Incorporating healthy eating with your kids?

snowbaby36
snowbaby36 Posts: 12 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
I have a 3.5 year old and although I do a good job at making healthy choices for myself, I find it difficult to get him to eat certain things, like veggies. Luckily, he likes fresh fruit (bananas, apples, grapes, raisins). He does eat a decent amount of string cheese, yogurt (the sugar! I know.), and whole wheat toast. He is the type who will just drink his milk and not eat anything for dinner if its not something he wants and on those nights, I don't push the issue since he is not underweight and I think he needs to learn to eat what is offered. Anyone have a child this age and what are your go-to ways to get them to eat more good stuff?

Replies

  • MorissaW
    MorissaW Posts: 95 Member
    I consider myself a professional sneaker ;)
    I sneak all kinds of veggies into my kids food and they have NO IDEA. The easiest way to start is with pasta or pizza sauce. I buy regular jar sauce from the store and I blend up spinach, broccoli, carrotts or any other veggie I have on hand and throw it in with the sauce. I out it over some noodles or on a homemade pizza and they have NO IDEA!
    I also buy popcorn seasoning and sprinkle that on to the veggies. It is not the best sodium wise but if it gets my kids to eat broccoli, I am all for it.
    They sell green giant steamables with cheese on them that are pretty low in cals as well.
    I know it is not the best thing to teach you kids to have a sauce or something on the veggies but at least at this age it will introduce them to the veggies and show them that they are not all that bad.

    I have a 4 year old girl who HATES and sort of green veggie. I put actual sprinkles on them and she will eat them all up. You know pink princess sprinkles from the baking section. It works like a charm. ;)
  • ritmeyer
    ritmeyer Posts: 136 Member
    My son is the same. Loves fruit, not big on the veggies. Not a fan of meat. He just turned 3. I give him a choice of 2 breakfast options, but the other meals he only gets to eat what I give him. Our day is breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. If he doesn't eat his lunch, it's wrapped up and he gets it at snack time. If he doesn't eat dinner, its wrapped up and its his morning snack the next day. He tends to have days where he eats his face off, and days he gets "picky". He isn't underweight, so my Dr says I'm doing the right thing. He'll eat when he is hungry, he isn't going to starve himself.

    We do alot of natural peanut butter on apples, hummus on crackers. I make the hummus and jam it with veggies. Also he LOVES smoothies, so I make it will plain yogurt, honey, strawberries/blueberries/bananas and I'll put fresh spinach and or carrot purees in it. Can't taste it and he gets the veggies. I also have the cookbook Deceptively Delicious and have made a ton of those recipes. I keep alot of purees on hand to put in things so he gets his veggies.

    Have fun...kids!
  • katythemommy
    katythemommy Posts: 437 Member
    My son is a pretty good eater and actually asks for carrots and broccoli at dinner... but only if they are steamed in lemon juice and then some is drizzled on top. He loves it! Of course, he asks for just plain lemon juice in a cup to drink too lol! Toppings always help though! Ranch, ketchup, mustard, etc..
  • hopefloatsup
    hopefloatsup Posts: 207 Member
    We're pretty lucky now (kids are 14, 10, and 7) but we weren't always that lucky with the veggies. We made it a rule that the kids had to try everything that was offered. If we weren't sure they were going to like a vegetable, I would make sure we had two choices as vegetables for them. I try now to make it a "colorful" meal. With the veggies, it's easier....and honestly, it almost seems to me that they actually like the looks of it, so they end up eating it. We do fruit smoothies here with oranges/clementines, banana, strawberries....and I add a lot of spinach to it. They're called "Monster Smoothies" and the kids LOVE how bright green they turn out :-) I also incorporate veggies into combination dishes or pasta sauces. They may start to pick out some of the things but they quickly learned that by the time they got done picking through it, their food was cold, so they don't pick out as much anymore since they know we won't warm up their food. I also am a believer that if you keep offering the foods and they know to just TRY it, eventually they will grow to enjoy it (on some things). I also don't force my kids to eat because I was forced to "clean my plate" growing up. Which is why I have been overweight all my life and why I am here now! As long as he's healthy....kids go in "phases" with eating. When they're growing, they're more hungry. When they aren't, they just aren't hungry. As long as he's getting his nutrients, you're ok! :-) Good luck! Sounds like some good healthy choices are things he already enjoys, so that's half the battle!
  • snowbaby36
    snowbaby36 Posts: 12 Member
    Laughing at the idea of putting sprinkles on veggies but it almost seems like a genius idea, since my son loves sprinkles on his ice cream and cookies, he might actually consider eating veggies dressed up that way. Thanks for your ideas. I am just going through a phase where I am really uninspired with what I feed him and need some motivation.
  • Doreen_Murray
    Doreen_Murray Posts: 396 Member
    Great cookbook for sneaking in veges: Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Lots of yummy recipes for everyone in there!
  • kateroot
    kateroot Posts: 435
    I don't have kids, so my advice isn't from experience, but when we were growing up we never had separate meals from our parents. We ate what they ate, and if we didn't like it we didn't eat. So we ended up trying and liking lots of healthy foods. However, I can see how this would be difficult to incorporate if it's not something you've always done... but it might be worth a shot.
  • marquesajen
    marquesajen Posts: 641
    I've found that sometimes when I don't like a new food it isn't that vegetables fault, it is how I cooked it. I don't know if this will work, but maybe if your child says they don't like X you can find out what they don't like about it. Texture can be changed by cooking it differently, maybe spice it up with other flavors, etc. Good luck!
  • Justine13
    Justine13 Posts: 78 Member
    My son is 5 and he sounds a bit like yours. Sometimes he is just not into eating. However i am the snacking type myself so i just always have containers of things ready to go in the fridge for us. he doesn't mind eating veggies so i'm lucky there, but sometimes he wont eat dinner and i don't push him to eat, i just save some of what was made. I know he will eat when he is hungry so i just try to have healthy things available for him. As for sneaking things into food... I'm not a good cook..... at all. lol. so i can't help in that area.
    Goodluck
    Justine :0)
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