How to get babies to eat cucumber (and other veg)

N’s pretty good when it comes to eating, he’ll eat pretty much anything. However, children do go through phases of fussiness, and as a young toddler salad and raw veg were passing him by. In particular getting him to eat cucumber which is so easy to serve alongside lunch or as a snack was a nightmare.

When we were doing baby led weaning, he was fine eating cucumber sticks. But then he decided it wasn’t for him, and would pick it out of his sandwiches now.  

Other salad vegetables he wasn’t very keen on either. He’s never really eaten raw tomatoes (unless they’re now in a burger bun)  But I think it was due to him having a bit of reaction around his mouth afterwards. Maybe as a young toddler he had a slight allergic reaction to them and it was his body saying no. Thankfully he’s grown out of that, but still isn’t keen on raw tomatoes years later.

The only thing he used to eat as a toddler that was easy to give raw and on the side with lunch/sandwiches was avocado. I’m notoriously bad at buying them, then forgetting about them and finding them overripe when I want to use them.  So I struggled to find veg to give him for lunch during baby led weaning, and through his toddler years. It seemed too much effort to cook veg in addition to a cold meal.

But there was a way to get him to eat cucumber I discovered, and it worked well through his toddler years.

Dips.

I found that he would eat cucumber sticks if they were dipped in something. It could be any type of dip – sour cream & chive, cheese, houmous, tzatziki.  Just something wet and he would quite happily eat away.  Ths whole ‘dipping’ thing was harder to grasp when he was really young, so I just dipped them and left them on his plate. He would quite happily munch away. (Bizarrely now he’s older, he’s not a dip person).

Other tips to get young children to eat their veg.

• Let them serve themselves
• Grown your own veg
• Take them shopping where they can pick and feel the different vegetables.
• Keep offering it. It can take 15 times of trying before they’ll like something
• Don’t make a fuss about it, just put some on their plate or tray
• Provide variety. Then they get to try lots of different types and hopefully you’ll have more options.

Does anyone have any other ideas about what veg is good to serve with lunch for toddlers?