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At dinner last night, we had a little… episode, shall we say? My husband and I don’t see eye to eye on how to get our kids (really just the one kid) to eat their veggies.
As a side note, while I do love to sneak healthy foods into my kids’ diets without them realizing they’re eating something nutritious, I also want to teach them about the importance of a balaned diet. In other words, sometimes they need to KNOW they’re eating their fruit and veggies.
So tonight I made two vegetables to accompany our pork tenderloin and cous cous (which we, of course, call baby rice to get our kids to eat it). I made braised green beans and roasted Brussels sprouts.
For Mr. A, my nine year old, I dished out a little bit of everything and he devoured it all!
D-Man, my seven-year old, was another story. He ate his pork (after picking all the “burnt” parts off the outside) and he ate his baby rice. When it was time to tackle his veggies, all went south.
I gave him a choice: either one Brussels sprout or four green beans. Not too much to ask, right? Wrong! It was way too much to ask. Disgusted by both options, he begged for fruit instead. Trying to teach him a lesson, daddy forced encouraged him to eat the one Brussels sprout.
D-Man, crying at this point, was still begging for fruit. I was sitting by, observing and trying to figure out what the right course of action was at this point.
Daddy told him that he’d get no ice cream unless he ate the one Brussels sprout. Tears streaming down his face, D-man hesitantly put it in his mouth; then he gagged. He started to spit it out. Dad was having none of that!
“Don’t you dare spit it out! You have to learn to eat things you don’t like,” he said as he handed him a cup of water. ”Wash it down with a drink. That’s what I used to do!”
Hmmm… and at 38, he still doesn’t eat Brussels sprouts. Wonder why. But I digress.
D-man, still gagging and crying, was now looking/sounding like he was going to actually throw up. Daddy informed him that if he needed to puke, he should do it on the plate and not on the deck.
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said. “There’s got to be a better way!” This seemed a sure fire way to get him to hate veggies for the rest of his life (like his dad).
I took him inside and we talked. We negotiated. And we came up with terms we could both live with: He agreed to have two large carrots instead of the one dreaded Brussels sprout. We then talked about and decided on which veggies he IS willing to eat (salad with ranch, mashed potatoes with cauliflower and raw carrots). Finally, he reluctantly agreed to at least try new foods that I offer him.
Deal? Deal! Hand shake. Done.
So tonight, he did as promised. He ate salad with ranch! In fact, he dipped each piece of lettuce into his little side serving of the dressing and gobbled it down like it was chips and dip! I watched in utter and complete satisfaction.
Do you have any picky eaters in your family? How to you handle it?
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Yeah that dinner went well tonight!
My oldest (8 yo) is my most particular. It makes Hubs angry mostly because she just doesn’t care if she ever eats anything. She eats more than most picky children so I try not to fight with her too much. It’s taken a while, but I have seen her more willing to try new things lately.
It’s so hard to know what to do. Do you force them or do you make something different for them? All I know is my husband’s approach didn’t seem to work well. He once made my 9yo finish his hamburger. Now he hates hamburgers. What kid hates hamburgers?
This sure brought back memories – except I was the one gagging at the table over brussel sprouts. That and scallops. In fact, I once vomited up the scallops right onto my dinner plate. Good luck!
Ha ha … not good! In my son’s case, forcing it is not the way to go. I just don’t enjoy cleaning up puke.
We don’t make kids eat anything, but we also don’t make them anything different if they don’t like what I’ve served. I rarely make casseroles, as that would mean a child going hungry if he didn’t like it. We usually have a meat, two veggies, a fruit, and milk for dinner. As for dessert, you don’t get any if you didn’t eat your meal. Our explanation is, “Your body needs healthy food, not junk food. Give it what it needs before it gets what you want.” Half of my kids have been picky eaters, two have been very, very picky. They’ve all grown out of it and enjoy a much wider variety of foods.
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Oh, we sure do! My daughter loves every veggie. She gets really excited for brussels sprouts and cauliflower, kale and spinach. I thought all kids would be like that if you just gave them veggies from the beginning. With kid #2, I’m learning that just isn’t so. We just keep trying to expose him and don’t make a big deal out of it, but I am worried. Through another blogger, I won a Copy Kids DVD that shows kids eating fruits and veggies and we’ve had a little success with that: http://wp.me/p2afNw-dF With my older step-kids, one of them will eat anything we put in front of him, but the other avoids veggies and makes a lot of faces and gags sometimes. We’ve started asking him to eat a few bites of anything he can tolerate. We figured out he only wants to eat things he loves, but we are now asking him to eat things he doesn’t hate. He’s pretty compliant so we can get him to eat a few bites, but it does take reminding.
It’s so hard to know how to get them to eat their veggies. I think continuing to expose them to it is a good approach. That’s what I’m trying to do!
My 3yo tries everything and likes some of it. But I am endlessly frustrated with my 6yo. She is down to eating two veggies: frozen peas and fresh green beans. Which are thankfully healthy, but she won’t try ANYTHING else. Forcing doesn’t work on her, either.
For main dishes, she will eat pizza, whole-grain waffles or pancakes, cereal, PB & Fluff, meatballs, pasta, or mac and cheese. For fruit she eats cantaloupe, berries, and pears. That’s it. That’s all she eats.
I detest making her separate dinner. I think the 3yo would actually eat more things but the 6yo sets a horrific example. Can you tell I’m frustrated?! I honestly don’t know what to do…