How To Get Your Toddler To Eat Veggies…Without Hiding Them In Muffins

Toddlerhood comes with many challenges, but no challenge matches that of trying to get a toddler to consistently eat veggies without masking them in baked goods or hiding them in smoothies. Am I right?

I started baby led weaning at 6 months with my now 2 year old son, and he used to eat whatever I put on his plate. No questions asked. Salmon? Yum. Broccoli? More please! Green beans? Delicious.

Now that we are entering the lovely terrific 2’s era, my agreeable baby boy has developed some very strong opinions concerning those veggies he used to inhale.

Thanks to you my baby led weaning tactics, I picked up some really helpful tricks that have made the veggie fight a little more manageable in this picky season. I hope these tips help you too as you navigate the wild days of toddlerhood.

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Here’s what’s in this post:

• Let Your Toddler Help In The Kitchen
• Let Your Toddler Serve Themselves At Meals
• Eat Lots Of Veggies Around Your Toddler
• Let Your Toddler Play With Veggies
• Change The Eating Environment
• Flavor, Flavor, Flavor!!!!
• Always Offer Veggies With A Gateway Food
• Conclusion

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Let Your Toddler Help In The Kitchen

My toddler loves being in the kitchen with me, and while it does mean cooking and preparing food takes significantly more time, the end result is worth it to me. By allowing my son to be my co-chef, he is exposed to all foods.

You might be wondering how exactly he helps me while still being safe. Ovens and sharp knives aren’t exactly toddler-friendly.

Here are some things your toddler can help with…without losing a finger:

• Wash fruits and vegetables
• Help measure out water, flour, sugar, etc and pour into the bowl or pot (make sure the stove is never on when they are near!)
• Put cut up vegetables or other prepared items into a bowl, in a pan, or on a baking sheet
• Stir ingredients

When my little guy turned 2, I felt it was time to get him a set of his own montessori kitchen tools. This completely changed the game for him. While I prepare dinner, he uses his toddler-friendly plastic serrated knife to cut up random vegetables I give him.

Now, here’s the best part. As he cuts up the random cucumber, tomato, or whatever other easy-to-cut veggie I can scrounge up for him, he always takes bites! Every time.

Exposing your toddler to vegetables is crucial for their acceptance of them, and when they have a hand in the kitchen prep, they are far more likely to touch, investigate, and sample different veggies.

Here are my toddler kitchen essentials:

• Montessori Kitchen Set
• Learning Tower So They Can Be In On The Action
• Apron and Chef’s Hat

Let Your Toddler Serve Themselves At Meals

After your toddler prepares a meal with you, let them put their own food on their plate. Toddlers want control, and they crave independence.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it is far easier to slop some food on their plate without allowing them to have any input, but give them some control here. When my son has the freedom to pick what he wants and how much he wants, he inevitably eats far more veggies than when I give him a pre-portioned plate of food.

I’m sure there is some deep psychological explanation I could give you here, but you’ll have to Google that for yourself.

All I know is that when I give my son freedom of choice, he eats some veggies. He doesn’t choose veggies every time, but he often does because 1. he helped make the meal and 2. he is free to choose what he wants. That’s powerful for a toddler.

Eat Lots Of Veggies Around Your Toddler

Toddlers are often a mirror of their parents. I know mine is, and it’s quite humbling.

How often do you eat veggies in front of your toddler? Is it normal for them to see spinach sticking out of your mouth? If not, maybe you should take a hard look at your own habits.

A couple of months ago, I found out I was severely anemic. And wouldn’t you know leafy greens are packed full of iron…apparently. I started eating salads. LOTS of salads.

One day, I made a huge salad of spinach, romaine, and other random green leaves. I added a yummy dressing and some cheese and plopped down on the sofa to indulge in my iron rich feast.

To my surprise, my son (who wasn’t even 2 yet) climbed up beside me and requested a spoon. Cute.

Well, I got him a spoon and he started off my mixing the greens around, but quickly had the spoon in his mouth with some lettuce. I was stunned. And what was even more stunning was the fact that he kept eating it. Crazy, right??

We consume “sofa salads” a few times a week now. Lettuce always gets on the sofa, but I’m ok with that because more goes in my boy’s mouth than on the sofa.

