How To Get Toddler To Eat Veggies

I've been educating parents and health professionals on best practices for feeding toddlers and kids since long before I was a mom. Whether it was my college students, a group of parents, or I was writing an article on the subject, I was always sure to send home messages for continued exposure and involvement in meal preparation. Now I'm a dietitian living life with a toddler. A toddler who used to gobble down every vegetable and then one day decided he'd throw them on the floor instead. I thought it would be a good time to address how we're handling things. And the best ways to get toddlers to eat veggies!

Selective Eaters vs. Picky Eaters

Let's start here. The way we talk about food and food choices has an early and lasting impression on kids. Maybe you know this because it's still impacting your opinions and food choices as an adult! While I could write a series of posts on why not to talk about food or our bodies in a negative way in front of kids, or to use fun foods as a reward, I'll stick to veggie talk here.

Labeling a child as a "picky eater" will likely only reinforce pickiness. I know cause I was that child. Extended family members (who I was around very often) made frequent comments. Hearing "Kelly won't eat this" or "Kelly won't like that" while my grandmother made a separate meal for me all of the time clearly was in no way helping me become less picky. If it is spoken about at all in front of your child, maybe just say "they're being selective right now", or that they're "learning this food" if they aren't in love with it yet.

Best Ways to Get Toddlers to Eat Veggies (Eventually)

Continued exposure is the #1 key to get toddlers to eat veggies, but it usually doesn't work in a week or two! You're laying the groundwork for confident and intuitive eaters that enjoy all foods down the road. The more comfortable with vegetables they are, the more likely they'll be to try – and like them! Here's ways to boost exposure.

Keep Offering

It may feel useless sometimes to put the broccoli on their plate when you "just know" they're going to toss it to the side or ignore it. But, one day, they'll taste it… and maybe spit it out. The next time maybe they chew it… and again spit it out. Eventually, with most foods, they'll probably wind up gobbling up the two little pieces you put on their plate and then whine for more as if you should have known they'd want a ton of that food! Don't offer a full portion, just a piece or two with a meal they're comfortable with. That way food waste isn't an issue and they don't get nervous seeing an overwhelming amount of the food. Be sure to switch up preparations, too, cause that can make all of the difference.

Talk About and Explore Veggies

I know it can feel like a chore, but bring your little ones grocery shopping. We spend a few extra minutes in the produce section as I point out fruits and veggies and have Cooper repeat their names. When it isn't too delicate of a crop and we're actually purchasing it, I'll also hand it to Cooper so he can touch it while we say it's name and tell him he can put it in the cart (and then he throws it behind him into the cart, hence not giving him delicate ones!).

We are blessed to live in an area with many local farms and subscribed to a share at one of them this year. I almost always had Cooper unpack the share of veggies with me. It was always fun since I didn't even know what we were getting, so we could be surprised together. He almost always wound up tasting one or two raw veggies as we unpacked. Whether he liked it or not is a different story, but he always tried! If you don't have this opportunity, take them to a farmers market, or grow some herbs on the counter for them to water and then help you add to dishes. Cooper got to the point of taking basil leaves off of the plant and eating them this summer!

Prepare Them Together

Preparing food together is another great way to get toddlers to eat veggies because when kids are hands on, they feel like they've had some control. They'll be way more interested in something they had a part in creating – and saw from start to finish – than something you made behind the scenes and just appeared before them.

Start with something as simple as them adding spinach to a smoothie and progress to letting them stir chopped veggies in a bowl with oil, salt and pepper. Depending on their age, understanding of a hot stove and desire to listen, have them toss a few pieces of a veggie into a pan to cook.

There's countless little tasks you can give them when you making meals, sides, and snacks. Sometimes it makes cooking a little more messy, but in the long run they are learning great skills and hopefully tasting new foods with more excitement, too!

Top Tips for Intake Now

Blend veggies into smoothies.

• Cooper is a smoothie pro and always loves adding ingredients himself as well as pressing the button on the blender. Start them super young with seeing the veggies going into the smoothies rather than trying to hide it. Get them comfortable with drinking green (or purple)!

Add greens to pancakes, waffles and muffins.

• I love this no sugar added kale muffin recipe from fellow RD and mom Whitney English. We usually use fresh spinach or mixed greens rather than kale since we have those on hand more often.
• We blend 2 packed cups of spinach or mixed greens with the soy milk before making these easy fluffy pancakes or buckwheat oat pancakes lately, too.

Mix veggies and veggie powders into energy bites and bars.

• Think beet powder, shredded carrots and even pumpkin! While not the most sustainable, I tend to lean on pre-packaged bars that include greens.

Mix bits of veggies in with their favorite dishes.

• For us, this is pasta, on top of pizza, in eggs and stir fry. He often will pick a lot of it out, but some of it makes it in his mouth, too! We intend to continue offering mixed dishes whenever possible versus separating out the ingredients so as to not encourage him getting selective about that, too.

Choose products thatactually contain vegetables.

• I've listed all of our favorites below. When I say "actually", I'm referring to things like veggie chips that are really just chips with the last ingredient being a touch of veggie powder. Nothing wrong with including them, but they're not actually getting a serving of veggies from it.

Add sauces or dips they enjoy to increase intake.

• You can even add veggies into the sauces and dips! Think beet or roasted red pepper hummus, or blending steamed carrots or cauliflower into tomato sauce. Or, maybe it's just offering another dip or dressing they enjoy with or on top of the veggies. They'll be the gateway to enjoying them on their own or in different ways later. You can try this with adults, too! 🙂

The Best Packaged Foods With Vegetables

As long as you're checking the ingredients label to make sure products that claim to contain veggies actually do, packaged foods are a convenient way to get toddlers to eat veggies. Sure, I prefer that Cooper's packaged food intake isn't super high. But, there are packaged food options with vegetables that are much more nutrient dense and much lower in additives than when I was a kid! Some days Cooper will eat entirely whole foods and snacks I've made from scratch. Other days, I'm sending him to daycare with a green burger in his lunch, and pea puffs and a larabar + greens for snack.

