Veggies

My girls are a little over 20mos and of course past the baby food stage. They've entered that lovely stage where they're denying veggies. They're usually pretty good but not eating like they should. They love those squeezable apple sauce packs. So the other day I bought some graduate squeezable packs that were pear and squash. They sucked them down. So then I bought Gerber squeezes that were apple, blueberries, and spinach. They ate those too. So, is there a downside to giving toddlers baby food? I'm thinking a day when we're eating something they don't like. Not daily. Just every couple of days.

 

Nope...at that stage I made smoothies and blended up carrots, peas, spinach, and sometimes even corn into the juice/yougurt and they sucked it down However it gets done!

 

That's what I thought too. I know their poo gets softer but in general they have harder poos so it helps a little.

 

I think as long as that's not ALL they are getting, it's fine. My kids love those squeezing things, too, so I keep some around to take in the bag when we go out, for snacks at home, etc.

Another thing you could try is veggies that aren't so obvious. For example, I make mac and cheese and freeze in portion size containers for my sitter for lunches. The noodles I use are 25% veggies, but you can't tell it, especially when mixed with the milk and cheese and baked. My guys are decent about their veggies, but I figure that little extra boost is good for them, too.

 

I have one that hates veggies too (2 boys, 21 months)... I recently started juicing...they get to help and they love it! I juice up 2 apples, 1 lemon, 4 stalks of celery, 4 stalks of kale, 1 cuke, 1" of fresh ginger, and some wheat grass....it sounds nasty, but it is actually refreshing! I have also done just carrots & apples, they love that too...and I feel good about giving it to them. I also sill put the veggies on their plates at lunch/dinner...night after night. I am slowly seeing my one who hates veggies, start to pick at them...so I keep doing it, sometimes I end up throwing mostly all of them out, but I still put them there incase he is in the mood.

 

I'm going to look into juicing. We have a juicer I've never used up in the cabinet. It would be good for me to drink it too.

 

I still give ours baby squash (on busy day and as they still don't like my squash as much as the baby squash.) So I'm with you.

About getting them to eat more veggies, Is picking foods off our plates is a phase? Our 23 mos still like to do that, so I'm 50/50 on days they pick new veggies off my plate. (I eat veggies while making funny faces for them to ask me from my plate on my lucky day.)