My 5 year old eats raw carrot and cucumber happily and won't touch a single cooked vegetable

gentle_notebook_384613 Aug 2026

Raw carrot sticks, cucumber, capsicum, even raw beans. Gone in minutes. The same vegetables in a curry or a fry get pushed to the side of the plate. Every answer I've had so far is 'hide it in parathas'. I don't want to hide anything. My question is simpler. If he eats a good amount of raw vegetables every day, is that enough, or is he missing something by not eating cooked ones? His sister eats everything, so it isn't the cooking.

1 comment

saffron_tiffin_696214 Aug 2026
Mine is a toddler, so take this as coming from a younger child. Two questions that might help. Is it the texture or the taste? Ours refused soft cooked carrot but ate carrot steamed for two or three minutes that still crunched. And does he eat cooked vegetables when they are plain and on their own, rather than mixed with masala? For ours the mixing was the problem, not the cooking. On whether raw is enough, I would ask your paediatrician rather than a forum, including me.
- gentle_notebook_384614 Aug 2026
  Texture, I think. Mixed versus plain is a useful split, I hadn't separated those. Will try the two-minute steam tonight. Paediatrician visit is next month anyway, so I'll ask.