My Daughter Is on a Veggie Boycott

I read in a parenting mad once about giving then frozen veggies...they seem to be sweeter to them that way and it's more fun...I haven't really tried it but sounds easier than cooking the anyway...who would have thought.

Have you tryed cutting the vegies up in little sticks and letting her dip them in dressing or even peanut butter.. or any kind of dip she may like.. it worked for me with my little girl and now that she is 13 going on 30.. lol.. she still loves her vegies to this day.. as long as there is something to dip them in..
Good Luck ! B. Love..
P.S. and if she is to young for raw vegies try steaming them, and have the dressings on the side..and letting her mix them..

Hi E.,
My 7 yr. old son will eat anything as long as he has something to dip it in. If you could find some kind of dip, like ranch dressing, cheese, even ketchup may work.

It sounds like she is just trying to be independant. I would continue to offer them to her and eventually she will start trying them again.

I have this same problem with my 12 month old!! I bought a cookbook called "The Sneaky Chef", sold at Barnes and Noble (It was about $12 or $13). It has a bunch of recipes for mixing fruits and vegetables into your normal foods. Basically you puree your veggies and use them as an extra in your regular recipes. You can't even taste the veggies, so kids don't know that they are eating them. A lot of the recipes are fast and easy, too. It has worked for my family, and they don't even know they are eating spinach, peas, carrots and other "yucky" things! Good luck!!!

Erin, I too am having this problem with 1 of my twin 14 mo olds. He will just plain refuse to eat the veggies if he sees something else is available like meat or cheese.And like you, I dont want to have to "sneak" goodness in-although if that is my only option, I will. I have tried sometimes to serve him veggies before anything else & sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesnt :-) I have resolved to just keep offering them hoping he will take a few bites. Well, I really didnt have a solution for you - but atleast you know you arent alone-lol
Good luck to you & good job on trying to feed your little one good food!

My daughter went through a similar phase. What we found with her was that it was a matter of texture. She eats pretty much everything, but is picky about some fruits and veggies. Most fruits she prefers fresh except she likes canned mandarin oranges and pineapple (she doesn't care for canned peaches and pears, but loves the fresh ones). Veggies seem to be the opposite.... she loves canned green beans but won't eat fresh or frozen ones. She will eat frozen peas but not canned. Raw carrots but not cooked (I buy the matchstick cut carrots - so I don't worry about choking as much- and give her a little ranch dressing.... the dipping is half the fun). It took a little trial and error but she eats her fruits and veggies one way or another! Just keep offering veggies and she'll come around!

Hi, my daughter and I are both vegetarians so I have to be very creative about getting her to eat them with every meal. Avacados are great in little sandwiches. Just spread it on some bread and use a cookie cutter. You can also mix avacados with bananas for a spread. Avacado cubes as well. I make alot of different kinds of stir frys to help get alot in at once. Omelettes are fun too, especially if you use alot of different colors of veggies. You can make the egg really thin and then roll it all up into a holdable tube with a little bit of cheese. I add veggies to my spagetti sauce as well. Fried rice is good, just pan fry some veggies , then add the rice and an egg with some butter. Zucchini seems to be the easiest to get her to eat. I put spinach in almost everything since it doesn't have a stong taste, you just have to make sure its cut really small. Some people suggest trying to make faces on a plate or cutting the veggies into fun shapes. I like to steam carrots then fry them in a pan on high heat with butter and a dash of sugar, really just a dash to cut the bitterness. Tofu is great to try too as it has a lot of good vitamins. I just cube it up and give it to her. At first she didn't like it but I kept it up and now she begs for it.
Just a few ideas. Hope some of them work!
If all else fails, veggie boot camp is a good try. this is where you put veggies in every meal and keep the rest really minimal. Eventually she will give up and eat it!

I'm pretty sure most kids go through the phase where they wont eat foods they previously loved. Sometimes its their taste buds developing and their tastes changing, they could be tired of the old stuff and only interested in the new things they are tasting, or it could be a texture thing. I have a 5 yr old and a 15 yr old and both did the same thing. Just keep offering her all the foods you normally do, in addition to any new foods you may be having. Eventually she will come around and try them again. My kids even went through it when they were older toddlers. We just kept putting a small piece of everything we were serving at the meal on their plates. They werent required to eat everything, but they had to have at least one small bite of everything that was offered. It didnt matter if they swallowed it with a swig of milk or hid it within a bite of something else, they just had to have that one small bit. Eventually with most things they either discovered a way it was cooked that they liked, or discovered that they just plain liked it after all. There are the exceptions though. My 15 yr old daughter still hates asparagus and my 5 yr old son hates broccoli in any way shape or form. There are veggies or foods that neither are "fond" of, but they still eat that one bite, and usually eat it first to get it out of the way!

And dont fret about having to hide the veggies in order to get them to eat them. If they are eating them, thats what matters! Soups, stews and pasta dishs are a great way to add veggies into the meal without them being out front and center obvious. My son doesnt like big chunks of veggies such as in Chicken soup, so when Im cooking it, I take out several big scoops of the veggies and use a potato masher or run them through the blender then dump them back into the soup. He'll glady slurp up the small pieces!
Pasta sauce can hide alot of veggies. I dice them small and use them in pasta sauce cooked with hamburger or sausage and tossed with cooked mini pasta shells. Some of the veggies, sauce and meat get hidden inside the shells and they dont even realize they are eating veggies.
You might also try Zucchini bread. You can slip in shredded zuchinni, raisins, and other yummy goodness into it. To get my son to try it I slipped in some chocolate chips. He loves it. He doesnt realize that a zucchini is a vegetable!

Hope this helps!

Hey E.,
first let me tell ya,i always type in all caps.i'm not yelling so with that said,here i go.my son did the same thing and i tried everything.from taking a frozen pizza and adding veggies to it to cooking veggies and freezing them and making them into popcicles.he never did eat them until he was good and ready!but i did feel like i tried everything.but at least i had offered them to him.but eventually if you keep offering they will begin to eat some of them.but don't expect a miracle.good luck!T.