How I Got My Toddler to Eat More Veggies

I read somewhere that the last week in April was “Every Kid Healthy Week”. That’s a week in observance to celebrate the health and wellness achievements in schools. This naturally inspired me to talk about how I cultivate a healthy lifestyle within my own home.

When I first had my son, I was a lot more careless with my eating, mostly because I was breastfeeding. I don’t know if this happens with every breastfeeding mom, but I would be starving after my feedings or pumping. It didn’t matter if I ate a four-course meal beforehand, I was always left empty, so I would eat whatever I could get my hands on.

Then, when we moved to table food and self feedings, I would honestly just feed him whatever I could get him to eat, which started out pretty strong with veggies, and then one day it’s like his tastebuds hit reset one day and his diet turned into what every kid loves most; chicken nuggies and french fries, grilled cheese, pizza, and mac & cheese. Don’t get me wrong, he did enjoy his fruits and we had some veggies staples too that he enjoyed, like broccoli, peas, sometimes brussel sprouts and asparagus, but I wanted to expand his pallet because my budget had to feed the both of us and Mama needs some variety ok!

Plus, feeding him mostly things that I knew he would eat and what I knew he was eating with others outside of the house (McDonald’s, Cane’s, Wendy’s), led to him having some constipation issues and that was a nightmare. So we struggled for a bit because he would seem to be so picky (only eating the meat and the carbs) and refuse to eat sometimes because he couldn’t have it his way, so I began to talk to him about the choices I made around our food and once he got into daycare, that helped us out even more. We’d go to the grocery store and I’d tell him about the foods I was picking up and how they helped his little body grow big and strong, and this turned into him being naturally inquisitive about other foods all over the produce section which led to him being more receptive about trying different things.

Another one of the biggest ways I got him to be open to eating more veggies, was to allow him to help me in the kitchen. Having him in there to help me create our meals made him excited to try out our different creations. Now, he is more open to at least giving everything a fair shot instead of just instantly turning it away. I’m actually quite surprised at how much this has turned things around for us. Those constipation struggles were really stressing me out because that’s something I had dealt with for quite some time myself, and I know now that it was because I was lacking certain nutrients myself, and I didn’t want him to have to deal with that for any extension of time, but like what do you do when your child refuses to eat?

So, I’m glad that together with what he was learning in daycare about food and expanding that knowledge in our home it has helped him open to food that provides more nutrients in his eating. Now, whenever I’m in the kitchen prepping the veggies he’s always eager to have a taste!