Meals for a 3 year old

cptncrb

Anyone have any meal suggestions for my 3 year old? I feel like he eats the same 5 things. He's not a big veggie eater. I can put it on his plate eveytime but he doesn't eat. He's a chicken nugget, hamburger kind of kid. I will make spaghetti and "hot dogs" which is turkey sausage and he loves home made turkey cheeseburgers. Just need more ideas.
Thanks!!

tc0104

I am not much help, in the same boat but our kid won't eat meat or veggies despite our efforts....though it was a huge victory the other day when she ate half a piece of bacon and proclaimed "mmmmmm!"

What about quesadillas, burritos, tacos, etc? To work in more meat and veggies. Plus they can be fun to eat.

michgirl

I am not a lot of help because (thankfully) I have two good eaters. Bur with my niece and nephews if they can "dip it" they will usually eat it. O my sister cuts their food into small cubes, puts a small squirt or ranch, a squirt of ketchup, and a squirt of mustard on their plate and they usually eat. Mind you sometimes watching someone dip broccoli into mustard grosses me out but..... at least they eat.

Kari

I read in Parenting Magazine the other day that kids who don't like veggies might like them if you sweeten them with orange juice. I haven't tried it yet, but carrots cooked with some orange juice sound good. Justin likes it when I rename food, like broccoli becomes "giant trees" and the florets are "leaves."

He'll also eat food if I break it apart, like tonight I had a turkey & cheese sandwich, but he had rolled turkey and rolled cheese. Then I served banana bread with cream cheese frosting and called it cake. He also likes foods with minimal texture, like mashed potato (instant), pudding, yogurt, etc. And he likes finger foods like shredded cheese. The more variety in colors, the better. And I've found that if he eats it one day, he doesn't want to see it again for another week. So if blueberry applesauce was a hit tonight, it will NOT be popular tomorrow!

K&H

Try food on a stick. It's fun to eat and already bite size.

friendamy

we did/do pasta. butternut squash ravioli goes over real well (and it's sweet-ish), cheese and spinach tortolini. even cold pasta salad with broccoli chopped super fine, black olives, grape tomatoes.

also dipping. my son would try just about anything if he could dip it - ranch, marinara, yogurt, ketchup.... whatever

we'd even do veggies with a cheese sauce to dip!

Kari

You can disguise a lot of veggies in pasta sauce if you pured them first. Same goes for baked goods (pumpkin in cake mix, butternut squash and cooked carrots in mac'n'cheese, etc.).

Shanny

C&A - Amen! I remeber reading years ago that you may need to offer (put it on their plate) a toddler a food 16 times (average) before they will try something!

Katydid

I was given the book Deceptively Delicious that has great ways to hide veges in foods. I put pureed cauliflower in mashed potatoes ect (if I put too much my picky eater notices but it's better than nothing. Other tips from the book that I use regularly are pink pancakes (pureed beets in the batter) and pureed spinach on homemade pizza (I put the spinach and sauce on an English muffin or tortilla and then let them put the cheese and toppings). I also put the spinach in chocolate pudding. You can hide pureed veges in your burgers too. I try to make sure there is one thing on the plate that they will eat, and then I offer the questionable items too...it takes the stress out of worrying about them getting healthy things in. If I don't have time to purée I buy jars of baby food...expensive but easy.

mel

I agree about food on a stick and dipping. Both are hugely loved strategies in my house. Just an example of their meals from today:

breakfast: cereal bar and a banana (we were in a hurry to get to swim lessons)
lunch: spaghetti (extra veggies added to sauce), broccoli, corn
dinner: I used cocktail toothpick forks and layered chicken or turkey with string cheese pieces. Their plates had 4 sections, so I had 3 of those in one section, and drew either a heart, flower, or smiley face with mustard in another section for dipping. The third section was full of fresh apples and blueberries, and the last section had celery with peanut butter on it, next to a stack of raisins for them to add the "ants" to their "log"

My son loves apples, and still dipped them in mustard. Kids are weird. At least he ate! They also really like cucumbers dipped in ranch dip. I have a hard time getting them to eat vegetables, but I just keep offering them, and sometimes they'll eat them. I have less trouble if they are in something else, though not hidden. They won't eat carrots alone, but don't mind them in spaghetti sauce, for example.

I do not like to hide veggies in things, because I worry that will only make the problem worse later. I also don't order "kid food" (grilled cheese, mac & cheese, chicken strips) at restaurants that don't typically serve those things (such as ethnic or seafood restaurants) because I want them to eat a variety of food, and I'm certainly not paying $5 or something for grilled cheese! At home, I make sure I offer something they like, but if they don't like the rest, they don't get other food. If they say they don't like something, I say "Oh. Well, that is what we're having for lunch!" and usually they end up eating it. If not, they'll eat at the next meal.

I really think the key is to just keep offering. At least I'm hoping so - I know it's age appropriate, but I'm a little tired of the veggie aversions around here!

cptncrb

Thanks for the suggestions.

Cory, We do make him a different meal only because he usually eats much earlier than we do. When I do make one dinner for all of us, I need to be careful because some of the things we like to eat are too much for his stomach. I have to watch the more acidic stuff like tomato sauce based foods. He does love quesadillas. But he will not eat ranch. He does like ketchup though. He used to eat carrots that I sweetened with Agave nectar, but not so much anymore.

He loves fruits and will eat just about any fruit I put in front of him. I have started buying those all fruit pouches that also puree veggies in it as well. He loves those.

Thanks for the advice, I will try a few of those things.