I posted this in the Parenting Issues forum, but I think it might be appropriate here too. I have heard about this problem from lots of parents, and hope someone can advise me.

Up until about 4 or 5 months ago, my 22 month old daughter would eat anything and everything! Since then, however, she had totally stopped eating vegetables except English peas. She will eat some fruits occasionally but mostly prefers bread, rice and pasta (she also will not touch potatoes.) Any suggestions on how I can get her to eat vegetables again? My husband and I eat a lot of different vegetables, and offer them to her daily, even in disguise sometimes, but she will have nothing to do with any of them except peas. I give her a vitamin, but I don't think that's enough.

Have you asked her why she won't eat them? I would assume this will be a phase for her and she will outgrow it. So long as she is getting a good multivitamin/mineral supplement she should be fine. You may want to let her know though that she must at least take a taste of all vegetables offered at meals. I am not sure how old she is but if she is old enough to understand this make her take a taste of the vegetable you have at each meal and then do not make any further issue over it. One thing that might help too if she is old enough to help a bit in the kitchen with your supervision is to let her help with making some of the vegetables or casseroles that have veggies in them. She may be more inclined to want to try what she helped make.

How long can a child live without eating vegetables? 8 years and counting!!!!

Seriously, you and your husband should be congratulated on your healthy diet. I agree that it is just a phase and the suggetions that mlgable gave were great and have actually worked for me, too.

Also, ask her how she would like them served. My sons won't eat spinach, but love creamed spinach (which I would never serve because I don't like it). They enjoy vegetables with dip that are not part of meals.


Try not to make an issue of it, because she will rebel. If you set an example, she will follow it eventually.

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~ Marcelle ~

Thanks for the suggestions! She is really too little to reason with at this point, and although I do talk to her like she understands everything I say, she usually doesn't at this point (she is 22 months old). I will try getting more of her input in the future, however. I do try to get her to taste everything, but with some things that she is familiar with, those lips stay locked! Every now and then I can sneak in something by hiding it under a spoonful of mac and cheese, but if she finds it, the whole mouthful comes back out, and she won't anything else at all for fear I will try to sneak something else in on her. She will try some vegetables with dip, but usually ends up just licking the dip off and dipping the same piece of whatever over and over again. I am hoping she will outgrow some of this eventually, and if not, maybe soon she will understand bribery--no bread or dessert without eating some sort of vegetable!

my nephew is the same way...don't worry...children's tastebuds are different then ours...they can't tolerate any strong flavors....my nephew loves only sweet things but we can't force feed him..everything to him is kaka http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/bouncing.gif

How long? 8 years 10 months.... so far. My son won't eat fruits or veggies. He'll sit at the table for hours to avoid eating one small bite. Lately I've gotten him to eat a few grapes. 20 min. per grape. Vitamins are a must. The games and tricks you read about in Parents Magazine don't work for us. If you come up with something, let us know!

My son is almost 3 & he won't eat any any veggies. His fave thing is chicken fingers/nuggets & fries. And pizza. He is far from overweight & I figure as long as he is active & healthy (rarely gets sick) I don't worry much about it. His doctor says if he only wants one thing to eat let him eat it, he'll grow up & change his tastes.

Hi:

My daughter is 25 months old and months ago she stopped eating vegetables. We eat quite healthy at home with minimum consumption of junk food and a lot of variety. My suggestion is that never ever force your little one to eat vegetables or whatever she refuses to eat at the moment. That may result in aversion of certain foods for a life time.

Since my daughter refuses to eat veggies at home, I prepare dishes where they are no longer as visible, for example meat loaf with chopped vegetables, veggie pizza (she loves that). I make her smoothies with fresh fruits and low fat yogurt and soy milk. She loves that too. She also gets kids' vitamin daily.

Hope this helps.

Piper

Sometimes kids won't eat a food because they don't like the texture, color or overall appearance of a food. Mashed potatoes and carrots were a favorite although carrots by themselves were 'icky'. Also try blended soups, just don't let your child see what's in the soup and don't use too much of the offending vegetable. If your child likes sour/salty flavours, try V8 juice just don't mention that it has any vegetables.

