Picky Eating Frenzy

My kids are the pickiest eaters! I'm sure a lot of you feel the way I do. I've tried everything I can to get them to eat their veggies. My 5 year old won't even eat fruit. I've been all over the web searching for ideas or ways that I can get them to eat healthier. My pediatrician told me as long as they are eating meat they should be ok not eating veggies. What???? I don't think she understands that they don't eat any veggies. I think to myself are french fries considered veggies? Fruit snacks fruit?

The funny thing is that none of my boys really eat fruit or vegetables. When they were babies they ate everything from squash and peas to sweet potatoes and green beans. Now I have to try to disguise things to get them to eat. I think when we decided to start our own garden and we had fresh vegetables they would eat them then winter would come around and I didn't buy squash or watermelon. So now they won't eat them. I've heard that there are two different kinds of picky eaters. The ones that won't eat anything that isn't familiar to them, they won't try anything new. This one is the most common. This is my 4 year old most of the time. He's a little more daring he will try something if it looks good or is covered in chocolate.

The other one is one that won't eat familiar or new. That's my 5 year old. My pediatrician told me to keep introducing the foods to them. Maybe take them away for a while then reintroduce. My 5 year old won't eat peas. I have "introduced" him to peas probably a hundred times. I could go crazy trying to get him to eat anything. He is so stubborn. He's to the point now that if they are even on his plate he will either gag and say get them off or leaves the dinner table telling me he's not eating until they are off his plate. I've noticed that if someone else tells him to try something sometimes he will try it. The other day he came home from school and told me he is supposed to have a snack after school. He has morning kindergarten right now so when he gets home its lunch time so I told him he could have a snack after lunch later in the afternoon. He said, "No mom, I'm supposed to have a snack when I get home from school." So he looks around in the fridge and decides he wants yogurt. I get it out for him and get him a spoon and he takes 3 bites and is done. Now I can't get mad that he just wasted a yogurt because at least he tried it. But he's so stubborn that he won't let me spoon any out into a bowl incase he doesn't like it.

My teenager is easier because I can "make" him at least eat some of his vegetables. His typical scenario is he puts a handful of peas in his hand drops them in his mouth then chugs down a drink and swallows. I try to tell him it doesn't do him any good if he doesn't chew but at least he's eating them right?

There is a book called the Sneaky Chef that I've been looking into buying. They have a website that I've checked out. (I haven't figured out how to add links yet) From what I understand is they try to get vegetables and fruits disguised as the same color of food into your kids diet. For example if you are serving macaroni and cheese you would add a blended mixture of sweet potatoes and carrots. I think it's a good concept so I'm going to look into trying it. I'll keep you updated on my experiment. But for now the picky eating frenzy is still trying to be solved.