How and when did you get your kids to eat salad?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I don't mean a small amount on the side of their plates but an entire salad for lunch or a dinner salad. My kids will grudgingly eat about a 1/4 cup portion. But I could not at this point make it the main entree even if I added grilled chicken or some meat to it.

[Tohru]

Doused with French dressing generally works over here.

 

Taco salads too, with a little lettuce in those cool Taco shell bowls, and then over time slowly increase the lettuce portion.

[orangearrow]

My kids have been regularly having salad-as-a-meal since they were pretty young - we called it Rabbit Food and they scarfed it right up. :p

 

Start with taco salad-type meals with nacho chips. Another alternative is to use warmed pita bread on the bottom, topped with beans/hamburger/salad.

 

We add all kinds of things to our salads to change it up a little. Diced peppers, sliced boiled eggs, raisins, dried cranberries... the more colorful the salad is, the better the kids respond to it.

 

Unless it's just an iceberg wedge with salad dressing drizzled on top. They like that too. :) And sometimes we'll make one giant Olive Garden style salad with olives and parmesan. The kids love that too.

 

We do keep the dressings to the bare minimum.

 

Oh - and I can't just make salad with only spinach or dark green, leafy salad - there has to be some romaine or iceberg crunch to the salad for my kids to happily dig in... :)

 

Have them help prepare the salad for a meal - maybe they could be creative with it and that might help them enjoy the meal a little better?

[SonshineLearner]

If you're just trying for "more salad" then tortilla roll ups might work... A piece of meat or whatever... and a big thing of lettuce:-)

[keptwoman]

When: From the time they ate the same food as us, which was 9-18 months.

How: What is put on the table is what you eat or you go hungry, I try to make the salads appealling and appetising, visually and taste wise. Mine love salads, scarf them down. I've never got how kids don't end up eating them, a friends children (3 & 5) refused to eat a salad I prepared when they came to our home. I was quite perplexed as it's one of our kids favourite meals, so I just assumed all kids like it. I guess they just don't get presented it early and often like mine have.

[sbgrace]

When: From the time they ate the same food as us, which was 9-18 months.

How: What is put on the table is what you eat or you go hungry, I try to make the salads appealling and appetising, visually and taste wise. Mine love salads, scarf them down. I've never got how kids don't end up eating them, a friends children (3 & 5) refused to eat a salad I prepared when they came to our home. I was quite perplexed as it's one of our kids favourite meals, so I just assumed all kids like it. I guess they just don't get presented it early and often like mine have.

 

I've got a child like yours. He loves salad and eats and enjoys foods of all sorts. While I can name some things he doesn't particularly like he's easy to feed. And he's got a fraternal twin brother like your friends kids--not just about salad he's plain picky! I think had I only had child #1 or two like him I'd think it was because of the way I presented food or something else I did. Because of his brother I know a lot is their internal wiring!

[ElizabethB]

Mine don't eat it for a meal, but the only snack they get while dinner is cooking is lettuce and salad veggies, they eat a lot of cucumbers that way! My 7 year old will now sometimes have a bowl of salad with dinner.

[nevergiveup]

"You're going to eat this. I don't care if you don't like it. It's a part of dinner. You need vegetables to stay healthy. I don't care if you don't like it. It won't kill you. You get no other food until you eat it."

 

Salad looks pitiful when it's leftover and facing you at breakfast.

[Laura Corin]

Depends on the child. Both my boys love most vegetables, raw or cooked. Hobbes also loves lettuce (perhaps starting at about age 4) whilst Calvin really doesn't like the texture. Given that they eat very healthily, I don't worry about it. If the three of us are having a big ham salad, for example, I'll suggest to Calvin that he makes himself a ham sandwich, with the salad ingredients (minus the lettuce) on the side. Calvin knows that if he is offered salad outside the house he must eat it cheerfully.

 

Laura

[Carrie12345]

I have 4 kids. I've used the same food techniques on 3 of them (my aspie has always had food issues, so we approach it a little differently with him). Still, I only have 1 who will not only eat salad as a meal, but will do so VOLUNTARILY! I consider myself fortunate to have 2 who will eat a side salad without argument (because I said so), and 1 who will eat lettuce in a sandwich wrap (and that took 10+ years to make happen).

 

I don't believe there's any tip that will work across the board. You know, other than the obvious need for regular exposure and opportunity.

[Renee in NC]

Mine love salad - it is another food to hold Ranch dressing.:D Except for my 5yo, who loves bleu cheese. Mine will eat raw veggies - they don't like cooked ones as much.

[Spy Car]

Sorry can't relate. My 5.5 year-old will happily gobble up salad.

 

Tonight he demolished a good portion of a dandelion green, escarole, and shaved red cabbage salad with a homemade miso, olive oil, toasted sesame oil, mustard, and rice vinegar dressing garnisheed with toasted sesame seeds.

 

We always make fresh dressings, and my son usually helps, so maybe getting the child "invested" in the salad making would help? That, or make really delicious (and healthful salads).

 

No bottled dressings. Eeeewww!

 

Bill

[LibraryLover]

It's not salad season for us. :( I hate dead of winter. Nothing like that tastes good now. In a few weeks, I can put some seeds in the cold frame. So, soon!

 

My kids are veggie-eaters, but when they were little they didn't like too many mixed veggies on their plates. They liked the tomatoes, the sunflower seeds, the peppers, the sprouts, the sliced cucumbers, the grean beans etc separately, and they liked it plain. That was from a very early age. My kids all loved peas straight from the pods, fi.

 

But I would say whole hog salads, with everything completely mixed together, tossed with dressing etc., it was around 7/8 or so? My youngest more like 8/9. Although my 17 yr old likes everything about a salad except any kind of dressing. She doesn't care for any sort of vinegar, buts does like a little salt, pepper and olive oil. She prefers romaine or spinach, too, where my other kids prefer red leaf. I try to have a few different greens in the garden. I can snip off a few leaves from various plants for different taste buds, and mix them all up for others.

 

Just keep putting nice bits of lettuce on the their plates in small amounts, and nice veggies cut into manageable pieces. They will eventually develop a taste for it, ime. I know sometimes my kids would eat a whole salad just helping me pick from the garden beds (or in years past, pots on the back porch). That still happens. esp, w/Chinese pea pods. lol Some things do not make it to the table in the amounts they were picked. And those sweet little cherry tomatoes! Where did they all go?

 

Salad is just really fresh vegetables pleasantly arranged on a plate. For my little kids, sometimes it's too much, mixed up. Mine were easily overwhelmed. lol My youngest esp was a 'don't mix it all up' kind of little one. At 10, she's different. She is the kid who will snip parsley out of the garden and eat it, and anything else in a 'salad'.

 

Patience, yummy, and frequent exposure go a long way. When it's warm, I would start putting seeds in pots. I dont know a kid who won't try what she's sowed. :)

Edited March 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[fivetails]

ds11: won't eat salads at all - and it isn't a matter of being rude/defiant/etc ~ he can't deal with the textures/etc..he likes most *cooked* veggies. :)

 

dd13: the only salad she really likes is Caesar ~ with or without chicken. Lots of croutons. Lots and lots of croutons. :laugh: [she'll sometimes eat a basic salad with Ranch dressing, but Caesar is the one she prefers]

 

dh: pretty much the same as dd13 - he likes Caesar the best, will occasionally eat a basic one - on that, he likes Catalina.

 

me: haven't met a salad I didn't like... okay wait, I'm not to fussy on salads that mix fruit & veggies together - ORANGES DO NOT GO WITH LETTUCE thankyouverymuch. :tongue_smilie:

[LibraryLover]

You people in temperate climates with your fresh year 'round veggies. ;) lol

 

I am going to FL soon, and my first stop is the farmer's market! Ill be in a condo with a kitchen for 3 weeks and all I can think about right now is buying and preparing fresh veggies.

 

I never should have left San Diego. ;) There is snow in my garden beds and it's depressing.

