Your toddler may not be as fussy as you think. Toddlers will try different foods, including vegetables that are offered to them. Try one of these vegetables to see if your toddler will eat he. Your toddler may surprise you.
Toddlers and Food Variety
If you give them the same foods all the time, those are the foods they will appear to like. If a toddler does not have a chance to try something new, you will never know what flavors and nutrients they are missing.
Unlike adults, toddlers have a greater patience for trying new foods. It may also take a toddler between five and eight times to actually decide if they like a taste and texture of a food. While you should not force any food on a toddler, you can be persistent with encouraging them to try new and healthy vegetables. Here are five healthy vegetables which you may be surprised to see your toddler eating.
In addition to the standard peas and carrots, there are other vegetables that a toddler will eat, when given the opportunity.
Most of the these vegetables do require some chewing. They are best for toddlers with most of their baby teeth.
Also note that babies and toddler have a strong gag reaction. They are very good at choking foods back up that they may have swallowed too quickly. By cutting the vegetables properly, you will help a toddler enjoy these foods without causing a choking hazard.
Five Surprising Vegetables Toddlers Will Eat
Surprising Vegetable Toddlers Will Eat: Baked Zucchini
The first time I gave my son some baked and coated zucchini I did not know what he would do. This was a food that my mom always made. It is simply sliced zucchini coated with an egg and milk batter and bread crumbs. My mom would fry it, but it can be baked.
This is a soft food, as long as the zucchini is cooked enough to make the peel soft.
Toddlers will eat this food because zucchini is a mild-tasting vegetable. The breaded coating makes it appealing as well.
Surprising Vegetable Toddlers Will Eat:
Raw String beans
One day my son was hungry before dinner time. Rather than let him snack, I gave him some of the raw string beans that I was going to cook in a stir fry. I washed the string beans, and cut off the ends. I gave them to him hole, standing up in a little cup.
He soon came back in the kitchen and asked for more. I checked to see if he had simply dumped out the cup, but he had not. He ate the beans.
Raw string beans are easy to bite into and to chew. They can also be softened slightly in a bowl of water in the microwave. I find that the frozen string beans when defrosted are not as easy for him to bite into without making stringy pieces.
Surprising Vegetable Toddlers Will Eat:
Lettuce
My son was not too fond of his dinner one night. I had the same dinner as he did, except I had a healthy and heaping pile of romaine lettuce on my plate. The lettuce also had some salad dressing on it.
He asked to try a piece of the lettuce. I tore off a small piece of the lettuce and gave it to him. He asked for more. He ate this lettuce with such glee that you may have thought it was candy.
I make him his own little salad, without the rough pieces of Romaine, and I mixed it with some Italian salad dressing. Now whenever I have a salad with dinner, I make him his own little lettuce salad.
Surprising Vegetable Toddlers Will Eat:
Water Chestnuts
I tossed some canned water chestnuts into a stir fry one night. I had no idea if anyone in the family would eat them. They were on sale, so I thought I would try them out.
My son loved them. They are mild in flavor, and provide a fun crunch even when cooked.
Surprising Vegetable Toddlers Will Eat:
Raw Peapods
Another vegetable to try with a toddler who can chew well is raw peapods. I chopped them up because they can sometimes be stringy and hard to bite.
Try these five vegetables, and others, to expand a toddler’s vegetable menu.
