Getting your kiddo to eat vegetables

Recently, my one year old decided he no longer wanted to eat vegetables... AT ALL!  I tried many different kinds (carrots, green beans, Lima beans, corn...) and found that the only way he would eat them was if  I tricked the little stinker by sneaking those dreaded vegetables in there without him knowing! O and I'm not sure if a Lima bean is even a vegetable or if it a legume....either way, he wont eat them!

Here are some ideas on how to get your little one to eat more vegetables.  These seemed to work pretty well at our house.  Hopefully they will work for you.

1)  Smoothies

For Christmas my wonderful husband got me a Vitamix!  I love it and we use it all the time (but you don't have to have a Vitamix to make smoothies).  My husband and I have been making a lot of vegetable/fruit smoothies to get more veggies in our diet.  I asked Hudson's pediatrician about giving him these deceptive drinks, and he thought it was a wonderful idea.  Hudson (our picky one year old) LOVES them, especially when we give him a cup with a straw (like we use).  Even though they contain more vegetables than fruit, they still taste sweet.   

This is an example/recipe of our breakfast smoothing (enough for 2 adults + a baby).

• 1-2 big handful(s) of spinach
• broccoli
• kail
• carrots
• celery
• green grapes
• apple
• orange
• banana (optional)
• frozen berries (optional)
• 1-2 cups water
• ice

Yummmm!!!!  If you think the GREEN color of the healthy (but oooo so delicious) smoothies might turn your kiddos off to trying it, put it in a solid plastic cup that isn't clear and have them use a straw.  As you can see, Hudson doesn't really care what color his food is at this point.  As long as he's getting some, he's a happy camper.

2)  Mixing

When giving Hudson his meals, I found that if I keep his vegetables separate from the rest of his food, then he wouldn't touch them, but if I mixed everything together he ate them all.  For example, Hudson loves spaghetti-O's so I will just mix his green beans right in and he gobbles it right up.

3)  Timing is everything

This doesn't work all the time, but every once in a while, if I put out ONLY the veggie portion of his meal and hold off on the rest for a few minutes, he will start munching on his cooked carrots (or whatever vegetable I put in front of him).   The only explanation I can think of to explain why he will eat his vegetables in this situation is that he is just so hungry at this point that he'll eat anything.  haha I don't really know.

4)  Try to pick foods that pack more of punch

We use Veggie Smart pasta sauce and veggie pasta (the colorful pasta) or whole wheat pasta.  This is a big hit at our house.  I don't know that this is a significant help, but something is better than nothing, right?

5)  Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld

This has some interesting ideas on how to sneak vegetables into yummy food like brownies.  Deceptive...YES, Delicious...you decide :)


How do you get your kiddo's to eat their vegetables?