Aversion to Vegetables

Hey Sujit , my mother faced the same problem with my younger brother. Eventually she figured out some tricks . Hope they can be useful to you too- 1. get him while he is actually hungry , by serving him appetizer of colorful veggies with chat masala and lemon , 2. Take your kid to shop veggies with you to let him explore the colors and texture , 3. try to bribe him with a dessert for finishing his veggie platter , 4. you can include the puree of important vegetablies in gravy of panner or mutton , 5. try to decorate the fruit and the vegetable chaat cups to make them more alluring. 6. you can come up with fancy names for the vegetables , to make eating them more interesting.

Hi Sujit, i had read a blog here on parentune. com talking about how to deal with fussy eaters.. i think you should get some ideas from there... it talks about how eating food can me made exciting... https://www.parentune.com/parent-blog/feeding-tricks-how-to-deal-with-fussy-eaters/149

"Hi Sujit... its amply clear that your child refuses to eat subzi-roti in his tiffin box and will continue to resist it. Its futile to try and force the same kind of food if your child has an aversion (however temporary) to it. Instead you should attempt to make his tiffin more appealing from a child's perspective. Offer him the following choices: whole wheat paste in marinara sauce with loads of finely cut/blended veggies; vegetable florentine with low fat cheese & spinach puree; vegetable lasagna; vegetable chillas made with besan/whole moong dal/yellow moong dal & call these pancakes; veggie corn multigrain bread sandwiches; wholewheat corn & veggie pizza; spinach & bean pizzas; moong sprout & veggie chaat with chaat masala & nimbu added; veggie kathi roll; veggie upma set in a katori to give it fun shape; idli with grated veggie stuffing; mixed veggie uttapam, etc. Believe me, the possibilities to innovate are endless. And your child will look forward to opening his tiffin box to try out the surprise of the day. Keep fresh roti-subzi combo for lunch time & dinner time when the family is eating together, since children are more likely to eat regular food when the parents/siblings are eating with them...

Dear Sujit, i completely agree with tanuja, it is all about introducing your child to new flavors and developing his taste buds ... will constantly have to experiment with his food, once you figure out what kind of flavor he likes you will succeed in developing his food habits... for example if he likes the tangy red sauce flavor then you can make most of the vegetables in it and also cook pastas and flavored rice in the same format, if he likes the subdued white sauce version then again you can use that as a base for most of his foods but if he continues to not eat the vegetables he will develop a lot of health issues. when my son refuses to eat spinach i usually make a spinach soup or blend the spinach in his dal so it goes in in some form or other . when my son refused to eat carrots , i grated them an made carrot filled paranthas for him and he loves to eat those ... make eating fun for him and he will definitely follow through..

I have one suggestion which worked with my daughter. She hates vegetables but likes two things- raw cucumbers and tomato sauce. So she will have anything if it is dipped in tomato sauce. Have you found anything like that in your son? Maybe jelly, or sauce, cheese dip, butter or a jam he loves. One more option is fruits. Does your son like fruits? You can try colourful fruit salads (with honey, custard or jelly on top). This is one thing which works with my daughter too. However, I have learned one thing. Never try to force feed your child. It will give rise to a long standing aversion to food, some foods, or food itself. Better to give him 3-4 options (even in his tiffin) and allow him to choose (even if it means some things are brought back whole). When they are hungry they eventually will.