I have been at my wit's end trying to get my daughter to eat vegetables. She does well with everything else, but was not eating nearly enough veggies. Yesterday, I brought some homemade bean and mushroom soup to our playgroup for lunch. I like pureed soup, so I had blended it really well. I had about 3 sips before my children got hold of it. They ate it all, then each asked for a bowl at dinner!! My daughter said she'll even eat spinach in soup if it's pureed:nana: :nana: This is a child who's never eaten a cooked vegetable in her life.

yey! lol. soup is just great-and you can make pretty much anything into soup- and there are some that you can have cold in the summer too, which is cool. you'll have so many different things to try making into soup now! i really like lentil and tomato, and carrot and orange, and garden pea soup with rosemary, lol... i just had my breakfast, don't get me thinking about soup now! anyway, i'm really pleased for you and your new discovery!

Wow. Never eaten a cooked vegetable in her life? :confused: She was never given any as a baby even? How unusual. Does she like raw vegetables at least?

I am glad you found a way to prepare vegetables that she likes! :vebo:

Wow. Never eaten a cooked vegetable in her life? :confused: She was never given any as a baby even? How unusual. Does she like raw vegetables at least?

I am glad you found a way to prepare vegetables that she likes! :vebo:

She has always had a sensitive gag reflex, so the texture of veggies would make her retch as soon as she felt it in her mouth. She could never swallow fruit skins, either. After she became diabetic, the problem got even worse. For years, all she would eat was pasta or rice with soy sauce. She would sometimes eat tomatoes, but not very often. Recently, I have been able to persuade her to eat raw carrots, red cabbage and broccoli, but it was always a struggle. Now, if she's willing to eat pureed soup I can put any kind of vegetable or bean in it.

^5. Getting a picky munchkin to eat healthful food (and enjoy it) = a great joy of caring for children. :)

^5. Getting a picky munchkin to eat healthful food (and enjoy it) = a great joy of caring for children. :)

Thank you! I feel like I've overcome a great hurdle. One thing that made my little sweetheart start thinking about eating veggies was this: We do her blood tests on her arms, not the fingers. Recently, we noticed that it was becoming really difficult to get her arm to stop bleeding. It really upset her, partly because she would be ready to go join her Karate class and I would be holding on to her, trying to stop the bleeding. A nurse friend of ours suggested that she needed more Vitamin K, so we looked up all the sources of Vitamin K together. She began to understand that she couldn't just live on rice, pasta and the occasional slice of apple.

One thing that made my little sweetheart start thinking about eating veggies was this: We do her blood tests on her arms, not the fingers. Recently, we noticed that it was becoming really difficult to get her arm to stop bleeding. It really upset her, partly because she would be ready to go join her Karate class and I would be holding on to her, trying to stop the bleeding. A nurse friend of ours suggested that she needed more Vitamin K, so we looked up all the sources of Vitamin K together. She began to understand that she couldn't just live on rice, pasta and the occasional slice of apple.
Now THAT is a huge accomplishment!

My kids LOVE gazpacho. It seems wierd but they seriously can't get enough of it.

hey- i'm sure you've thought of this long ago- but i was thinking, if she likes pasta, does she have tomato pasta sauce with it? if so, have you tried blending veggies into the sauce? it'd still be really smooth and creamy, but i bet you could get some carrot and pepper and zuccini blended in there without too much hassle!

hey- i'm sure you've thought of this long ago- but i was thinking, if she likes pasta, does she have tomato pasta sauce with it? if so, have you tried blending veggies into the sauce? it'd still be really smooth and creamy, but i bet you could get some carrot and pepper and zuccini blended in there without too much hassle!


I wish she would-that would make things so much easier! She has refused to eat tomato sauce for years (at least, what I give her at home). Her favorite meal is pasta and ketchup. She didn't want to try the spinach soup I made yesterday, but IS having some carrots and ranch dressing. I have yet to see how many actually went down.

congrats on finding a way to make her eat her veggies!

Congrats

I can relate. My five year-old - no other health issues at all - stopped eating most veggies when she was about 2. I'm sure it's some way for her to be in control or something. I was frantic for a while but then decided that I would not show anymore that she had power over me with this. She likes to eat potatoes/pasta/rice/couscous with soy cream and soy sauce mixed together..., meat substitutes (she loves seitan), cucumber, and apple. Well... for us too, blended vegetable soup has been a lifesaver.
So far she has only wanted orange or red soup but I can mix virtually anything in there (even broccoli) as long as I can keep the result within the color range she likes... LOL ! A typical meal for her will now consist of soup, mixed with some brown rice (or other starchy food) and veggie balls or diced seitan, with some cucumber slices on the side. She does get fortified soy milk as well still, which reassures me re. minerals and vitamins somehow. I have hopes of her getting more adventurous as she has recently announced she wants to go off the milk... I think this will make her hungrier for other foods. I let her help me in the kitchen a lot as well but this has not made her taste new foods as much as I would have expected...
Anyway. Vegetable soup. Yes !

PS-- have you tried dips yet (tofu or hummus dips are very nutritious). Some 'difficult' eaters take to them !

hey- i'm sure you've thought of this long ago- but i was thinking, if she likes pasta, does she have tomato pasta sauce with it? if so, have you tried blending veggies into the sauce? it'd still be really smooth and creamy, but i bet you could get some carrot and pepper and zuccini blended in there without too much hassle!

I tried this today. She has been eating my homemade tomato sauce on pasta, so today I cooked some broccoli and pureed it with the pasta asuce, then added some faux ground beef. She ate three plates of it! The best thing was, she KNEW I had snuck some veggies into it but ate it anyway. I made the same thing for dinner, but this time with green beans. And she's still eating my homemade soup. Her favorite is white bean with potatoes and mushrooms (flavored with curry powder!).

Awww- this is so nice to hear all your success and how great you're feeling.

I'm sure your daughter is very glad to be eating these knowing it's good for her health... keep that blender working! :)

Awww- this is so nice to hear all your success and how great you're feeling.

I'm sure your daughter is very glad to be eating these knowing it's good for her health... keep that blender working! :)


Thank you!! Actually, I have become even more creative-believe it or not. Last night she wanted French toast (my kids are lacto-ovo). So I was making the batter thinking about how I was going to get her to eat any veggies with it. I had some zucchini I had boiled for my kids' pasta sauce, so I added some water from that. Then I just put the whole thing in the food processor with a bunch of boiled zucchini and some flax powder, blended it really well and served it up for dinner. She ate two pieces, and my son ate one. Success!!:bobo: :pibo: :nana: