There is a book I have seen at Barns and Noble about this... it's full of recipes that help you hide the veggies (I saw a recipe for meatballs, mac n cheese with veggies, etc).  The key is to put them in food that the kids already are familiar with and then tweek the recipe to include some good stuff.  I don't remember the name of the book, but it wouldn't be hard to find (it's by all the other cook books).

Make strawberry cheesecake and bribe them!!

This has been a trick that I played with my dont-like-to-eat-veggie-son when he was young. I asked him whether he wanted 3 or  5 carrots. He would always pick 3, of course. But he didn't know that's the amount of carrots that I would like him to have.

Give them choices, but none-taken is not an option.  It played really well until my son was 7 years old.

[eLi - Appleton]

I think just exposing them to vegetables over and over helps.  If you always offer a side of vegetables at lunch and dinner, and eat them yourself, they get in the habit.  Sometimes they will even ask for more!

I have always made vegetables a part of our meals.  The only time we don't have vegetables is when we have spaghetti.  It also helps that my boys have always seen DH & I eat them (teach by example).  My boys are now 3 & 5 and ask for vegetables, they even bring me broccoli when I ask them to pick one out.  And when they play the 'I'm full' card after barely touching their dinner I tell them I don't care if they don't eat anything else on their plate, but they have to finish their vegetables.  As soon as their vegetable is gone they can be done.  They finish their veggies and go off to play.

I never had this problem! Both off my daughters LOVE their fruits and vegetables! They didn't take to kindly at first when they first were introduced to them as babies but I found that it takes several times ,like 10 or more, for a child to acquire the  taste of the vegetable or fruit ! And by repeatedly giving them the item they will become to like it. It may sound odd but it worked for both my 9 year old and my 5 year old.

I am a huge fan of The Sneaky Chef cookbook!  Two of my three kids are very finicky eaters.  I still put veggies out and suggest they eat them , but I can't take the fights anymore about it.  With the sneaky chef ideas, I can ensure they are nutritionally balanced meals and mealtime is not stressful anymore.  Kids taste buds change a lot as they get older and they are willing to try more things, as this happens I'll sneak less, but right now, that spinach/blueberry puree is my best friend!

Vicki

Hi Vicki,

     My daughter is 4. I don't know if my "trick" will work for you or not or if you will be interested in trying it. We actually will tell her that if she will eat her vegetables we will give her some money.  Now, how much you give if up to you. We will usually give her anywhere between 10 cents to 25 cents or so depending on how much she eats. Because she is a little girl she loves to take her purse with her when we go shopping. So occasionally we will let her buy something at the checkout with the money she has earned with eating her vegetables. She just feels so "grown up" when she gets to open up her purse and give the check out person some money. Some of the money also goes into her piggy bank though to save up. Some parents might think this is crazy, but my husband and I feel that we are getting her to eat her vegetables along with teaching her some responsibility with her money. I understand she is only 4, but before we started to do this we couldn't even get her to eat one vegetable! Hope this helps!

 Sara

Live each day as if it is your last. Take nothing for granted & life for the moment.

  My 4 year old doesn't know that his (veggie) crackers have vegteables in them.  He eats them like any other cracker.   

  Or you can make it a little game.   My sons favorite animals are sharks and dinosaurs.    We tell him that if he eats his carrots he'll grow shark teeth,  or that his sandwich is a dinosaur  sandwich. 

 Good Luck    

                                shark33butterfly