Getting 2 1/2 Year Old to Eat Fruits and Veges

Hi, A..

Does you son like to dip things? Get him some whole wheat crackers or honey wheat pretzels and let him go to town. Does you son like to drink smoothies? I make my own and add whatever my daughter likes to them. She has no idea what she's drinking.

Good luck.

S.

I need to read the responses because my 2 kids (ages 3 years and 18 months) are picky eaters. My pediatrician suggested using Benefiber to increase their fiber intake while continuing to offer my kids a variety of foods. The benefiber has no taste and does not thicken the liquids you add it to.

Wonderful suggestions here.. But stop giving him bananas, and avoid rice too. These foods are VERY binding, and the nutrients they provide can be gotten elsewhere.

The cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld gave me some good ideas about how to hide veggies and fruits in my daughter's favorite foods. She is also 2 1/2 (almost 3) and used to be picky about veggies. My daughter loves pillsbury crescent rolls, so I would mix mashed cooked broccoli and a little cheddar cheese and roll it in, and she liked it. Now she eats broccoli on its own. Especially when we tell her they are little trees and she is a giant eating trees. I've learned that even as your hiding veggies in food, you can still serve some veggies on the plate with their favorites, you never know when your son will feel adventurous and actually take a taste. Even if you end up throwing it away, get him used to seeing it there so he knows it's part of the meal. Also, serving veggies and fruits in all different ways - cooked, raw, in different shapes, make a face or picture out of it, serve with dips, any way to vary it and make it fun. I can usually get my daughter to eat one or two more green beans if I tell her that the beans in her belly are having a party and these guys don't want to feel left out. My daughter will eat cucumbers if I cut them into sticks, but not if I slice it in circles. Go figure. It's all psychological. We have whole grain pasta, breads and cereals. Fluids are important for constipation. Good luck!

My granddaughter was having the same problems. The doctor told us to give her Cheerios. He said there is a lot of fiber in them. They seem to be working. At least she stopped complaining of a belly ache and seems to be "going" regular again.

Also, when my kids were little they hated eating veggies so I had to trick them into eating them. Since they loved mashed potatoes, I used to grind up peas, beans, and even corn and mix them in the potatoes. They never knew the veggies were there. I also made lots of soups. Even if they didn't eat the actual vegetable they did eat the broth which the veggies were cooked in so they got the vitamins from them. To get them to eat fruits I had to usually cut them into bite size pieces and freeze them. They loved them. Especially in the hot summer months. Sometimes I would make a fruit drink by pureeing various fruits and freeze it also. I use Dixie cups with sticks in them. Use saran wrap on top of the cup to hold the stick up straight. Like a Popsicle. They really liked those and to this day they ask for them even though all of them are grown and have kids of their own. Don't tell my kids but if you don't let them see you make them you can even add a few veggies in the puree. The sweetness of the fruits hides the taste of the veggies.

puree the fruit into smoothies with vanilla yogurt and milk and puree the veggies into spaghetti sauce or soup! Also I've found that kids will eat almost anything "on a stick" so try making fruit or veggie cabobs, just supervise cuz they can be pointy.

A lot of people are into hiding fruits an dveggies into many foods. This does work as a quick fix to get you child to eat what you want but does not work in the long term because they do not get into teh habit of eating these foods. My daughter does eat fruits and veggies very well now but back when this was an issue I used to include dips for her to try to make them more fun. cooks.com has tons of healthy dip recipes with yogurt bases. Also you can try to make his food more fun and appealing to him by arranging it differently. Arrange all his food in teh shape of a face or other silly object using fruits and veggies for the eyes nose and mouth. Pieces of broccoli for eyes, a strawberry for the nose, peas for the mouth, ect. A lot of kids will respond to "fun" meal times bette rthan a serious eat what in front of you setting.

Betty Crocker.com has a ton of these ideas also. Good Luck.

