Trouble with vegetables

[Anonymous]

My 9M baby will reliably eat any fruit put in front of her, yogurt, mild cheeses (mozz or mascarpone, mild cheddar), egg, oatmeal cereal, teething crackers, peanut butter, meat and some fish. But I am having trouble getting her to eat vegetables.

I know with babies you have to reintroduce food multiple times and I have done that. So far the only way I can get her to consume vegetables is when I take say cooked carrots or squash and mash them in with apple sauce.

What are you babies' fav vegetables? How do you serve them?

[Anonymous]

My advice is be patient, keep trying. It's okay to use blends to get her used to the taste.

She's a little young for this now, but as she gets older experiment with textures. My kid likes his vegetables crunchy. So I make carrot and sweet potato "fries" and air fry things like broccoli and cauliflower. Dips also help to introduce things (peanut butter on celery, etc.). Veggie fritters and muffins work too.

I also think the reality of parenting is that you make a lot of food your kid simply won't eat. It's okay.

[Anonymous]

Try a several hour vacation from sweet foods per day, so a meal would be hard boiled eggs, no nitrate lunch meat, cheese, the veg. You can also put unsalted butter or hummus on the veg. Try zucchini and cucumber, even very picky kids tend to eat those greens. Let her play with a piece of carrot (or cucumber with the seeds removed) too big to choke on as a chew toy. Avoid the fruit commercial baby foods that are highly processed. Even if they don't have sugar added, the cooking breaks down the starches so they may as well had sugar added. And they have citric acid so they are very sweet and tangy - i.e. taste nothing like vegetables. Nothing sweeter than applesauce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you babies' fav vegetables? How do you serve them?

Mine will eat roasted zucchini, mushroom and sweet potato. She is 9mo too. Maybe yours would get a kick out of feeding herself

[Anonymous]

My 8M old loves hummus and will basically eat anything with hummus. We just offer lots of bites of different things at every meal and keep offering again and again. He likes roasted sweet potatoes & butternut squash (or baked/mashed for either of those). And he's a big fan of curry so we add curry and some sort of oil (unsalted butter, coconut oil, etc.) to a lot of things to make them less bland - smashed peas, broccoli, etc. But I agree, way easier to get my kid to eat fruits, dairy, and carbs lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try a several hour vacation from sweet foods per day, so a meal would be hard boiled eggs, no nitrate lunch meat, cheese, the veg. You can also put unsalted butter or hummus on the veg. Try zucchini and cucumber, even very picky kids tend to eat those greens. Let her play with a piece of carrot (or cucumber with the seeds removed) too big to choke on as a chew toy. Avoid the fruit commercial baby foods that are highly processed. Even if they don't have sugar added, the cooking breaks down the starches so they may as well had sugar added. And they have citric acid so they are very sweet and tangy - i.e. taste nothing like vegetables. Nothing sweeter than applesauce.

Taking a break from sweet foods is a good idea. Most days she has fruit at the end of meals (i dont serve it first on purpose). I also like the idea of cucumber no seeds. Ive been doing mini cucumbers peeled and cut into discs but i might do better with a traditional cucumber peeled and the middle removed.

The apple sauce I refer to is apples cooked with just enough water that they dont burn and mashed with a potato masher. The only commercial baby foods I give is the baby oatmeal and the teething crackers. Everything else is something we are eating that i prepare for her plain or something i cook for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you babies' fav vegetables? How do you serve them?

Mine will eat roasted zucchini, mushroom and sweet potato. She is 9mo too. Maybe yours would get a kick out of feeding herself

Mushrooms are a good idea. She only ate the sweet potato mixed with apple sauce .

We let her feed herself with anything she can handle. For example, I make her tiny sandwiches from about 1/2 a slice of bread cut into teeny squares w/ mascarpone cheese or peanut butter in the middle. I give her meat in a size she can grab and chew on. Aside form applesauce her fruit is all chunks.

Part of the problem is she doesnt have the teeth to deal with most vegetables on her own. But she rejected green beans and broc. The one "vegetable" she will eat are tomato chunks but idk are they a fruit?

[Anonymous]

That sounds normal to me and really not something to worry about. You should be happy about all the foods she DOES eat. I would just keep serving them very casually with no expectations.

[Anonymous]

One of my kids loves frozen vegetables, the kind you get in a bag at the store, but only when they are still frozen. Kids are freaks. Just keep trying stuff until you find something they will eat, expand from there.

[Anonymous]

My kids were obsessed with veg-all. I don't get it, but they all devoured it. Key was to not serve fruit and vegetables at the same meal.

[Anonymous]

Everybody likes peas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you babies' fav vegetables? How do you serve them?

Mine will eat roasted zucchini, mushroom and sweet potato. She is 9mo too. Maybe yours would get a kick out of feeding herself

Mushrooms are a good idea. She only ate the sweet potato mixed with apple sauce .

We let her feed herself with anything she can handle. For example, I make her tiny sandwiches from about 1/2 a slice of bread cut into teeny squares w/ mascarpone cheese or peanut butter in the middle. I give her meat in a size she can grab and chew on. Aside form applesauce her fruit is all chunks.

Part of the problem is she doesnt have the teeth to deal with most vegetables on her own. But she rejected green beans and broc. The one "vegetable" she will eat are tomato chunks but idk are they a fruit?

They can still eat veg they just need to be overcooked until soft

Mine will eat green beans like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only commercial baby foods I give is the baby oatmeal and the teething crackers. Everything else is something we are eating that i prepare for her plain or something i cook for her.

That's good. It sounds like you're doing the right things. Alot of people who complain they have picky eaters have them filling up on toddler formula/ensure type drinks and inhaling those stupid pouches and can't figure out why they won't eat food.

[Anonymous]

Does she have teeth? Not all kids can gum food and need to wait till their teeth come in. Other kids are picky. Also, try feeding her.

[Anonymous]

Try sweet vegetables - peas (babies love frozen peas right from the bag!), colored peppers.