Tips for encouraging veggies

[Lemonthyme]

My LO is still little but when he's a bit older, I'm going to grow vegetables with him because I figure if he sees them grow he might be interested.  Well I am growing tomatoes and french beans this year, he's not been that involved but I do show him the plants in the garden.

[Om in Mom]

Wow, there are some fab ideas here. I've hopped on board because my DS2 (he'll be 3 in Feb) is quite a picky eater. I never really paid too much attention because I thought if you pander to them too much (by hiding veggies etc.) they'll never learn to eat them properly. Well, that tactic worked for my DS1, who's a great eater, but not so for DS2. He's only had hidden vegetables for as long as I can remember. Oh wait, maybe I just confirmed my hypothesis! What do you ladies think about hiding veg? Do they eventually grow out of their fussiness? I really hope so!

[Lemonthyme]

I think you do both; hide veg so there's a safety net and offer finger veg, that way you can feel more chilled out if they take them or not.

[roimata9]

One thing I've just started that has worked really well is to offer tiny portions. EG for dinner tonight, he started with 2 pieces of mushroom, 2 pieces of cauliflower, 3 carrots sticks, 3 pieces of asparagus and 3 pieces of fish - all bite sized. He was hungry so ate it all, and then I filled up his (tiny) plate again. This time with 3 of every thing. He went through about 5 plates before he started throwing things on the floor.
If I had given it all to him at once, he would have eaten the fish, the carrots and some cauliflower before getting full, and not trying the asparagus or mushrooms.
I also don't give any carbs at his main meals, just at snack time, as he was filling up with carbs and not wanting the meat of veges.
Hope that's useful to people!