My 4 yr. old will not eat vegetables?

Question

As a matter a fact, he won't eat much of anything. I have tried everything under the sun to try to get him to eat better, just won't happen. Should a take him to the doctors and find out about nutritional supplements? Has anyone ever such a thing?

Answer 1

We used vitamins that containd whole vegetables in them as one way to get vegetables. We have also simply hidden them for example in an icy fruity shake with vegies mixed in.

Some other ideas include:
Nutrition in disguise
~ Most children will eat vegetables if they are a part of homemade soup.

~ Pass cooked vegetables in a food processor and add to hamburger patties, meatballs or meatloaf.

~ Finely grate zucchini or carrots and add to pancake batter.

~ Add finely chopped cooked vegetables to canned or packaged soup.

~ Add freshly juiced carrot juice to canned vegetable or tomato juice.

~ Add grated zucchini to square or muffin mixes.

~ Puree vegetables and add to chili or spaghetti sauce.

~ Add grated carrots to tuna or chicken salad.

~ Hide veggies in casseroles and main dishes.

~ Mix fat-free sour cream into a favorite salad dressing.

~ Serve raw vegetables with a favorite dip.

~ Mix regular peanut butter with freshly ground peanuts.

~ Use whole grain bread for grilled cheese sandwiches ~ the toasting will hide the color of the bread.

~ Go from white bread to 60% whole wheat for one month, then introduce whole-grain bread. You can make a sandwich using one slice of the 60% bread and one slice of the whole-grain bread. Serve with the lighter bread slice facing up.

~ Most children will eat a meal that they helped to prepare.

~ Let them make cookies with you. Use whole wheat and carob chips and they won’t know the difference, especially if they are the ones making the cookies. There aren’t too many children who will not eat their own baking.

~ You can create a desire to eat healthier treats by designating a new healthy treat as, mommy’s treat. You can say something like, "these are mommy’s very special yummy cookies, and you can’t have any, okay?" You can even place the cookies in a fancy cookie jar to increase the appeal. Let a couple days go by before ‘reluctantly giving in’ to their requests.

Answer 2

Could be a medical thing- the best way to test that is if he will eat anything. Like if you offer him candy or ice cream or something else that he likes, and he still refuses, then you know that there is very likely a problem. Then you know that he is not eating because maybe it hurts to swallow or he has an allergy or something. If there is a problem, he may not know, he may just know that eating is not pleasant.

Kids are always testing the limit, trying to see how much they can get away with. This may be what is happening. You can't force him to like anything, but you can require that he eat balanced. I see no reason to give a kid supplements when they can get all the nutrition they need from food.

Here are some things to try.

Always seat your child at the table to eat. Make sure that you sit at the table with them. That makes meal time important and it ameks it a family event. If kids are sitting in front of the TV, they get easily distracted. Also if you are not in there eating with them, they can;t learn their manners by observing you. The occasional meal in front of a movie doesn't hurt anything, as long as that is not the normal thing.

Give him smaller portions on smaller dishes. Serve him on a slad plate, rather than a full sized dinner plate. He will notice that his plate is full, but the portions will be smaller. I have really seen this work wonders with my nephews- their mother would complain how she could not get them to eat anything. She would heap their plate high with tons of food, they would see this huge task, get discouraged and not eat much. I started giving them smaller portions, they would finish the smaller portion and ask for more, they would do that several times until they were full. They started eating more that way without the fight.

Have fun with it- My dad used to tell my brothers that if they ate all their food, they would grow to be a man before their momma. They loved the prospect of that, and it worked until they got old enough to realize that their Momma was never going to be a man.

He also told us that we had baseball players that lived in our tummys and that green beans were their bats and peas were their balls.

Make sure that you eat the same thing that your kids eat. DOn't prepare one meal for your kids and one for your husband and you. They will be more likely to eat what you are eating. If the grownups enjoy it, then they will be more likely too as well.

Then there is the old- no desert trick. You don't get dessert until you finish your food. But you had better enforce it. and the first few times, have a desert, then if they finish, they get it, if they don't then they miss out. But don't make everyone else miss out too If Mommy eats all her dinner then she gets desert, Daddy too. There will be tears, but he will learn.

Teach him to eat what is served. If he chooses not to eat dinner, when he is whining about it later, he can either go back to the table and finish his dinner, or he can be hungry, He will only choose the hungry thing for so long. After a couple of meals, he will eat again. But don't prepare him another meal, because you feel bad that he is hungry. Remember- you did your part- you provided him with the food, he just chose not to take what is offered.

If nothing else this will teach your children to have good table manners, and they will eat what is being served, no matter who's house they are at.

I hope these things work for you. Good luck. Remember that you are his Parent not his Friend.

Answer 3

I've got the same problem with my 5 year old son, he can literally take 3 bites of his meal and say that he's full. His pediatrician said I should try giving him 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 large meals. The larger meals can be overwhelming to a child.

Also have him go to the market with you to pick out his meal, it's worked for me in the past. Have him choose his own meat, veggies, sides etc...

Answer 4

My niece is four and she refuses to eat anything without a cookie taste to it (because that's all my sister gives her) What I did when I was taking care of her was I took a bite of corn and said do you want a bite she said no of course and I said if you want to grow up big and strong like mommy daddy and auntie that you need to eat the corn, she refused but I kept on trying and then she took a bite and I praised her, and then she finished the bowl and then ate fish sticks. Try food coloring with mashed potatoes, they'll think they are eating a nice treat.

Answer 5

Will he anything? My wife is a magician at hiding vegetables and fruit in foods that our daughter WILL eat. She'll puree squash and put it on pizza. In fact, we have more pureed fruits and vegetable than Gerber I think! The grossest thing I've seen is pureed raisins in a spoon of peanut butter. But she eats it, so I'm not complaining. NO - wait, the pureed carrots in the yogurt. That was even more disgusting.

Answer 6

Try having your 4 yr.old help you prepare whatever you are making that includes vegetables.

You might want to make it fun for example: ants on a log,
1 celery stick, fill void with peanut butter, add raisins on top of peanut butter.

also, if you get him the baby carrots and a little frosting he can poke the frosting with the carrot and eat it too.

I hope these ideas help you. When my son was younger, just letting him help add the vegetables to the meal or letting him chose what vegetables we would eat, made him want to eat them.

Peace.

Answer 7

my son eats veggies ok, but i still try and sneak more in wshen i can, i use a fine grater and grate up carrots, squash, zuccinni, green beans and so foth then mix it in with spaggetti sauce, or mac an cheese stuff i know he will never urn down, and so far (fingers crossed) he's none the wiser that he's eating healthy stuff:)

Answer 8

Its normal for toddlers and school age children. It passes. Just make sure he has ample options, put cheese on his veggies, or peanut butter.

You can talk to the doc about a vitamin. Like flinstones or something.

Answer 9

this is normal and creative cover ups is needed..

make him spaghetti,[ shred carrots, zucchini, and mix in the sauce, if he asks tell him it is reasoning....same thing for meat loaf mash potatoes and put parsley in it and peas tell him the peas are prizes for being a good kid

other veggies serve with melted cheese on top
grilled cheese sandwiches, he might like them

Answer 10

Doctors say to let them eat what they'll eat. If all he wants is chicken nuggets for 2 weeks straight then give it to him. Kids know what they need and when they need it.