My four year old now refuses to eat anything but meat, bread, and some fruits. I am looking for some fun ideas to get him to eat his vegetables also.

shaeyvette--What doesn't he like about the vegetables? Is it the taste? The texture? The color ?

Many kids that age won't eat a vegetable with a mushy texture.But they may eat vegetables that are still tender-crisp after cooking.Or they will eat some of them raw.

With other kids it's the color--some won't eat anything that is green.

Will he eat pureed vegetables made into a soup or cream soup?

How about if you melted some cheese and let him use it as a dip for cooked broccoli florets? Or put cheese sauce over any other vegetables?

If you shredded vegetables finely and made little pancakes or fritters from them, would that work?

How about if the vegetables were cut into pieces dipped in batter and fried--like Japanese tempora--would that work?

Will he eat the vegetables if they are mixed into a "special" kind of food--like a Chinese dish? Some kids that age love vegetable Lo Mein
and will eat vegetables in that dish that they wouldn't otherwise eat.

When I was a kid my mother got me to eat spinach by mixing chopped cooked spinach with equal parts of mashed potatoes.I was such a poor eater at that age, she'd sometimes crumble a hard boiled
egg into that mixture, just to get more protein into me.

But, by the time I finally went to school, I had developed a hearty appetite.And I loved vegetables.Some things just take time.

[This message has been edited by chelseabelle (edited 04-13-2000).]

A lot of times, you can get kids to eat things by involving them in the cooking process itself. If they help you pick out the "prettiest" tomatoes from the store or help you string the beans - then, maybe let them wash or do something that's not dangerous, they might feel more a part of the meal and be more likely to eat.

I also remember a "cookbook" I once had as a child. It showed things that kids can create with food. I can still see the "clown face" made with vegetables in my mind. If healthy foods become fun and enjoyable, kids are more tempted to eat them.

One of the biggest mistakes I see parents do, though, is inadvertantly tell their kids that veggies are yucky. They're watching us to see how things taste a lot of times. I grew up with grandparents with gardens. So, vegetables were never something that were foreign or bad-tasting. They were always treated as something yummy. And, they are!

Just my little two cents!

Thanks for the info. Funny you mentioned the cheese sauce. We had broccoli with cheese sauce last night. He loves cheese, but he wouldn't eat it It is not a particular type of veggie that he takes offence to. It can be anything of any color or texture. He won't eat mashed potatoes, nor will he each fries, but I can sometimes get him to each hashed browns. He also smells everything before he eats it. I have involved him in cooking meals. I have tried to do the cute things with food also. We try not to make any comments around him about any food being yucky. We live in a rural setting, so we have done the garden thing and let him go through the whole process of watching it from a seed to the time it hits the table.

His doctor tells me not worry, to just keep letting him know how good veggies are and introducing him to them and one day, he will give in. Most recently, we did a "rainbow" with different colors for each food group and put it on the frig, and every meal, we would see what part of the rainbow we didn't use. He loves the game, but still won't eat. I am just running out ways to be creative.

I don't have any children, but I used to babysit a lot and I use to do a couple of things. I would put little plates of raisens, pears cut in half, thinly sliced carrots, etc. and I would have them make animals or monsters with their food and they had to eat it (or least most of it) before they could make another monster.

Another thing that I used to do is have a color day. I would have them pick a color for the day and I would put food coloring in their food. I remember that I made them purple mac n cheese and they thought it was the coolest thing.

I mentioned this idea somewhere but I used to use clear bowls and put in blueberry (i believe it was blueberry) jello in it and put a candy fish in it. They loved it. They got to eat an aquarium.

For a fun goody, serve them worms and dirt. I bought a toy dirt barrel and a plastic shovel. Inside the barrell I filled it up with brownies and crumbled it all up and then put gummy worms in it. I let them eat it with their little shovels. They had a blast.

I will try to think of some more.

At this point, it sounds like it's just a kid thing! I say listen to the doc - he'll come around eventually. Don't force him, and he'll eat what he wants to! While it's certainly healthy to eat fruits, vegetables, etc, it's not going to hurt anything if he doesn't eat them consistently for a while. Just try to get those necessary vitamins in another way. Even if it's a Flinstones Vitamin! (Too bad they don't make those for adults - I might be able to remember to take them if they were fun like that!)

I agree with Linda1--stop knocking yourself out.Kids that age can be very peculiar about food.Some will get hysterical if one food touches another on the plate.

You might look at some of the frozen vegetarian entres in the supermarket.These are often made to look like meat.They are fairly tasty.
They also have small fried vegetable pancakes, and various vegetable souffles.They are quite good.

But I'd basically leave him alone about it at this point.
In fact, you might want to tell him that you don't think he is grown up enough to eat vegetables yet.That you really think he will have to be a little older before he can join you in eating them

If that doesn't work--forget it! It's not worth getting into a power struggle about this sort of thing--or about any eating problem.It just makes matters worse.

I remember going through this..I ended up just putting raw veggies on the table during the day with several dips...Once the kids saw that I would walk buy and eat them, they started doing the same. No other suggestions here. I do remember that I would open a can of green beans cold and the kids would love those..I would sit and open each one to get the seeds out. They thought it was fun too. then they started popping them into their mouths too like I was..I always told them that it was an ancient family tradition and that would get their interest up.

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Sandalwood's Cosmic Creations: Working with the magic of love....

I agree with you shaeyvette. Making it a fun experience for your child is a wonderful idea. It will make it fun for both of you and will probably help you to get closer to each other. It is so much fun when mommy is a kid also.

Guys thanks for all the ideas. True, I never want to force him to eat them, heck I was 24 myself before I really got into veggies. Never want to stop trying to get him started with good eating habits. Thanks for the new ideas to help keep me creative.

I was a faddy eater as a child, my mother was worried and spoke to a doctor about her worries. The doctor said that she should never try to force me to eat anything ... big mistake was that the doctor said it so that i could hear. From that day I decided against lots of other foods. I am better now but still will not try some foods.

My son was ill when he was just over a year old, he refused to eat for about a month and I was desperate. One day he pointed to a sausage on my daughter's plate so I told her to give it to him, he ate it - next day I made my big mistake, I gave him sausages again. I now have a son of almost 21 who will eat nothing but sausages, fries, dry bread and milk.

When you work out how to make a child eat then let me know.

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From over the pond....

Sue, I know how you feel, I couldn't help but smile with the story about your son. i think part of my problem began the same way. When I was working outside the home, I left the house very early in the morning. It was my husband who would give my son his breakfast. I think every day, he must have cooked either sausage or bacon with either toast or biscuits. Now bacon is his meat of choice. If I would let him he would eat bacon and toast for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, whenever.

I have one extremely healthy daughter who ate nothing but sausages and baked beans for about 6 years. My son 17 has never eaten any fruit or veg , except baked beans for 11 years, he is huge, healthy and very strong. Cool it and dont worry.