How do I get my 2 year old to eat veggies?

Question

Help! She won't eat anything green, orange, or even yellow. I worry she isn't getting in all her nutrition. Hubby and I don't see eye-to-eye on the vitamin thing either. Will she ever like veggies?????

Answer 1

I don't know if it will work for you, but I found a great way to up my kid's consumption of fruits and veggies. For every meal, I fix a fruit plate. This is a plate with three or four items such as sliced strawberries, carrot sticks, sliced kiwi, celery with peanut butter filling, apple slices, grapes, sliced cucumbers, etc. For some reason, the presentation and the idea that it is something extra makes it desirable. My 6 and 3 year old fight over who gets what off of the fruit plate. I have had a couple of friends try this and they both were amazed. Their kids would eat things that they would not touch on their plates. The key is to make it look desirable and interesting. Make faces with it or whatever. Good Luck!

Answer 2

I only have 2 suggestions: try different veggies cooked different ways. My 3 year old loves broccoli steamed until it has just a tiny bit of crunch left to it. He likes steamed sweet peas and sweet corn ( his fave is the steamfresh single serves). even as a toddler he would steal the peas and diced carrots out of my fried rice at chinese restaurants. he has also eaten vegetable egg rolls a few times too. try a veggie/fruit juice combo such as V8 splash or V8 fusion. My 13 year old has some food aversions due to sensory issues ( it all leads back to his ASD). He has a limited number of veggies he will eat...a friends mom got him hooked on V8 fusion and he drinks a jug a week.

Answer 3

First, take a few steps backwards.
I know it's frustrating that she won't eat them when it's rammed down our throats how important it is for us to eat veggies, but it won't hurt for her not to have them- not in the long run...these few months of her not eating them aren't going to damage her forever.

Now, forget about your two year old eating veggies, get her to play with them- create a special playtime where she can make veggie faces on a plate, or have her do what ever she wants with them...just having her play with them will encourage her to feel comfortable with them, and therefore more likely to eat them.

Don't worry about the vitamin thing, she will be getting most of her nutrients from other things in her diet.

Answer 4

You can give V-8 juice, mix the veggies in something like a homemade quiche, add some zucchini to spaghetti sauce. Mixing them with pasta and a sauce to cover them up works great. Kids need chewable vitamins. Costco has Gummie Fruit and Veggie vitamins and my son LOVES them. Also try cheese sauce on veggies

Answer 5

I follow the "year" rule. For your child it would be two bites. My child is 8 and he has 8 bites of veggies. Of course my child LOVES veggies so I don't have that problem. My older son was like that and I figured if I could get two bites down that was better than zero. It may work. Good luck, in the meantime you may consider vitamins if you're not already.

Answer 6

What did u feed her when she was a baby? If u had worried about her liking veggies u would've made it a part of her daily diet where she would become accustomed to the taste and look as she got older u could've fed her raw veggies and she would've loved them. Too late now get used to giving her pills and liquid vitamins the rest of her growing up years. Too late now.

Answer 7

I have shaved a carrot before and added it to a macaroni casserole. It was basically kraft dinner with cubes of ham and shaved carrots. My daughter had no idea it was carrots in there cause it blended in with the cheese. I have also made a little dippers tray. I put a couple different dips (ranch, cheez whiz melted, peanut butter) and had some fresh cut up veggies to dip in the dips. My duaghter thought it was fun to choose her own dip. Hope that helps!

Answer 8

She's getting plenty of nutrition. Believe it or not she only needs a few teaspoons of food a day to survive. She'll be fine if she doesn't eat veggies right now. Does she eat fruits? Drink juice? Maybe you could get her some V-8 juice. It's a mixture of fruits and vegetables and is really good!

Answer 9

Well, kids like to play with things before they eat them. If you make the veggies into something like "building blocks" and (with clean hands) allow some fun play with them before eating them, they can become more attractive as a food option.

Answer 10

My daughter-in-law started her girls off with raw veggies and a dip. When they enjoyed that then they made them eat their veggies before any other food on their plates. Now they love veggies and will eat them first and then the rest of their food.