 

Bottle dressings mask the taste of vegetables. (Of course, if you live in an area where one has to rely on veggies trucked in 3k miles, one is tempted. Or if the only lettuce available is iceberg, which has no flavor at all. But the snap and pop of food from the garden needs so little). I think even some home made ones do as well. We are very light on that here. But I do like thinking about what seasonings on what types of veggies.

 

Sorry can't relate. My 5.5 year-old will happily gobble up salad.

 

Tonight he demolished a good portion of a dandelion green, escarole, and shaved red cabbage salad with a homemade miso, olive oil, toasted sesame oil, mustard, and rice vinegar dressing garnisheed with toasted sesame seeds.

 

We always make fresh dressings, and my son usually helps, so maybe getting the child "invested" in the salad making would help? That, or make really delicious (and healthful salads).

 

No bottled dressings. Eeeewww!

 

Bill

Edited March 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[KidsHappen]

My kids will try just about anything I eat especially if I don't offer it to them and then when they ask I say no, you probably wouldn't like it. They almost invariably do. They eat foods that I had never heard of at their age and many that I could imagine eating ever. As far salads are concerned they prefer just greens, dressing and croutons. Let them try many different dressing too as sometimes that makes all the difference.

[gingersmom]

My brother is 42 and still will not eat a salad.

 

My son will not eat salad but my daughter loves salad.

 

I never forced them to eat it. Either you like it or you don't.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I guess they just don't get presented it early and often like mine have.

 

Please don't assume differences in children are due to parenting failure. I have had salads on the table daily from birth to age three and none of my kids like them. The one with who I had a policy of, "eat this or eat nothing," (my firstborn) hates them most of all.

[Pamela H in Texas]

We just assumed our kids would eat veggies and they did. I also just assumed my kids would eat what was put in front of them or they'd eat more the next meal.

 

Also, *I* learned that eating salad (and other such things) is an acquired taste. When my kids balked about something, I suggested that to them also. Though there are certain things that never took (and *I* can't eat a raw carrot), the majority of veggies were added to their diets.

 

BTW, a LOT of people have NO clue about what a salad really is. I was one of them! My mom makes the same boring salad every single night. What is the point? But when I started going raw (taking my family with me, btw), I read a lot online, watched YouTube videos, etc and learned a lot about salad making. There is a REASON there are whole books on salad making!

 

So two ideas:

 

1) get a salad "cookbook"

and

2) have kiddos pick salads to try and help make (or make themselves if old enough like the OP's kids).

[FO4UR]

dd has eaten salads since forever...loves them...

 

ds's do not love them, and only eat it in small portions b/c they have to.

 

It's probably not a coincidence that I love salad and dh does not.:glare: Like mother, like daughter....like father, like son...

[1GirlTwinBoys]

My DD will eat an entire huge bowl of kale greens if I mix it with olive oil, lemon juice and coarse sea salt. :)

[abbeyej]

I don't know. Mine have always eaten salad. Even my veggie-resistant child has never minded salads, and will eat them happily (either has 1/3 of a meal with various elements, or as a single entree with some protein mixed in in the form of grilled chicken or beans).

[keptwoman]

Please don't assume differences in children are due to parenting failure. I have had salads on the table daily from birth to age three and none of my kids like them. The one with who I had a policy of, "eat this or eat nothing," (my firstborn) hates them most of all.

I am speaking of one family specifically as mentioned in my post, I know they haven't been given salad because their Mum told me so. She regrets not giving it earlier. I'm not accusing everyone of not giving their kids salad.

I'd hardly call not presenting salad a parenting failure, goodness, ridiculous label for something so minor.

I think all kids have food likes and dislikes, we do have a policy of eat this or eat nothing, but I try to be mindful of their individual likes and dislikes, and not present the foods they dislike too often.

Edited March 2, 2010 by keptwoman

[lollie010]

Mine started gobbling them up when I started letting the mix their own. I filled the table with ingredients and they made some great choices.

