How can I get my 3 year old son to eat vegetables?

Question

I have two children. My seven year old daughter has always loved them. Their mother and I love fruits and vegetables. But it's a battle every night for my son to eat his. Any ideas?

Answer 1

My son is the same. Although for some strange reason he likes broccoli (cos I told him he was eating trees!) and he likes brussel sprouts (yuk!) because I showed him he could peel off the leaves one by one and eat them, he likes to think he is eating things he is not SUPPOSED to eat, so I tell him they are not vegetables, and instead I tell him they are something disgusting. he refused to eat spaghetti until I told him they were worms, now its his favorite food! Boys like disgusting things, I guess it makes them feel cool!

Answer 2

Cheese make everything taste better. I have the same problem, soI serve spaghetti with chopped up musgrooms and spinach in the sauce - they don't know they are eating it (pull the same trick with pizza sauce).

We also recently introduced the try 3 bites of everything - 1 to taste the outside part, to for the inside part and 3 to decide. I also make it a bunch of times - it takes something like 7 intorductions of a new food before a child adquires a taste for it.

Try raw veggies as well, carrot sticks, celerly, cucumbers with ranch to dip in - my dau definately prefers those to cooked veggies.

Find a couple that they do like and make those regularly - this way they are eating some and it is not a fight every night. My picky son will only eat artichokes (go figure) and salad with my dressing on it, and baked carrots.

My kids luckily love fruit - so that isn't an issue - but try frozen smoothies. Also my kids love eating frozen strawberries.

Good luck and lots of patience.

Answer 3

Try pureeing the vegetables and mixing them with mashed potatoes. It tastes good and depending on the vegetable it turns the potatoes fun colors. Also if you're into cooking you can make your own ravioli or dumplings with vegetable fillings.

Also if you let your kids help with the preparation of the food they will be more inclined to eat it when it's on the table. There is a good book called Cool Kids Cook that has some great recipes that kids can help with. Good luck!

Answer 4

Why do you want to "get him to eat them"? Children that age need to eat what they like (within reason). Give him some choices. Make sure the choices are healthy, but don't expect him to eat everything. I'll bet there were foods that you wouldn't eat as a child, but developed a liking for them as you matured, and your tastes changed. I say as long as they aren't eating candy and sugars all day, they will be alright.
My oldest didn't eat many veggies, but my youngest ate all kinds of them. You can't compare one child to the other, you won't like the results... It doesn't matter the topic either, not just foods.

Good luck,

Stevo.

Answer 5

Does your son like any vegetable, at least one item? My two and three year old boys LOVE green beans. That is the only thing they will eat. So every single night I cook green beans for them. I've tried mixing corn, peas, etc into food but they are smarter than you think - they just pick them out. So if he likes one item, cook that every single night.

Answer 6

Like everyone else is saying, mixing it with something helps a lot. If he won't eat them because they "look funny" (my son was like that for awhile), you can always puree them and mix them into pasta sauce. If it's a flavor thing, you can try to mask the taste with other things, like cheese, butter, marinara, etc.... Might just be a phase, too. I know that isn't really comforting, but sometimes it happens :)

Answer 7

find a way to make it fun. or find something to go on it like cheese sauce, butter, ranch. Kids love to dip stuff. We also told my son that it would help grow big muscles and make him tall, etc (not exactly lies) We "meausre" his muscles every so often and exclaim how big they are. He loves that. My son eats everything, but peas.
Find different recipes for the veggies. Don't make him eat them for a week or two, then reintroduce them.

Answer 8

Offer them at each meal in cute little shapes- and only very small portions. If he does not eat them, don't make a big deal about it. If he takes a multivitamin, he doens't need the vegies. Check with his doctor for the best one for his age. And, you can also "sneak" vegies into things like meatballs. He will never notice them in his spaghetti and meatballs if the vegies are ground up with the meat. And remember- little portions!

Answer 9

Allot of kids will eat anything if it has dip.So just try veggies and dip.I guess it makes eating veggies more fun.If not just tell him hes not leaving the table till he eats all his food.But you have to be firm.My son used to be so fussy but now he clears his whole plate.Its either that or go to bed.I don't know about your son but my son hates going to bed.

Answer 10

I let my kids put ketchup, ranch, some kind of sauce on their vegtables if they won't eat it; if they just lick off the sauce, they have to eat the vegtables without sauce. Getting a 3 yr. old to eat vegtables is much more difficult; but maybe experiment on which vegtables your son likes/dislikes and only prepare those.