As a parent, I hear over and over again how important it is for children to get their veggies. So of course there is a guilt within me when I continually put peas and carrots and things I know Adelyn won't even touch on her dinner plate, and she proves me right and doesn't even touch them. We've even tried forcing her to eat them, and she gags. And if we force her again, she throws up (don't judge...I thought if she would just try them that she would like them!! I was wrong).
And this struggle goes beyond vegetables. Sometimes Adelyn will LOVE macaroni and cheese...and other times she won't even touch it. Sometimes she will eat all her ham in her lunch, and other times she refuses to eat it. Sometimes she will eat an entire PB & J sandwich when I pack one in her lunch, and other times, she opens up the sandwich to see what's inside, and takes a lick of the jelly, and puts it right back in her lunch box and refuses to eat it. The same goes with all the other foods I give her...string cheese, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, waffles, (can you see me pulling out my hair right now???).
I continually give her whatever we are eating for dinner (most of the time it is a huge waste of food to give it to her but I still do), but the other day, to my complete surprise, Adelyn ate an entire bowl of Spaghetti.
Now this wasn't any old spaghetti...but it was chock full of vegetables!!!!! Yes, that's right, I hide vegetable in our meals almost every day (more for Michael's and my sake so that we get our veggies in too!). I puree vegetables by the ice cube tray and freeze them and then when I made things, I put pureed vegetables in them (you can't even taste them! It's amazing!)
In this particular spaghetti sauce, I had a block of pureed carrots, a block of pureed broccoli, AND a block of pureed cauliflower. I figured Addi wouldn't eat it anyway, so I just loaded the sauce up with veggies. (Some other common places I put veggie purees include in scrambled eggs (cauliflower), smoothies (spinach), pancake batter, stir-frys, taco meat...and you would never even know it!!)
Addi ate the entire bowl of spaghetti!! I was so excited!! So of course, I made it for her the next day thinking she would get some more veggies in her body, and as I put it in front of her and told her how yummy it was....she looked at the bowl...touched a noodle with one finger...and then pushed it away and refused to eat it (and threw a fit besides!). Ugghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! And so our eating struggles remain.
I've read article upon article and blog upon blog on how to get picky toddlers to eat well and I feel like I've tried all the suggestions out there. We've tried forcing her (see above..not a pretty sight)...we've tried hiding veggies (she will drink a smoothie almost any morning for breakfast, but when I put a tiny bit of spinach in it (which I can't even taste!) she mysteriously won't drink her smoothie)...we've tried talking about the colors and talking about the veggies (which surprisingly is a very common suggestion and many people experience their toddlers then loving to eat their veggies because they know what color and shape it is?!?), and we've tried not giving her any other food, figuring that if she is hungry enough she will eat what we give her (definitely not true).
What do you do? If you have any other magic solutions, send them my way!!! I would love to hear more ideas! Until then, we will continue to give her organic baby food pouches that have fruit AND veggies in them (surprisingly, she will eat these!? gross!) and be surprised when she randomly eats a healthy meal, such as she did with the spaghetti. So continues this story of our lives...
(Addi got a new rain jacket and rain boots in the mail, and she had to try them on right away...even while she had her pajamas on and hair pulled out of her ponytails!...we can't wait for the next nice and rainy day when we can go out and play in some puddles!!)
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