We need to give ourselves some grace as parents and provide the most nourishing options we can without going crazy. And when trying to get their taste buds acclimated to some of these bitter veggie flavors, we're lucky to have these foods to help!

The Products:

Larabar Fruit and Greens

These can't be easier for school and on-the-go snacks, and they come in several flavors for variety, too. I store them in warm places since they're a little more firm than traditional larabars. Five seconds in the microwave before serving is perfect, too, if they've been in a cool spot. Since they can get pricey per bar, buy when they're on sale at Sprouts or take advantage of the 10% off case discount at Whole Foods. Amazon (link above) is always a good bet to compare prices, too!

KIND Pressed Bars

I'm having a hard time finding these other than my local health food store and Amazon right now, but they were the first greens bars he enjoyed! If your kids haven't tried them yet, start with the fruit only ones so they get used to texture and then introduce the ones with greens.

Trader Joe's Vegan Cashew Kale Pesto

If you haven't eaten it yet, I'm sure you've heard of it! Trader Joe's Kale Pesto is great for kids and the first ingredient is actually kale. We've been putting this on pasta, rice and toast since Cooper was an infant and are SO happy he still enjoys it. I do make my own pesto sometimes, and can easily add kale to the recipes. But, this is an awesome option since Mom life doesn't award me time to make pesto from scratch as often.

Dr. Praeger's Super Greens Burgers

At about 13 months when I realized Cooper wasn't just going through a one week phase of not liking broccoli, green beans and asparagus, I thought "why not" and grabbed these from the freezer section at the store. I was 90% sure he'd hate them, but was pleasantly surprised! Other than oil and seasonings, they're made with spinach, kale, and collard greens. This newer version has added pea protein so I'm eager to have him try once we're out of our current box!

Dr. Praeger's Kale Littles

These also come as broccoli and spinach littles as well as in patty shapes vs. bears, stars and dinosaurs. They are seasoned well to add good flavor and while the first ingredient is potatoes, the second ingredient is the green veggie. Potatoes are technically a vegetable, too with plenty of nutrition!

Peeled Snacks or 365 Pea Puffs

Versus the "veggie" chips I mention above, these have peas as the first ingredient and provide protein. Snack win for sure! He likes the garden herb flavor way more than the lightly salted Whole Foods brand version. So, I buy a bag of each and mix the two together so the flavors rub off and the sodium content declines a tad.

Made in Nature Veggie Pops

In broccoli cheddar and sour cream and onion flavors, these vegan veggie pops are a huge win! They're crave-ably crunchy but sometimes crumbly, so I don't recommend them as a quick on the go snack. The first ingredient, I kid you not, is kale. Followed by chickpeas, sunflower seeds, carrots, and cauliflower (with a few others for fat, texture and flavor).

From the Ground Up Cauliflower Stalks

I'm not quite sure how much of these are cauliflower, but again it's the second ingredient, after the cassava flour. It is nice that the product is made with a different flour for nutrient variety. Tim loves these, too!

Otamot Vegetable Tomato Sauce

With 8 different vegetables added to this tomato sauce, you'd think a selective eater would turn their nose up. Instead, they'll never know cause this sauce is blended to be smooth in texture and delicious in taste. It almost tastes creamy to me! And it works well past pasta.

Sweet Earth Veggie Pizza

We don't give him frozen pizzas often – and this one we've only bought once, but it was a good experience. It's a whole grain crust that contains chia seeds and carrots. You also get a variety of veggies on top. The first time he had it, he picked some of the veggies off. When he ate leftovers the next day, everything but the corn made the cut! (It's actually NOT a sodium bomb either, at 290 mg per serving.)

How To Get Toddlers To Eat Veggies: Key Takeaways

• Don't rely only on these products alone as the ways to get your toddler to eat vegetables. Especially not regularly for the ones with lots of added sodium. We stick to the veggie bars, pops, and pea puffs most often for nutrient density, and pair them with other nutrient rich snacks. The point is to keep them familiar with the taste of veggies as well as eating the color green, while also getting those essential nutrients in.
• Continue with exposure! I even need to remind myself sometimes. But I aim to provide him with a normal meal and then add a very small portion of a vegetable he's not loving right now twice per day. Sometimes the best exposures occur when you aren't asking them to try and they just grab the veggie and eat it!
• Go easy on yourself, but also don't go off the deep end. I truly believe nutrition for kids is much more important than it is for adults, but it doesn't have to be a huge challenge. Current wellness culture has conditioned adults to go on diets, while serving only "kid food" to their young ones. We should strive to eat and enjoy the same foods together, without talk of foods being "good" or "bad". And, without extra pressure to try when we're not comfortable.

Other Resources

• I rounded out the best 40 dietitians in the country to turn to for infant and child nutrition last year. You'll want to check them out!
• Trying to raise a plant based toddler? Check out Plant Based Juniors from fellow dietitians Alex Caspero and Whitney English.
• If you want even more guidance and help, head to Feeding Littles for their baby and toddler feeding courses. Feeding littles is made up of a dietitian and occupational feeding therapist and I haven't heard so many good things from such a variety of people on a course! Follow them on Instagram, too.

How To Get Toddler To Eat Veggies

Source: https://kellyjonesnutrition.com/get-toddlers-to-eat-veggies/

Posted by: patelsamses.blogspot.com

Share this post