[stripe]

My daughter loves salad and salad dressing, especially creamy ones (ranch, creamy italian, etc). My son hates lettuce and finds salad dressing repulsive. That being said, he will eat lettuce-free salads in vast quantities (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and onions chopped fine with a dressing of lemon juice and salt). They both eat some cooked greens.

[keptwoman]

I don't like salad dressing either, home made or store bought. I always serve salads with dressing on the side. The only exception would be when the meat juice is the basis of the dressing.

[MamaT]

All of my children have happily eaten salads from the time they started eating table food, except for one. My 12yo dd has just started eating salads. She decided she likes croutons and if the salad has croutons, she will even choose to eat it for a snack. I think maybe it just had to be her idea and not mine (the age :001_smile:).

[CalicoKat]

My kids are rabbits. If there's salad in the frigde they eat it.

 

We start feeding it to the kids when they're really little dipped in salad dressing and playing a game, "Mmmmm!" They all love salad.

[fivetails]

You people in temperate climates with your fresh year 'round veggies. ;) lol

 

 

 

Pffffft. :tongue_smilie:

 

See location. ;)

 

 

 

Okay so our salads are kinda...lame...and limp... year round, since even in the summer everything is flown in from wherever. :laugh:

[TravelingChris]

My kids have always eaten salad. One of their favorite meals is Chicken Mango Salad with Raspberry Walnut dressing. My girls are always eating salads or raw vegetables for snacks. I don't know that we did anything differently except that we served all children normal adult food instead of special children's meals since they were around 8 or 9 months old. Both dh and I like to cook and when we try to cook something other than humdrum stuff, it tends to be much more interesting than bland comfort type food.

[TammyinTN]

We love salads at our house. I chop up all the different things and store them in the refrigerator and they put whatever they want on it. I usually keep 4 or 5 different dressings, croutons, sunflower seeds and cheese chunks available. I cook extra meat- chicken breast, steak or beef and chop it up so all you have to do is add it. This makes for quick meals and good late night snacks.

[Dawn in OH]

My second and third child have loved salad since they started eating table food. My oldest just began liking salad about a year ago, but won't eat tomato.

[Daisy]

Chinese Chicken Salad was the start of our kids eating salad for a meal.

 

Mixed greens salad

Scallions

shredded carrots

sliced almonds

chinese noodles

mandarin oranges

shredded chicken

Trader Joe's Ginger Soy dressing

 

That was what they started with. Now they eat all kinds of salad.

[elise1mds]

DS has always liked salads. I've never had a problem getting him to eat them. DD was another matter. She HATED anything green - ANYTHING green - from about the age of 18 months to the age of 3-1/2 years. It drove me batty after being so lucky with DS. The only way she would eat green food was if I fed it to her or if it was drenched in Ranch (or put in a curry, but you couldn't tell it was green and I think that was the selling point, and that's not a salad). Slowly but surely, I got her to eat greens. We started with cooked spinach, then moved to raw spinach, then started adding other colors (orange carrots, red tomatoes), then adding other lettuces. Now she will request salads. One night when her brother was gone, she asked for a salad for dinner. It was about the proudest moment of my life. :)

[Parrothead]

Dd has always eaten salad. Fruit on the other hands.....

[Ellie]

It never ocurred to me to even try that. ::shrugs::

[PinkInTheBlue]

My oldest have never liked salads. Even as babies they would immediately spit it right back out. It has always driven me nuts! I give it again and again and they just haven't taken it on. My 3 yr old, however, loves everything and always has. He eats salad with me all the time. He loves the seaweed salad in the sushi restaurant like it's the best thing he's ever tasted. It's just been natural for him.

 

I don't know what makes the difference but it's not about when I offered it or how often.

[cjzimmer1]

Honestly I can't imagine that ever happening. Everyone in our family loves salads (well except the 1 year old who doesn't have enough teeth to chew it). We have salads almost every night and several of the kids asks for seconds. But as a complete meal, no way. I don't think they could eat enough salad to last more than an hour. I love salads but even I don't eat them as a meal, I always have something more substancial with it. I can eat a huge salad with chicken or a taco salad and my stomach will growl an hour later. I just don't find they have much holding power. I certainly wouldn't expect my kids to eat that and only that for a meal. They need a lot more calories and fiber (at least mine do) to keep them full.

