[b]http://greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com/
please do read my blog. I know its nothing to do with music but for all you parents and grandparents out there I need your ideas.
I'm trying to persaude my piano playing ( there's the only musical connection to the blog) seven year old son to eat vegetables. Any would do. Looking for global inspiration from parents on how to do this.
Please logon and read and post a comment if you can.
Thanks
Penny stretcher

http://greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com/

Will he eat soup?

Disguise the veg to look like potatoes? Roast parsnips instead of chips? Mashed swede? Mash some white coloured veg (like cauliflower) into the potatoes?

Try him with raw veg...I didn't like peas as a small child but would eat raw ones, and my neice similarly with carrots.

*Nicki is now checking her mash to make sure there is no fruit in there*

*looks sheepish*

My daughter likes frozen peas when they are still frozen.

I've always asked that my two try some of whatever it is they've decided is no good today - not always the same thing every day, and if I'd listened to them the first time they protested about something, I'd have found myself unable to cook anything at all...the deal is that the out-of-favour food is handed out in a tiny portion, and we negotiate how much of it has to go. I do stick to my guns about no pud/no bedtime snacks if that doesn't happen - they will then make the effort the next time. I also advise them to get the not favourite food over and done with first, or to mix it with something with a stronger flavour. I don't insist on every scrap going - I had to eat absolutely everything as a kid, but decided that I'd not go through that sort of battle as a parent. With time foods which have not been in favour generally become tolerated, even if they are not the ones the kids would go for first. I guess many parents have the same concerns that I do - how to get healthy eating to be a natural habit without setting neuroticism up...eating disorders and their possible causes are always in the back of my mind when I think about this one, too.
PS just realised. The sicky smilie is really a pea, right?

[He does eat soup so long as its completely utterly smooth. And it can't be green or flecked with green or orange or anything that might be suspiciously veg-like. I lie a lot . I say everything is made from potatoe.
But its not the same is it as learning to love the delicious-ness of vegetables.
And he cant go through life havinng his food pureed as if he were in an old persons home. Or can he?

I knew that musicians would come up with good ideas. Its all about being creative and practising a lot.
Please keep them coming - and I will report back on my blog.

http://www.greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com






Thank you
x

I think that it might help if he were to do some cooking with you. Salads can be fun for little fingers to assemble if you help with the chopping; chopped tomatoes with chopped chives surrounded by sliced cucumber, surrounded by grated carrot with sultanas, finished off with an outer ring of shredded lettuce. That sort of thing can be fun and he might actually be tempted to eat some. Otherwise you might try juicing some carrots with orange, or melon with cucumber and beetroot which sounds odd but is delicious. Perhaps you could add some very finely diced veg to a chicken pie or a pasty. Failing all else try some bribery and corruption. Offer him a small treat if he will try some new vegetables at a meal from time to time. If he is really getting hungry he will eat eventually but will have some likes and dislikes of course.

The soft-sell approach worked with my two.
I used to put a bowl of raw veggie sticks on the table while I was dishing up the rest of supper - (carrots, celery, cucumber, that sort of thing). If I took my time serving up, half the veggies would have disappeared by the time we started eating the main thing.

Not sure this would work with your son at the moment, but might be worth keeping in mind. You could always say sternly that those are not to be touched till we all have our plates ! ; S This approach does kind of assume that they are hungry and are sitting there waiting for food.

The old carrot-and-stick approach (sorry, no pun intended). My sister-in-law does this with her two (aged 9 and 7). If they've been good all week and eaten everything, it's amazing what treats might come their way, and these are of course nothing compared to the dire consequences of not having had so much as a single pea in the course of a week. Mind you, the children's idea of a treat or a punishment doesn't match mine - how simple life was when an extra Yorkshire pudding was all I wanted in life!

I seem to remember reading that it can take up to nine attempts for children to actually like something, and I mean actually trying the food, not just looking at it and deciding they don't like it, so don't give up!

Try to make the vegetables exciting as well. I'm sure I'd be more into veg than I am if my mum hadn't cooked the vegetables to within an inch of their life (although not quite like the cauliflower about which I once heard which had had 30 minutes in a pressure cooker ).

omg!! surely that's a capital offence???

That will have been the melt-in-the-mouth version?
My Grandma used to do that with sprouts, too. Blechhhh.

I did at one stage cut veg up pretty small if it was out of favour, but this can backfire in that they'll then only eat it if they don't recognise it, and still get all fussy if they can see what it is. Also I do love food to have both a variety of colours and textures - that all goes by-the-by if everything gets pureed or turned into soup.

If you have even the smallest patch of soil available - try growing something with them, too. Tomato plants thrive indoors, and you can also grow chives and cress and even baby carrots in pots. Doesn't solve the pea problem though - for that you need a vegetable plot!

My daughter loves the cauliflower at school because it is cooked this way. I refuse to do this to it at home.

I think children's tastes do change. My nine-year-old used to love all vegetables and wouldn't eat meat. When she started school (age 3 1/2 in France) the dinner lady told me that this was the first child she had ever had who used to ask for seconds of spinach and cauliflower and cabbage! Now she eats a far more limited range of vegetables and doesn't really like fruit very much at all apart from pears and bananas.

One funny story from this period is when she came home from school saying they had had "brown peas" and they really weren't very nice at all. This was on her second or third day at school and I did start to wonder about the quality of the food they were being served but it turned out to be lentils and the next time she tried them (when she wasn't expecting them to taste like peas) she actually liked them.

French school dinners by the way are a three course meal. The starter is usually either vegetable soup or some form of raw vegetables, the main dish is either meat or fish with a vegetable or pasta or rice and the pudding is usually either fruit or a yoghurt or other milk-based desert.

Deep fried cauliflower (in batter or breadcrumbs) with a sauce...............mmmmm

And I make ..............wait for it.......................................................Brussels Sprouts Soup !!!!!

I have friends who DEMAND it to be served at my (our) dinner parties.

Recipe anyone???

yes please, I'll try anything once!

cauliflower and cheese1 *mmm*