Hi A.~
Congradulations on your move. I love the east coast, but I'm a bit biased because I've lived here my entire life.
When my children lived with me, they ate everything, but I'm now a vegetarian and I have a ton of different recepies, including one that takes slightly overcooks cauliflower and turns it into "mashed potatoes", with, of course, no potatoes at all. I make a good lentil pottage with celery carrots onions and garlic, and I also love pasta primavera. I did notice someone directed you towards cooks.com but beware of that site. I do use it, but anyone can post their recipes there, and I've seen recipes that say "pumpkin" or a "can of beans" but will not specify how much pumpkin or what size can to use. Also, many of the recipes will include something store bought but I enjoy making things such as pancakes cakes from scratch.
One last thing. I missed a bit when my sons were growing up because I was working. If you could work from home, then I say just do. Try to find something that you are good at and something you enjoy. I am a jewelry maker, specializing in personalized pieces, but I also make necklaces, earrings, bracelets and anklets in a variety of shapes and colors. I'm always making something and I'm home so I can stop for a sanity break and dust, wash the breakfast dishes, clean the litter pan, make dinner or whatever needs to get done. Just remember that you don't get paid if you don't get the things done so playing with your cutie all day will not be a good thing. Also, perhaps you can find a job where do work from home. Many people are tele-commuting to work and just show up once or twice a week for staff meetings or to pick up or drop off the work. If you have a compter at home and can get online, then you can do it, too. And just think about all the money you'll save. No dry cleaning every week or so, no day care costs, no gas for your car to get back and forth to the office, no more commuting. There are a ton of plusses but also there can be many minuses, too. Just make sure you discuss it with your hubby first and foremost.
If you want any of my recipes for anything, please just email me at ____@____.com and I'll send you anything I have.
Good luck with everything in your life today.
J.~

Try adding purees of like colored food. Like squash in mac n cheese or in eggs. Other yummy favorites are prunes, applesauce or other fruit purees in your pancake, waffle or muffin batters (even in your brownie batter), you can also add tons of fiber filled cereals to these items. My daughter's favorite dinner is tomato sauce with pureed spinach on a whole wheat pita shell with cheese and veggie crumbles, you could use whatever other pizza toppings you like. Dipping is also one of my daughters favorite things to do with her food. So try blue cheese or ranch for veggies and cool whip or yogurt for fruit. She also likes to dip graham crackers in applesauce. Lots of recipe ideas in Jessica Seinfields book. Good luck!

My son is 21 mos old and I have the same experience with him. But I found that if I made soup, he would eat it because he likes to feed himself with the spoon. Perhaps that will work for you. His favorite is a pea soup I make with organic petite peas because it is really sweet - nothing like store bought soups. I saute 2 sweet onions, a bag of baby carrots and 2 stalks of celery with about 2 tbp of butter or canola oil. Once it starts to get soft/carmelized I throw in a bag of frozen sweet peas. I also just started adding a small can of organic canellini beans for extra fiber. Turn down the heat to simmer and add enough water to just cover the veggies and let it cook for about 1.5 hrs. When it's all nice and soft, I puree it with an immersion blender. He loves it. If that doesn't work, perhaps you can try dried fruits - another good source of fiber. My son will eat dried rasins and blueberries. Sometimes handing him the small box of rasins is an incentive because he thinks its fun to pick them out.

Hi There,
My daughter is a pretty good eater and loves grean veggies, but depending on her mood, sometimes she doesn't eat much fruit. She has had some issues with constipation off and on (especially with potty training!). What works for us is yogurt covered raisins and chocolate covered dried plums (called "Plum Sweets"), they are filled with antioxidents and definately get things moving- and they are really yummy treat for mom too;-)

For years we've been having smoothies for breakfast at our house. You can use a variety of fruits, yogurt, juice, milk, or nondairy milk substitute. My daughter doesn't want solid food much in the morning, but she'll always drink this.