[hornblower]

Please don't assume differences in children are due to parenting failure. I.

:iagree:

 

I actually find it quite funny now to see the things people take parenting credit for. Me - I think it's all sheer dumb luck that my kids are turning out remotely civilized.

 

I have one who likes certain salads, likes greek and vegetarian ceasar but not so keen on spinach salad. I have one who'll eat ceasar with chicken but isn't really keen on it. One likes tomatoes, one likes red bell peppers & will eat a whole one while prepping dinner.

 

Salad as a meal is not my favourite thing at all because it takes SO MUCH TIME to prepare and it takes SO MUCH TIME to eat. Gad. You chop and chop and wash and rinse and then you chew and chew and chew and it seems like an awful lot of effort for 350 calories :lol:

[Jean in Newcastle]

OP here to defend my parenting honor!;)

 

Both dc had very bad excema as babies and toddlers. I had to be very restrictive as to what they ate. And unfortunately veggies and fruit were huge no-no's for them. So I could not introduce them to them super early. For ds esp. - spinach would have him writhing in pain (the oxalic acid, I think).

 

Now they eat and like many fruits and vegetables (including spinach). Usually the veggies are cooked and are part of soups, stews, stir-fries etc. They do like those raw veggie trays with ranch dip. Ds likes tomatoes and will request them on sandwiches. Dd will request a piece of lettuce. They will eat a bit of salad (with the dressing on the side) at dinner if I serve it. (Yes, I require it).

 

I suppose part of it is that I am guilty of making boring salads. I'm not quite sure how to make those wonderful salads that I get at friend's houses. And some of it is that neither of them like a large amount of greens. They likes the other stuff on the salads (croutons included), but not the greens so much.

[LibraryLover]

yeah. No fairsies! There is something magical about fresh vegetables and herbs from a garden. There is absolutely no taste comparison. When I see iceberg (which travels and keeps well) with some limp shredded carrots with some over-sized croutons on it, I want to cry. Then the gloppy orange stuff...it's not really a salad. It's an approximation of a memory of a salad. It's no wonder many people grow up thinking they do not like vegetables (which is what a salad often is).

 

For a time when I was a small child, I thought I didn't like vegetables, but what I hated was canned peas and carrots.

 

Early on, my mother started rebelling against the food of her childhood and youth (late 40, 50's , 60's canned, TV dinners, and crap food). When I was about 10? 8? She made me a fresh pocket pita sandwich with lightly steamed broc, some mung bean sprouts and crunchy carrots with a light dressing she made. I was a gonner from then on. My father never got into it. His tastebuds were destroyed from smoking and salty TV dinners. Although, I have to hand it to my dad, these days he will eat lettuces and other things from my garden. He's even been known to like it. He never had that as a kid. Too young for victory gardens and all.

 

My mother also used to get veggies from an old -timey neighbor who lived next door when i was a kid. It was a city garden, but he grew tons of stuff. I remember getting the first strawberry of summer, and picking peas out right off the vine. We always had tomatoes in summer etc. We also ate tons of green pippin apples which to this day I still adore. He did spray those suckers, so sometimes I do wonder what we ingested with those apples. He did the garden the old-fashioned way, however.

 

 

 

Pffffft. :tongue_smilie:

 

See location. ;)

 

 

 

Okay so our salads are kinda...lame...and limp... year round, since even in the summer everything is flown in from wherever. :laugh:

Edited March 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LibraryLover]

oops. double

Edited March 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LibraryLover]

I really down played lettuce for some of my kids. Some lettuces are just too strong. You can have a salad without lettuce. You can have a salad without veggies, too, for that matter.