Just another suggestion, our boys are autistic, hence they have a problem with textures (and veges!) we are now trying to be creative, bread that contains veges (pumpkins bread) etc, and also you can make your own sausages or rissoles, with mince and throw in some really pureed veges, they dont even really know they are there, unless you over do it!

Thanks for the good ideas! My daughter loves bread, and I have some good cookbooks that have all kinds of bread recipes with vegetables and fruits in them. I will definitely try that--it's better than nothing. And she will eat pizza, which does have some vegetable content, and grapes and applesauce. I just hate that she won't eat everything that she used to, and I worry because she is so skinny. She is almost two and seems to have lost a lot of her baby fat. But she almost never cleans her plate, which I think she would do if she wasn't getting enough to eat. I will bring this up with her doctor in a few weeks when we go for her two-year visit. I'm pretty sure she will be fine, but I have to worry about SOMETHING (I guess it comes along with being a mom!).

My 21 month old daughter is also a picky eater. It's funny, too, because the doctor mentioned to me when she was only 6 months old that he thought she would be.

I thought he was jumping the gun in stating that a 6 month old would be a picky eater, but she is!

There are some days where all she will eat are mashed potato's for dinner, chicken nuggets for lunch and fruit cups. She used to love peas, now she won't go near them.

This is a big challenge for me as when my boys were her age (now 18 and 16), they ate just about anything I put in front of them.

So, here's what I do. I am a personal trainer and health coach, and I specialize in fitness & nutrition issues with children.

My biggest challenge is not so much in getting her to eat new things, but getting myself to take the pressure off.

I continue to introduce new foods to her a little at a time, but I am very careful in not creating a "restaurant" at mealtimes.

One thing I've learned is that little one's taste buds are changing constantly and when they continually eat one kind pf food repeatedly for a while, it usually means their bodies are lacking in the main nutrient in that food.

Did you know there are 9 essential nutrients that kids need every single day just to stay healthy?

Anyway, I have found a nutritional supplement that I give to her that mixes with her milk. She loves it! And it has everything and more than regular store-bought vitamins, which usually are loaded with sugar.

The one thing I like about the powder mixed in her milk is that liquid vitamins are 95-98% absorbed in the body where pills and even chewables are not.

So, now I'll just wait until her taste buds get their act together, I'll keep on offering different foods and with the nutrition I give her, I know she's getting all the nutrients she needs every day.

I know that nothing is a replacement for food, but as a fitness professional, my education has taught me that even if we eat everything we should, we still won't get all the nutrients we need. Modern farming methods have seriously depleted our soil and our foods of all the minerals they used to have.

29 years and counting....

I am a very picky eater and do not eat Fruits or Vegetables. I am not proud of it, and I would like to eat them but I just don't.

I use a multi-vitamin as a supplement and I am in pretty good condition. I just wish I ate less carbs http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wink.gif

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I really appreciated reading Patti's input. I would like to know what those 9 nutrients are and what supplement you use.

My children only eat broccoli with very few exceptions. So, we have broccoli...a lot. I introduce other vegetables into the mix and I REALLY encourage that my 3 1/2 and 2 yr old take one taste. Sometimes that means just licking the vegetable.

Children do have very sensitive taste buds. My older son will only eat fresh off the farm tomatoes - not store bought. He will eat and try more-so fruits & veggies that are fresh from the farms (farmers market) as opposed to store bought. And we all know how good these taste!!!! Have you tried this approach?

I recently began re-purchasing organic milk, because my older son won't drink milk, to see if it would make a difference (He drank organic milk until 2 then I switched to the way less expensive brand because I was going through 4 gal. a week @ $6/gal between 2 little kids)-- however switching back did not make a difference.

Again, I feel that Patti is on the mark about the quality of produce.

You can live your entire life without vegetables. Not the wisest thing to do, but a lot of people I know eat only processed food and they are still alive, and they even had 4 kids with that diet (really stupid).

Disguise them in something like an egg roll, or dip it in ranch or cheese. Also try new ones, and don't let the child have any dessert or candy if they don't at least try a bite of something.

if they aren't given, at a young age, deep fried nuggets and fries, they wont crave them.