A.,
Disguises are fun to find for fruits and veggies! As you make it more fun, perhaps your son will be more interested.

Cutting shapes into them might help. Simple triangles and squares and circles.

Veggie 'cookies' really wide slices of vegetable (you'd have to go lengthwise on a carrot ;)

Variations on a theme - hidden 'kiss' cookies can be changed to rolls with hidden veggies. Cook the veggies first so they are super soft when the roll is open. Shouldn't need butter.

Sometimes it is a lot of work to get them interested in things that they once liked and need to eat.

Let them help in the preparation of dinner too - there is a step stool out there somewhere that allows children to participate in making dinner. I had a chance to buy a brand new one, and really wish I had.

There are so many other things you can do to make veggies more interesting - like build your own garden - let the kids plan where things will go (have them plan around sun/shade issues too :) for the Spring.

Good luck,
M.

Soup is a great way to get all the veggies in......... whatever veggies you have on hand cook them up in some chicken stock and puree. When serving add some shredded cheese and butter bread and you are good to go. We eat soup all the time. Also Pasta e Fagioli is great and has beans in it........ Try puree sweet potatoes also. Just boil and puree with a sitck blender add a bit of salt and butter ..... they love it and it is a great veggie. My kiddies do not eat white potatoes and could eat the sweet potatoes every day. Good luck...... you will be fine you just have to find what works and remember they do have taste buds so make it flavorful. Oh one more thing. My son is a banana freak also so now I hide them so he cannot have them all day long and I can give it to him when I want to. If you mash it up with a bit of whole milk plain yogurt and a touch of cinnamon that is good way to add a new flavor to a plain banana.

Oh, I totally hear you on this one!! My daughter won't eat anything, even her favorite foods, unless it is HER idea.

One thing that has worked, recently, is stews and soups with celery, carrots, potatoes and onions and meat. Luckily, my daughter loves rice, so I serve her rice with the stew mixed in. (Celery is LOADED with fiber and seems to do the job just as well when it's cooked down like that.) (There are seriously SO many things you can make with those four vegetables! So far, we've had Chicken Noodle Soup, Beef Stew, Tomato Soup (blend everything up - tomatoes, onions and celery), English Scouse (a type of Beef Stew)...and that was just in one week. We were all very "regular". ;-))

If you need recipes for any of those things, I can send them...they were all very easy.

Good luck! The other thing that works for me is sitting down and eating veg, or fruit...and telling Princess she can't have any. ;-) It's good for at least one bite!
Oh...and I don't know if this will work, but I realized that my daughter loves green salad, with plenty of dressing. She only likes the greens, but..it's something! I know that's weird for a toddler, but you can give it a shot. We didn't make a big deal out of it. She saw it on my plate, and I gave her as much as she wanted.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice about yummy fruits and veggies, but in the mean time popcorn will surely get things moving! Fun, low fat (and low nutrition) but it'll get the job done! :) Have you tried frozen grapes? Frozen peas 0 while they[re still frozen? Pediasure? Good luck - must run!

DECEPTIVELY DELIOUS, BY JESSICA SEINFIELD
It's pure genious and I wish I had started years ago.
Friday night we had hambergers with brocolli and acorn squash and my five year old ate the entire burger, none the wiser!!!
PS be careful of fruit juice, it's empty calories and most have added chemicals, the small water bottles are a big hit here.
Good luck,
K.

I would suggest having him drink something like Boathouse Green Goodness. It is an all natural drink that includes all green fruit and veggies with no extra or added sugars. Good Luck!

Our 2.5 y/o hates anything green (except red leaf lettuce), so I mix baby veggie food in his rice. He does not know the difference. Also he loves chocolate shakes, so I add strawberries, apples and bananas in the blender. He loves it! And ten minutes, he takes his pull-off off, b/c he has make "ka-ka."
Hope this was helpful.

we give our son Fiberful, it is a powder which dissolves in anything. Also, you can put jarred veggies in any recipe...good luck

Does he like cheese? You can add shredded cheese to any veggie!