 

Things that can be in salads:

 

Sliced sweet or tart apples (must be crisp)

Mango

avocado

grapes

strawberries

raspberries

pumpkins seeds

sunflower seeds

All kinds of seeds ;)

watermelon

tuna

anchovies

chicory

olives

a million different cheeses

marinated firm tofu

dandelion greens

cantaloupe

blueberries

parsley

carrots

all kinds of green beans

garbanzo, black, kidney etc beans

pea pods

sweet peppers

mung bean sprouts

sprouted lentils

lightly steamed or broccoli

finely shredded cabbage

anything else lol

 

My nephew loves butter lettuce (nice and mild taste some children prefer) with halved cherry tomatoes, sliced strawberries, (or raspberries), fresh peas or pea pods, walnuts, and sweet bell pepper. He's 4 and eats it plain. The strawberries or raspberries give it a sweetness, and he will eat anything he picks from the garden. Watermelon is also good in a salad, esp with some sunflower seeds.

 

Another combo he likes is sliced green apples, thin carrot sticks, walnuts (he loves walnuts) with little slices of mozzarella (bocconcini) balls. He likes that sweet/mild tang buttery combo.

 

Lettuce is the least of it for some kids.

 

My sister and I are going to FL soon with the kids, and we're all going to the FM together. I am happy thinking about that. :) Winter is freezing insanity here! A couple of months, ok. lol

Edited March 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[abbeyej]

It never ocurred to me to even try that. ::shrugs::

Try what? Salad?

[stripe]

Now they eat and like many fruits and vegetables (including spinach). Usually the veggies are cooked and are part of soups, stews, stir-fries etc. They do like those raw veggie trays with ranch dip. Ds likes tomatoes and will request them on sandwiches. Dd will request a piece of lettuce. They will eat a bit of salad (with the dressing on the side) at dinner if I serve it. (Yes, I require it).

 

I suppose part of it is that I am guilty of making boring salads. I'm not quite sure how to make those wonderful salads that I get at friend's houses. And some of it is that neither of them like a large amount of greens. They likes the other stuff on the salads (croutons included), but not the greens so much.

First of all, it sounds like your kids like lots of vegetables, and many salads are not particularly healthy (iceberg lettuce + loads of fatty dressing). I would say if your friends make great salads, you should ask them if they'll teach you! I think most people would be honored to be asked.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've put a couple of salad cookbooks on hold at the library. And I'm going to ask my salad making friend for tips.

[Slartibartfast]

I don't have a problem getting my kids to eat salad but how do I get my husband to eat salad?

 

:lol:

[LibraryLover]

I've put a couple of salad cookbooks on hold at the library. And I'm going to ask my salad making friend for tips.

 

 

But don't panic. Go slow. And where you are...not gardening time. ;) Start with the best veggies or fruits you can find. No mushy stuff, no woody carrots.

 

I would absoltuely order some seeds and find a couple of giant pots for your porch (if you have such a thing avaibale to you). Salad greens don't mind the cold as much as some other veggies, so you could put those in in a few weeks. Peas, too. Radishes. Although none of us like radishes...still we grow them because it's one of the only things that will grow in our cool springs.

[Colleen]

My guys have always eaten salads. We've never had issues with it; I guess they just view food as food. Why do you think your kids are reluctant about it? I wonder if some children are resistant to certain foods based on societal vibes, if you kwim.

[gandpsmommy]

"You're going to eat this. I don't care if you don't like it. It's a part of dinner. You need vegetables to stay healthy. I don't care if you don't like it. It won't kill you. You get no other food until you eat it."

 

Salad looks pitiful when it's leftover and facing you at breakfast.

 

Sorry, but I just don't think this is right. I think it's fine to continue trying to get kids to eat something by serving it over and over again. And I think if you stock your house with healthy food, eventually your kids will probably learn to like a lot of it. But everyone is an individual, and some people truly cannot tolerate the texture, taste, or smell of certain foods. I think a child should never be forced to eat something, or have to face it meal after meal, as the only food offered, until he does. I personally know people who were raised that way. They *never* learned to like the food and still don't eat it, but they have horrible childhood memories surrounding food because of it.