Let Your Toddler Play With Veggies

How many of us were told as children, “Don’t play with your food!”

Well, maybe more of us should have been allowed to play with our food! We take this food business far too seriously, and I’d venture the seriousness is a major downer to our toddlers. Therefore, food is not FUN.

Toddlers are made for play. They learn through play. Their entire world is play. So why would we turn veggies into a very serious topic for them?

Make veggies fun! Cut up carrot sticks, broccoli trees, cauliflower stalks, cucumbers, green peppers, etc. Put the veggies on a plate with some paint and let your toddler go at it on paper. Let them paint with the veggies.

Why? What’s the point?

Toddlers learn through experience, through the senses. Some veggies have different textures, and trying to make your toddler eat a wide variety of weird textures can be extremely challenging. So let them experience the textures through play! I guarantee you some of those veggie “paint sticks” will end up in their mouth, too.

To crank things up a notch, steam different vegetables, put them in a bowl after they’ve cooled, and let your toddler feel the veggies, squeeze them, mix them, etc. When it’s play, all pressure is off, and they will very likely eat some of that veggie mush.

Change The Eating Environment

I don’t know about your toddler, but when we are at someone else’s home or in a new environment, my toddler will eat things I never imagined he would touch with a 10-foot pole.

Sometimes, the most simple solution will completely change the game with a toddler. So change it up! Move the meal to a new location.

Try some of the following:

• Take your food outside for a picnic
• Create an indoor picnic in the living room
• Do snack time in a little tent
• Go to the park and have a feast in between swing and slide sessions
• Go to the beach and eat on the sand
• Set up a fancy kid’s table and treat it like you’re at a restaurant just for them
• Have a roof picnic (ok, maybe not, but just let your mind get creative!!)

Flavor, Flavor, Flavor!!!!

Don’t be afraid to go heavy on the spices. Just because they are toddlers doesn’t mean they can’t handle a big of punch of flavor.

Before I embraced spices, I steamed or roasted veggies for my son and expected him to love them. Of course he didn’t eat them! Who wants plain veggies?? Those green beans need flavor.

Cheese also pairs so well with some veggies. Have you ever had the broccoli and cheese baked potato from Wendy’s??? The. BEST.

Sauces are also so good on veggies. Don’t be a purist. If a vegetable has some sauce, cheese or yummy spices on it, it still counts!

Try these combos:

• Cinnamon and sweet potato
• Cumin and carrots
• Rosemary and potatoes
• Paprika and corn (add butter and WOW)
• Dill and cucumber

Check out some really yummy spice/veggie combos here!

Experiment! Let your toddler help when you’re mixing the vegetables and spices. Take a sniff. It’s a sensory explosion!

Always Offer Veggies With A Gateway Food

Let’s be real, here. If you put a plateful of veggies in front of your toddler, they likely won’t squeal with delight.

I’m a realist.

If I do prepare my son’s plate for him, I always include a food I know he loves and will be happy with. I call it the “gateway food”. He often needs that food to get the eating party started. Once he digs in to his grapes, he is far more likely to continue on with the items he might not choose straight away.

You wanna know something crazy? I put my son’s dessert on his plate. WITH dinner. Wild, right?

Here’s what I’ve discovered. He never eats the entire cookie or whatever sweet thing I’ve given him in one go. Never. He might take a bite of the sweet treat first, but then he always moves on to the other items and eats a little of this, a little of that, goes back to the sweet treat, and so on. It’s quite fascinating.

So I dare you. Put the cookie on the plate WITH the cheesy broccoli. I wonder what will happen??

Conclusion

Let’s wrap this veggie talk up so I can get some cookies! All that cookie talk made me want cookies, and my son is asleep, so I can have whatever I want!

It is possible to encourage your toddler to eat more veggies without making it a power struggle. Don’t ever turn it into a battle.

Make food fun. Never, ever, EVER put pressure on your toddler to eat a certain food. That is the fastest way to make them hate it even more.

Be consistent. Have patience. Always offer vegetables. Have them in site. Eat spinach around your toddler. Make them normal. But NEVER force them eat anything.

The toddler journey is so up and down. One day, they are eating handfuls of carrots, and the next day, carrots are poison.

It’s not personal. It’s toddlerhood.

Stay strong, mama. We’re gonna get through this!

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