Make sweet potato fries or wedges.

Add peas to mac and cheese.

Dip carrot, celery, or cucumber sticks into low fat ranch dressing. My friend's toddler LOVES to dip stuff! Apparently it's a stage they go through?

Put little pieces of red bell pepper on pizza.

Cut up fruit and add to vanilla yogurt. (Pieces of grapes, any kind of berries, etc.)

Make muffins, using apple sauce instead of oil. (Google it online- tons of recipes for low fat muffins!) And you can add in fruit or veggies! Apple muffins, carrot "cake" muffins, zucchini muffins, etc.

Make a smoothie with bananas, blueberries, OJ, and lowfat vanilla yogurt. Yummy!

Put blueberries and bananas in pancakes.

Make homemade applesauce- so easy and tasty!

Hope one or more of these work. Good luck!

DECEPTIVELY DELIOUS works like a wonder to my son too! i even like those food. :)

I know that Jerry seinfeld's wife has a book out that uses veggie purees in everything. She was on oprah and everyone raves about how easy it is to 'sneak' the veggies to your kids....Maybe try some of the recipes in that book. She even had a choc.chip cookie recipe with veggies that oprah loved. Also keep offering him some veggies at each meal...the more kids are exposed to a food the more likely they are to try it.

I'm a Pampered Chef consultant and so many people over the years have complained that their children won't eat fruits/veggies. I came up with this tip sheet for a show that I do called Kids in the Kitchen. My daughter is nine now and eats absolutely EVERYTHING. Hope it helps & email me if you have questions.
----------------------------------------------------
Cooking with Kids and getting them to EAT Tip Sheet

Developing good eating habits is not always easy – especially if you have a “picky” eater. When my daughter was a toddler, she only ate a handful of foods. She’s now six and will happily eat almost anything I put in front of her including most fruits and vegetables. At two years old, I invested in realistic looking “play” food that she could cut in half thanks to Velcro. She also received her own play kitchen and joined me in our kitchen often. She accompanied me to the supermarket weekly and was happy to help choose fruits and vegetables. I found that when I got her involved in the whole process of preparing meals, she was eager to try whatever resulted.

Yes, it was easier and less messy to leave her out of the process some days, but the time spent with her in the kitchen is priceless. At six, she’s now able to help me by preparing the salad or chopping mushrooms with an egg slicer. She’s proud of her work and is developing a sense of self as a result. She’s not ready for sharp knives yet, but that day will come. Please get your kids into the kitchen with you. It will be well worth your effort – I promise!

Get kids involved in the PROCESS preparing the food.
●Look through supermarket flyers together and make a shopping list
●For small children, cut out and paste pictures of fruits/veggies on index cards. Before heading to the store, take a few cards with you and let that be
your child’s “list” of things to get. You can even start a small notebook (pocket-size) where kids can place the stickers from fruits after they eat them
●Take them to the grocery store and have them help you choose the food
● If they’re old enough, they can even help bag the food at the checkout.

Back at home – get ready to cook:
●Choose simple recipes
●Assemble ingredients and tools ahead of time (measuring cups/spoons/kid’s safe cutter, mini whisk)
●Have everyone wash their hands and put on an apron
●Have children measure/add/mix ingredients under your supervision
●Discuss safety – sharp items that should not be touched, hot surfaces and raw foods that should not be consumed (think eggs in cookie dough)
●Have children help set timer for cooking time
●Sample your work together and be sure to “talk up” your little chef in front of others

If all else fails, HIDE the veggies in your food. Most kids will eat spaghetti with tomato sauce. Use your Chopper to add zucchini, carrots, peppers, etc. to sauce. They won’t know it’s in there. Add chopped broccoli to macaroni and cheese. Prepare Chili (one of my favorite quick meals) by replacing ½ the meat mixture with chopped veggies and a can of rinsed black beans. Keep the spices mild to suit your child’s taste. Don’t forget to top it with shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream.

