Are you against hiding veggies and fruits in your children's favorite foods?

I don’t hide fruits and vegetables – my youngest loves ‘em and my oldest has no option but to eat them, period. I agree with parents who believe it’s not great to hide anything in food – there is no reason to over-emphasize to your children that this is something out of the ordinary they’re eating or not eating. When he tells me ‘eww I don’t want these carrots’, I tell him ‘sure, but you’ll still eat them’. I don’t get parents who let their kids dictate what they will and will not eat. We’re vegans – a lot of what we eat are fruits and vegetables. I make my best effort to make food that they enjoy even if there is an occasional vegetable they don’t like.

If they don’t know about it, and they like what they’re eating while getting in some healthy stuff, then i don’t see the problem. The best is obviously to get them to like the actual veggies on their own – they can’t always eat cakes to get in their veggies. I don’t even see the problem if they eventually find out about it later.

I think it’s a wonderful idea. The wife of a movie star was on Oprah and was telling how she does it ; she wrote a book on it. She cooks the vegetables and squirts them into cakes, etc , in their semi liquid form. You could put any kind of pureed fruit into a cake but she used veggies also. One thing that cannot be tasted is fresh spinach that has been blended into a fruit smoothie. It doesn’t even turn it green. I want to do this again soon as I have a Vitamix and a bag of spinach in the freezer.

@Aster i saw that one too! I think she also used pureed beetroot in chocolate cakes.

@NaturallyMe I wonder if she’s sick of doing it by now? LOL !
I can see it could get old really fast!

I have a very picky eater in my first born. He rejected vegetables from the ages 2 to 7. I kept serving him vegetables and requiring that he eat two of them. Eventually he grew to like them. Through that process he saw that tastes change. Something you disliked years ago you may like today.

I’m not a fan of hiding the vegetables. At what point do you bring them in the open?

I have a 27 year old who has never eaten vegetables or fruit. Do you think I should start hiding them in his grilled cheese?

@Aster That was Jerry Seinfeld’s wife. I wish I had known about that when my son was younger. His scrawny ass could have used a few green beans or something. I wondered though, if cooking twice the veggies twice removed the nutrients. That’s basically what hapens right? You steam them and puree, then they get cooked a second time in whatever food you’re serving.

Hiding meatloaf in their veggies doesn’t work either!

How absurd is this? And how can it work? I mean, how could you not taste beets in your chocolate cake?

My kids eat their vegies because they know it’s healthy and because we put some pressure on them to eat them. Like they can’t have a sweet if they don’t eat their food.

They have favorite vegies, which don’t include summer squash for my daughter, but she eats it. I don’t give her very much. A little is better than none. At different times they have liked different vegetables. Oddly, while brussels sprouts are abhorred, broccoli is loved (as long as it has special sauce). I think they will grow up to like more vegies than they do now.

Fruits are not a problem. What’s not to like? They are sweet and crisp and flavorful. That is, if you get them at a farmers market fresh from the trees. Supermarket apples either go squishy, or if they are crisp, they have no flavor. I’m sorry, but so-called “delicious” apples are not delicious.

Well I could ramble on forever about food, but I’ll spare you…... this time. ;-)

@wundayatta It’s not that absurd, some foods don’t give off much flavour when combined with others. I had a fruit smoothie once that had beets in it – it made it very pink, but didn’t really affect the taste in such a way that you could tell that there were veggies in it.

@Aster I got that cookbook, but didn’t care for it much at all. I like the “Sneaky Chef” books better!

Of my three kids, one is very picky. The only meat he will eat is chicken, which doesn’t bother me much. He does not like any vegetables. He eats a lot of fresh fruit, and is very healthy. Even though I bought a Sneaky Chef cookbook, I have yet to try it. My son has progressed from only eating bread and cheese to eating chicken, eggs, and many kinds of fruit. He’s five now, and I figure by the time he’s an adult he’ll probably have a pretty normal diet. My other two like a good variety of things, so I don’t really feel the need to try to sneak in extra veggies. I mostly want to try it just to see if I can notice a difference and if the kids will be fooled.

Anyway, how to handle family meals and food preferences is an individual family choice. I prefer not to fight that battle, within limits. I’m not going to serve ice cream for breakfast or let a picky eater have only french fries for dinner, but I’m also not going to insist any of them eat things they don’t like or finish every bite. Other parents feel differently, and that’s their choice. I can see how hiding foods would come across as dishonest and not as healthy as learning to like or appreciate those foods on their own.

@Cruiser -No,it sure doesn’t ;)

@lucillelucillelucille I learned that trick from my mom! My therapist says I should let go of the past

@wundayatta : It’s not necessarily fruits, I was just including them.
Some kids don’t like them, don’t ask me.
I love them.
and just because your kids like them doesn’t mean that all kids like them.

@Cruiser—Just let go of the loaf—

@troubleinharlem That’s pretty amazing that some kids don’t like fruits. But I’m sure it happens. I’ve heard of kids who only eat one thing. I hear that’s a pathology. It seems easy to blame the parents for the kids’ eating habits, and in some cases, I’m sure the blame is deserved. But certainly not in all cases.

