Getting Toddler Enough Veggies?

Look at choosemyplate.gov - it's the USDA nutrition site. And it is HUGELY important for her to learn to like veggies now. ALL the scientific research supports that our lifelong eating habits and acceptance of new tastes are established early. (of course there are people who are exceptions). DS as a toddler ate steamed carrots, broccoli, peppers, peas, cucumber (you can grate it and mix with yogurt and a little cumin), avocado, yams (roasted, baked or pureed), edamame (smash them a little), cauliflower, corn, seaweed salad (LOVED this), steamed green beans (also dry fried Sezchuan style), beets (roasted, any way they are on a restaurant menu - I don't eat them so we will order them for him). We added artichokes and fresh green peppers when he had teeth (still loves them).

Children need to try foods an average of 12 times before making a long term decision about whether they will consistently eat them. Keep trying. Kids like foods that are used as a reward more (if you offer an edamame if she sings a song or something like that she will like it) and like foods less that they are rewarded for eating (if you offer a cookie if she eats her broccoli it decreases her liking of broccoli and increases her liking of cookies). We stayed away from any rewards around food.

Hiding vegetables does get them into the kid. But the research shows it does not increase a child's likelihood to eat that vegetable again. And a lot of this is about teaching kids to like and choose healthy options later on.

Good question, I've wanted to ask this myself for awhile now. My ped didn't seem worried about it, she said kids will go through phases where they'll only eat certain foods but they will eventually round it out. I don't really know if I buy into that, though, and I don't want to raise a picky eater. I'm seriously considering trying out some of the recipes in Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, where she "hides" veggie purees in regular recipes. I got the book from the library and just need to get started. As a family, I think we could all benefit from a few more veggies in our diet :) Just don't tell my husband there is squash in his macaroni, lol.

Don't worry - kids will not starve themselves! I have had to hold off on giving fruit though until the rest of dinner is eaten. These are what my 2 DDs eat:
Ripe, soft avocados
cooked sweet potatoes
frozen baby sweet peas (use fresh if available, but frozen are fine and easy)
frozen brocolli florets (use fresh if available, but frozen are fine and easy)
1/4 of corn of cob (kids love to pick-up and bite)
shreded carrots (cooked in small amount of water in microwave to soften)
grape tomatoes (quarterd)

I used to be so good about making the kids eat veggies. Now I don't battle it-I throw them in smoothies! Nice raw veggies! They don't even know they're eating them.

Today's blender contained: frozen soy beans, a couple florets of broccoli, some romaine lettuce, half a cucumber, bananas, apples (with peel) plain yogurt, frozen blueberries, cinnamon, cloves, ginger. (I was feeling fancy, I don't always use spices)

It just looks and tastes like a straight up sweet berry smoothie. My youngest toddler eats it with a spoon if thick, or a straw, my older two use straws.

Good things to throw in to thicken it are avocados, cooked sweet potatoes, papaya.....as long as there are bananas and enough fruit in the mix, it will still be sweet. Plain blender. Add some water if necessary. The frozen berries act as ice-sometimes I freeze pineapple chunks and watermelon. But throw in ice if there isn't much frozen stuff, mine tend not to like room temperature smoothies.

I have a 17 month old and he eats these plain.

cooked and chopped: green beans, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn, lima beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash, and beets

raw and chopped: tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber, broccoli, and cauliflower.

He also loves olives and pickles, but I don't count those!

I love babycenter for into like this:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-y...

Here's the thing, as your child grows you are just going to have less control on what she eats are and I know that is really hard to deal with. :) But your job is to present healthy options and her job is to learn to eat on her own. It helped me a ton to read about not worrying what your child is eating per meal, but to look at the nutritional picture over a week. Some meals your kid will eat a ton of veggies, other meals it will be all fruit. When you know she's the most hungry, put what you want her to eat in front of her one course at a time.

I would boil baby carrots until super soft in the microwave and my son loved to munch on those. Sweet potatoes are super healthy and have a lot of fiber. Boil or bake and cut into little pieces or cut into fries and lightly pan fry and season in some olive oil. Zucchini is a magic vegetable--you can chop it super small (like in food processor/chopper) and add it to dam* near anything--meatloaf, omelettes, all kinds of things! It's weird, I know zucchini has a very particular taste plain but it really melts into the background in other foods. We also found that my son would eat all kinds of things if they were his "own" idea. He often played in the fridge and would bring me a bell pepper and ask for some or a cucumber. I know that may be too hard for your daughter right now, but keep making it an almost taboo thing like "oh you want to try a pepper, daddy, is that ok?" and that just makes them want it more! :) A little mama jedi mind trick. We also talk incessantly about foods when we grocery shop. He touches, puts it in the bag, we count, we talk about colors, we smell, everything. I feel like while he's not a perfect eater, he's definitely curious and interested and that's really all I can ask for.

Also, this Brazelton video helps me when I get toddler food anxiety, I think I've watched it about 8x!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ3sC_4ga1M