16 month old refuses veggies except broccoli and cauliflower

[newmom11]

so my kiddo has always been a bit picky.  he doesn't like the traditional potatoes, applesauce stuff which was fine with me, but now he won't eat any veggies except broccoli and cauliflower.  he does pretty good with fruits and loves cheese and most fruits (except peaches, grapes and strawberries), but i don't know how to get veggies in him.  i know there are suggestions about hiding veggies in his food, but i don't want to make one meal for him and one meal for my husband and i.  what do you do when your kids refuse food?  i have been just offering him a serving of meat, a carb and a veggie for dinner.  he will gobble up his carbs and meat and then refuse to eat the veggies.  i don't give him any more of the carbs or the meat even though i know he would eat it, but i'm just not sure what to do.  should i only give him veggies one night and if he refuses to eat, then he refuses to eat?  and if he does, i'm okay with that, but then he'll just eat breakfast the next morning, get his fill of food and refuse the food again.  i just don't know how to offer him foods practically w/o giving him every food i know he will eat.  what do you guys do?  he just spits all veggies out, says "no, no" and sometimes will cry if i offer it to him.  help...or is he getting all the nutrients he needs from fruit? 

[Mama2boys]

I think he is doing greta if he is etaing a couple of veggies and fruit and carbs and protiens. How about cooking a stew which both DH and DS can eta? We do thta and chek absoluteley every vegetable diced finely alongwith rice So it a whole mela in itself..

[Diana1981]

i think he is doing great as well. Does he likes soups? Maybe you could make him a cream og brocculi with cauliflower and add other veggies like carrots, peas,etc and then blend it so he cant see each veggie.

[mommy2mason]

I'm right there with you...except DS won't eat ANY veggie! Well...once in awhile he'll have a bite of mashed potatoes or a bite of a sweet potato fry. He's a pretty picky eater and doesn't like to try new things at all. I keep offering the veggies so hopefully someday he'll come around! I bought the Sneaky Chef book with recipes to blend up the veggies and sneak them in, but I haven't got around to trying them yet. He also loves his carbs, some meats, most fruits and cheese.

[newmom11]

glad i'm not alone.  i talked to my pediatrician about it and he wasn't concerned at all.  of course it would be better if he ate veggies, but i can't force him to eat.  i just offer his normal servings of meat, fruit, veggies, etc and when he's finished eating the meat and fruit and asks for more, i just tell him that he can eat his veggies and if he doesn't want them then he is all done.  i do worry that he is still hungry, but i'm not about to let him just eat cheese and carbs all day.  mine has also always been a picky eater. 

[anyamom]

hi newmom,
i read somewhere that you need to offer any new food 10times before deciding to give up.
i have started to do that with broccoli with my lo, not sure if it works, but i sure do hope it does!

also i agree with pp here, soups are great. we do soups thrice a week and put just about every veggie in them!

[jennc123]

wow, I think its great he is at least eating 2 vegetables!  Mine is totally rejecting all veges right now , and she used to eat them plenty.....

[speechie]

My LO so far, eats most veggies pretty well, but I do add veggies into our meals here and there- example, shredded carrots/zucchini into the meatloaf (that way you're not making one more dish). Also, agree w/pps regarding soups. I also make chicken/turkey pot pie with various veggies thrown in, some favs and new ones for him to try. seems like having the sauce on it helps.
How about cheese sauce on the veggies- adds calcium plus may coax more veggies in.
We eat loads of them in front of Nick, to be a good example.
Good luck, it does take lots of exposure/creativity for some kids.

[Katet]

I read a few years back Biologically 20 flavours is A LOT, so if you offer 2 different things from each food group then a child is getting variety... the need to offer 10 different Veg & fruit (heaps of variety) is a "modern" thing & actually what puts pressure on parents. Some children do it others don't, some don't like lots of flavours. So really he is just doing what is biologically normal.

TBH I'd keep doing what you are doing, I always did a 5 thing on the plate, 2-3 that I know will get eaten 1-2 that sometimes will & 1 that was new. So at about 2yo my ds's would say have meat & apple & cheese (always eaten foods) potato (mashed with a small amount of zuchinni or lentils) & then say corn (new) My boys are the type that don't like "mixed food" so doing a sauce or soup has been futile, so I had to work on the real thing & once I let go things improved greatly...Now at ages 5 & 3yo a plate would have Meat, potato & lettuce (always) capsicum/pepper(sometimes) pumpkin (not eaten since baby) or maybe meat, rice & corn (always) beetroot & beans (both sometimes)... we definitely have many more always & sometimes than a few years ago.

Anyway it is VERY Normal for toddlers to want to eat the same things over & over (& then stop) the key is to have them exposed to new stuff so the list doesn't dwindle to 5 things all of which are carbs. As a child I ate about 10 things (very particular) but as an adult I eat heaps of variety, where as my siblings who were less particular are the much more fussy eaters as adults.

[1sttimemamma]

No veggies here! I just read Ellyn Satter's book - Feeding w/ love and logic (or something like that) and she basically says that you serve one meal for everybody and your child makes the decisions on what he/she will eat. If your child watches you eat veggies after many times, your child will eat too. She strongly states to not push your children to eat one specific thing because they will rebel. We've been doing this for about 2 weeks and I've seem some success. Went from eating just fruit - to now eating mac and cheese and lasagna. No veggies yet!