen section next to regular french fries and you just bake them for 20 minutes - yummy and pretty nutritious.

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle 9/03 & a little pumpkin due 10/05

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

[TahliasMom]

DUp until 11.5 months DD ate everythig, including lost of veggies. Now DD is 13.5 months old, lives on fruits/breakfast food, hates meat and veggies. Occassionally DD will eat some avocado and peas and potatoes as fries but it's painful to watch/feed. Hope this is just a phase...

[Hallie_D]

Do you consider ketchup to be a vegetable? ;-) Seriously, DS#1 has eaten fewer and fewer veggies over the last 6 months. Corn is still a hit, and usually he will eat cucumbers, but that's about it, except for french fries and ketchup! He's even recently started boycotting tomato sauce on pasta, which until a few weeks ago was his all-time favorite food. Now he just wants things that are white and yellow (except for ketchup, so far).

Luckily he eats fruit (apples, bananas, peaches, melon) and we give him a multivitamin every day. We try not to push it, because food is his battleground of choice.

[Judegirl]

So far, we've been lucky. Dd loves green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, asparagus, sweet potatoes and peas. She also eats jarred spinach (I can't figure out how to feed her cooked greens...?)

She's lukewarm on edamame and wasn't crazy about eggplant the last time I tried it. I haven't tried corn yet.I keep meaning to try Brussels Sprouts and artichokes, but don't know what to do with them!

I would think Martie would like caulifolwer if she likes broccoli - have you tried it? Also, avocado (I know it's a fruit) but it's super-healthy and my dd loves it.

HTH,
Jude

[HannaAddict]

My little guy is eating enough veggies for all of us. He loves, loves, loves brocolli in particular. He'll try other things and eat them too, cooked green beans, cooked carrots (Gerbers or frozen), potatoes, etc. We haven't really done corn yet. But he just adores brocolli. Put some steamed brocolli down (plain or with a tiny bit of butter) with minced up chicken and he will eat all the green stuff before he eats the chicken and then beg for our brocolli. I'm sure now that I posted how good he is at eating his veggies, he'll decide he doesn't like them anymore!

Kimberly
DS 3/18/04

[TahliasMom]

i'm happy to report that DD now eats chicken and veggies again. guess it was just a weird 2 month phase...