Other suggestions:
If your child doesn’t like a veggie in its raw state, try the cooked version or vice-versa.

Offer kids veggies or fruits to dip in peanut butter – you may not like it, but your child might

Use reverse psychology – tell them a particular dish is only for the “adults” – your child might want to try it because he’s not “allowed” to. Leave your child's plate EMPTY until he/she ASKS for the food. He will not want to be left out when everyone else is eating.

Do everything you can to get your child to TRY a food numerous times, not just once. We have a standing rule – you can spit it out in a napkin if you don’t like it, but you have to give it a try. Giving your child this “out” will get them to taste things they may like. We've had very few foods spit out.

Be patient. Mealtime should be fun and a time for your family to catch up with each other. Children who spend time around the table with their family are statistically more likely to do better in school and less likely to engage in undesirable behaviors as they get older (think drinking/drugs). Teenage girls who eat regular meals with their family are less likely to develop eating disorders.

Recipe: Oscar the Grouch Green Slime Soup
Chop one large onion and a handful of baby carrots in a little olive oil until soft. Add a head of broccoli chopped to the pan and cover with chicken broth by an inch or two. Simmer until broccoli is very soft. Carefully puree in batches in blender or use stick blender. Add a cup or so of milk or cream and a handful of cheddar cheese. Add salt & pepper to taste. If it’s not green enough, add food coloring so everyone’s tongue turns green!

Elaina in NJ - SAHM to now 9-year old girl. I run a successful Pampered Chef business that is my creative outlet. Happily married to my husband for 16 years.

We've gotten our son to eat some veges by providing dipping sauces (ranch, bbq sauce, yogurt, rarely ketchup). If your son will eat pasta, many sauces are high in vege content and sometimes I stir in a mashed sweet potato or carrots into the sauce (mac and cheese too). Another thing my son likes is sweet potato wedges/fries. He can dip these too so it's fun. Try buttering and salting (lightly) cooked veges - this has helped us tremendously with getting our son to eat them. Also, he prefers canned green beans rather than fresh. I am not a fan of canned food, but if it means he'll eat veges, then we'll try it!

Fruits. Our son is a fruit monster. But some of the places I stick it in: yogurt (I make it homemade), pancakes (add frozen anything - raspberries, blueberries, peaches, strawberries), right out of the freezer blueberries in a bowl.

I do a glazed carrots dish so here's a recipe. Cook sliced carrots, then put into small saute pan with: squirt lemon juice, sesame seeds, 1 T or so brown suger, little water, little butter. Saute together until glazed and warm. Both my kids love these.

we often use canned pumpkin in our pancakes. my son (who is 2) also loves pumpkin bread, zucchini bread and banana bread.

I have the same issue with my 1yr old. I offer vegetables and fruit with every meal with the hopes that she'll eventually take. In the meantime, I mix carrot juice with her usual apple juice and offer lots of whole grain snacks to help with the fiber issue.

You got alot of good ideas here - and maybe this was suggested - but make some shakes out of yogurt and fruit - or finely chop some apples and put them in oatmeal in the morning. My dgtr loves purple cream of wheat - it's regular stove cooked cream of wheat w/ blueberries mixed in. She has always eaten her fruit the best in front of a video - I don't love the idea - but it works well when needed for a serving a day! As for veggies - keep trying - you can make shakes with them too mixed with fruit.

One other thing that my dgtr does at my mom's - my mother has a tea set for her and it has little plates and saucers and cups - my mother will put little bits of food on each plate/cup and my dgtr LOVES IT! She thinks it's awesome! Or in a mug that has a handle for him to hold too may work. Try making sweet mashed potatoes with a 'forest' of broccoli out the top. Good luck! Hopefully he'll settle on something else soon!