Miss DD 2 will NOT eat Vegetables

[bklynmum]

My DD just turned 2 last week... yay. Now she seems to have dropped straight into the terrible 2's... tantrums, biting, hitting, gerneral mayhem. She has also regressed completely in her potty training...

The thing that bothers me most is that she is refusing to eat vegetables of any kind, colour or description! This has been going on for a few weeks I guess.

I have tried so many ways to hide things in her food. Pancakes, pureed veggies in Pasta, eggs, mixed with tofu... short of force feeding her I don't know what to do.

I have given her tofu sausages, c'kn or not nuggets. She will eat potatoe chips (thanks Grandma) so I make those but if I mix in any other vegetable she knows and won't eat them. She knows that when I use the blender I am making vegetables... and then won't eat anything that I present her with after she hears that.... The only fresh food she will eat is fruit. The occaisional banana and mostly apples and grapes. Sometimes avocado.

I feel like a terrible mother and I am quite concerned about her becoming malnurished. ... Help... what can I do.. will she just grow out of it?

B

[bklynmum]

just realised how many shocking spelling mistakes there are in my post... sorry about that!

[EmeraldStar8]

Will she eat fruit?

My son doesn't eat much vegies no matter how i try aswell, he's nearly 16mths old. What we do now, is feed him a lot of fruit to replace the vegies he normally would have. At night i take a potato and a sweet potato, and cut into fry like strips, and place on a non-stick baking sheet or cooking paper on a cooking tray and cook these. He will eat these and a bit of fruit with his dinner. Most children go through this.

Another option is instead of blending with the blender use a hand masher.

[Mommiska]

It's so frustrating, isn't it?

This won't help with the veggies, but I make fruit smoothies for my girls. And when they refuse the fruit smoothie (which oldest dd sometimes does, out of suspicion that it is good for her! LOL), we put food colouring in it and then freeze it into a popsicle.

Then, all of a sudden, it is the yummiest thing in the world and they both inhale them! Good way to get lots of exotic fruits into them.

As for the vegetables...I find that when my daughters will try things, they will usually decide they like them (example - youngest dd really disliked both ketchup and taramasalata the first few times she tried them...but oldest dd loves both and ate both in front of youngest dd...who kept trying until now she loves them as well!).

So...my suggestion is to just eat the vegetables yourself in front of your dd. Talk about how yummy they are, but dont' offer to her. Maybe do the same with other non-veggie things, so you confuse her. With mine, they'll eventually ask...and often they'll then decide they like it (if not, keep eating in front of her and letting her taste when she is interested - often tastes are acquired).

Try not to let her know how much it bothers you that she doesn't eat all the veggies you'd like her to eat. They LOVE to have that little bit of control (and will refuse something they love if they know you want them to like it!).

Good luck...hope someone else has other ideas.

[LoveBeads]

I think the other ladies had great suggestions. My DD was a terrific veggie eater until pretty recently. I sometimes give her veggie dumplings, she loves those. I also stir fry eggplant and other veggies in teriyaki sauce and she likes that. I sometimes will let her dip her veggies in salad dressing or ketchup, kids love to dip and that sometimes solves the problem. But mainly I have just given her more fruit to compensate.

I think if your child senses that this is something that bothers you, she will continue to do it more. Be as nonchalant as possible. I promise she won't become malnourished even if she doesn't touch a single veggie for a month.

I would definitely lay off the blender. Eventually you can go back to it but use a food mill or mash by hand for a while.

LoveBeads
Maddy Moo - 2.5