For a short-term effect, hiding fruits/vegetables can work if not mentioned. If the children are told about it after they eat it, it may result in distrust, and it isn’t likely to change their opinion.

The long-term effect is that it doesn’t teach them the benefits of eating properly. Food should be about fueling the body and maintaining a healthy life. Being educated on the four food groups at a young age was helpful. Maybe taking it a step further in explaining the benefits might have helped. For example, a sister wasn’t allowed to leave the table until her vegetables were consumed. A lesson on why it was so important to her well-being to do so might not have encouraged her. At minimum, it would have been better than refusing her to leave the table before they were consumed.

@lucillelucillelucille Maybe you should be my therapist?? What is your hourly fee?

No. I would rather them see it in the plate and let them know that it is good for them to eat so that they would learn to appreciate it more.

I offer my kid veggies and fruit and if she does not eat it OH ! well, she doesn’t. She might when she grows up alittle. Call me crazy but I just give her a vitamin to make up for the stuff she is missing in her diet.Every day a kid’s vitamin. I don’t feel the need to hide things in her food. This question reminds me of the Chef Boy Ardee commerical. There is suppose to be a full serving of veggies in it and the mom grow to great lengths to not have her kid hear that.LOL

If you really want to get kids to like vegetables plant a garden and eat the stuff right out of the garden. I know, time consuming, maybe space is an issue, but you get kids to eat peas off the vine and they will love em. Plant a few containers, etc. My sister in law had the same problem with her two kids. They came up for a visit and we went out to the garden and did the peas, they loved em. The canned stuff sucks.

@Cruiser- Fwee. ;)

@lucillelucillelucille worth every penny huh?

@lucillelucillelucille Perfect!! But I insist on a trade then…I will bake chocolate brownies! When do we start! ;)

My daughter liked enough fruit and veggies that I never had to do this. I know parents who did though. Coloured mashed potato.

I think there are bigger problems than what is put in your kids food because its good for them. If they won’t eat it any other way, than why not. I prefer that the kid get something good to eat than the parent yell or shout at the kid to eat their veggies.
Whatever works.

I gave mine a vitamin daily and they loved vegetables so it wasn’t an issue with me. I did have a girlfriend whose son , a real crybaby and wimp, would not eat anything but Oreo’s so his pediatrician said “just give him Oreo’s then.” Now he’s an attorney in Dallas with 4 kids.
What’s the moral of the story? I don’t know. Maybe it’s “you think something is life-changing for your kids then you find out it didn’t make much difference.” One of mine is healthy and happy; the other one is depressed and lost. The second one is , regardless, into healthy eating, very little or no meat, but she’s still out of it.
I’ll go eat a plum now.

I don’t hide fruits and veggies from my son. He can be picky with some foods (he doesn’t like mac & cheese or mashed potatoes). I make him try them each time we make them and have explained that tastes change. He has started liking more things as he gets older. When he says he doesn’t like something, I ask him if he doesn’t like it as in it makes him feel sick or just that he can tolerate it but would never actually ask for it. If he says he can tolerate it but wouldn’t actually ask for it, I tell him he has to eat some of it. If it makes him sick (which usually he’ll gag when that’s the case), I don’t make him eat it. There are foods and textures that make me gag and if someone tried to force me to eat them, the would hear a few things about it from me. I wouldn’t do that to my child either.

Another thought: If you know what the recommended daily allowance (RDA) is for vitamins and minerals, and there is a certain food that the child will not eat, couldn’t it just be a matter of searching the internet for foods that also contain them? It might be worth testing out another type of food.

@Pied_Pfeffer I agree 100%! There are multiple options for getting most nutrients, so it’s most likely possible to still get them through foods just by trying other ones.

If you ask a young child what they want to eat, they won’t ask for fruits or vegetables. If you put a plate of veggies and ranch dip or a cut-up apple or pear near them while they are playing and walk away, when you come back 20 minutes later, part or all of it will usually be gone. This doesn’t work with 27 year-olds.

It’s better to teach them that veggies are yummy. Hiding them in the food is silly.

You could also use Ranch salad dressing…that tastes good. For the veggies that is.

@EGGIE You should make a commerical for Hidden Vally Ranch. LOL

Well, I don’t care how many beets you put in a chocolate cake – the kid’s still eating a chocolate cake.

Now, I have an on-again-off-again picky eater in my 2 year old, and I am guilty of mixing spinach in with hamburgers (because he’s apparantly afraid of green food), and I’ve learned he’ll eat anything if it’s mixed with mashed potatoes. If we don’t have mashed potatoes, he gets a serving of veggies right next to the rest of his food. Sometimes he tries it, sometimes he doesn’t. Hopefully by the time he’s 27 he’ll willingly eat a piece of broccoli.

But I’ll be damned if I give the kid chocolate cake with carrot sauce for dinner.

@Seek_Kolinahr Wouldn’t count on it.