If you are experiencing or have experienced a period of time when your toddler refuses to eat vegetables, you are not alone. In fact, most toddlers go through some variation of this phase at one time or another. For about the past month or so, Dylan has been known to declare that he “does not like vegetables” when they are placed on his plate.
Parents differ in how they approach the no – veggies situation. At our house, the way that I am dealing with this phase of Dylan’s development can be summarized as “put them on the plate and let whatever happens, happen”. Instead of catering to Dylan’s declared disinterest in all things vegetable, I simply serve the meals that I would serve anyways.
In case you are curious how this approach has played out, it has been interesting. The most interesting thing is that he seems to either not realize that certain things are vegetables or “forgets” that they are vegetables and eats them anyways all while sticking to his statement that he does not like vegetables. When I serve vegetables, I pay close attention to which ones he eats and keep those in heavy rotation. I also make note of what he won’t eat, and why. That way, I know whether I could try a different approach to preparing them which may be more palatable.
As of right now, he will gladly eat raw baby spinach if it has a little ranch dressing on it. Raw baby carrots are a no – go, but cooked ones are just fine. Tomato sauce, grape tomatoes, and unsweetened ketchup get a green light, but a creamy soup that had chunks of canned tomatoes in it got a big thumbs down. Butternut squash mashed with apple sauce and topped with a little butter and cinnamon was devoured at dinner tonight in massive quantities. Sweet potatoes are not acceptable if they are mashed, but they are okay if they are cubed and roasted in the oven.
Toddler taste buds can be finicky sometimes. With a little parental patience and persistence, as well as a willingness to keep on serving those veggies regardless of whether they get eaten, your toddler will more than likely ingest at least a few. Like other toddler phases, this, too, shall pass.
Photo by maxstraten on morguefile.com.