21

A long while ago my 2 yr 9 mo old son decided he did not like eggs. He was good enough to taste them (and re-tasted them on a couple later occasions), but he made up his mind he just does not like them. If we even put a little on his plate he'll pick them up and put them on our plate, and remind us "I not like eggs!"

The problem is we frequently have eggs for breakfast, so he's missing out on half the protein (he'll eat sausage just fine so I'm not really worried). My 1 yr old daughter loves eggs and will gladly scarf down his share.

He's a picky eater in general, it's not just eggs. But I've read How To Feed A Picky Eater and some of the other questions on this site and it gives us some ideas. But I'd like to focus a question specifically on eggs since we eat them almost daily, which both makes them an important staple and a useful thing to experiment with.

Anyone have good tricks for getting their kids to eat eggs? Would fixing them differently be worth trying, or would continued pushing just turn him off eggs permanently? How common is it that kids don't like eggs, and then like them when they get older?

[Update] My son is now a 4 year-old, and still the most picky eater you can imagine. We've tried all the ideas people have suggested; mostly it just turns into a big power struggle (he's quite a strong-willed kid), so we don't bother. Eggs are the least of our concern now - anything we fix he'll look at and declare he doesn't like it, even though he's never tasted it. At Easter we did find that he likes the whites from hard boiled eggs, but only a nibble, and only if the shell's been dyed green.

We've instituted a rule that when we have dinner, we're all going to eat what's fixed, and if he doesn't want it, he can have something different only after mama's done eating. Unfortunately, he's fine with that; he just goes off and plays. But at least mama gets to eat with the rest of us rather than doing speciality catering.

This last weekend I started working on helping him learn about money, buying things, and earning money for doing jobs. On a whim I said I'd give him a nickel for each thing he tasted that he'd never eaten before.

And goodness, this has worked. The first time, he held his nose took a taste of my spoon and rushed to the sink to spit it out. Okay, well he tried it at least. But then he returned; "Daddy, can I taste that again? Mmm, can you put that in a bowl for me?" He learned he loves mama's stew. Last night he discovered that pot pie is actually quite yummy. Corn chips are great too, but not salsa. And... he voluntarily tasted scrambled eggs (twice!); just not his cup of tea. This whole other world of taste is opening up for him, at the low low cost of 35 cents. :-)

12
  • 25
    Did you try serving them in a box? With a fox?
    – DA01
    Jul 1, 2012 at 8:51
  • Ironically that's one of his favorite stories.
    – Bryce
    Jul 1, 2012 at 18:49
  • 6
    Why is it so important to you, that the child likes eggs?
    – Tester101
    Jul 2, 2012 at 17:13
  • 1
    Right; since it's a texture thing rather than taste, in theory it should be possible to modify the texture to be acceptable.
    – Bryce
    Jul 2, 2012 at 20:02
  • 1
    @Bryce Thanks for the update. You might consider making the ultimate result an answer, as it certainly seems to be the answer that worked for you!
    – Joe
    Jan 27, 2014 at 19:23

18 Answers 18

19

Let him help prepare the eggs with you. That way, he can be part of the process of making the food itself, and can see where everything comes from. He can also suggest ridiculous ingredients (Honey! Cheerios! etc) and see where those experiments take him.

We sat our toddler up on the counter and let him see the entire process of making the eggs. He was much more interested in both the preparation and the eating once he got involved in the process, rather than just having them appear in front of him. Yes, it's definitely messier-- especially now that he wants to crack the eggs himself-- but just have some towels and the like on hand to clean up, and you should be fine.

4
  • 1
    Come to think of it, we did this at easter boiling and coloring the eggs, and he did willingly eat part of a hardboiled egg and enjoyed it. That's a good suggestion, he definitely does enjoy stuff more if he has a hand in it.
    – Bryce
    Jul 2, 2012 at 20:06
  • 1
    I hope it works for you. Our boy is a good eater-- he complained loudly when he was two when he wasn't offered sushi-- so I don't want to go overboard on the suggestions, as they don't come from a parent of a picky eater. Our philosophy has been to just have only good food in the house, and let him eat what he wants, more or less when he wants. He's settled down to eating with us because the food is better than whatever he can scrounge in the cupboards, and is especially fun if he helps make it himself.
    – mmr
    Jul 2, 2012 at 20:21
  • He loves helping make scrambled eggs (he puts in the pepper and other spices, and directs me on how to crack the eggs, stir, etc.) Still, absolutely won't eat them. HOWEVER, we found at Easter that hard boiled eggs he would eat... IF he had a hand in boiling, dying, and cracking them, and ONLY IF the hardboiled eggs are dyed green on the outside. Even then, he eats only the whites.
    – Bryce
    May 20, 2013 at 21:23
  • 2
    "hard boiled eggs he would eat... IF he had a hand in boiling, dying, and cracking them, and ONLY IF the hardboiled eggs are dyed green on the outside."... Thats a control issue not a not liking the food issue. Now he knows he can make you stand on your head in a panda costume singing Dixie just to take a bite of egg.
    – user7678
    Dec 27, 2015 at 14:05
14

"Would fixing them differently be worth trying?"

Given the immense number of ways one can prepare eggs, I'd say 'yes'. Each of my kids like eggs in different ways. One loves them hard-boiled or 'runny'. The other likes them scrambled. Given that the way one prepares an egg can dramatically change the texture, I'm thinking it's definitely worth a shot at seeing if the issue your child has with the eggs is a particular texture.

7
  • Two of mine like them scrambled, one likes them boiled, and one likes them as omelettes. Gotta be worth trying. +1
    – Rory Alsop
    Jul 1, 2012 at 15:18
  • We usually do scrambled, today we tried sunnyside up, but he refused to even take a bite. But he did tell me it's not the taste but rather how it feels in his mouth that he doesn't like. So we'll keep experimenting.
    – Bryce
    Jul 1, 2012 at 18:54
  • Growing up, my favorite where poached, where it was put in a cup and that diced up into what I called, as a kid, 'egg soup'.
    – DA01
    Jul 1, 2012 at 18:58
  • +1 for the texture. Texture seems to be a major factor for kids.
    – Nat
    Jul 1, 2012 at 21:18
  • 1
    He got to help my wife prepare an omelette today, filled with things he likes which he loved. He got a huge thrill over bringing me to breakfast and was excited showing me the omelette. But when I offered a bit he said, "No, I don't want any. I not like it because it's icky." %-)
    – Bryce
    Jul 2, 2012 at 20:20
13

Taken from this comment. It might work for some toddlers.

enter image description here

1
  • 3
    +1 It seems like a flip answer, but I think there's more than a grain of truth in this!
    – user420
    Mar 14, 2013 at 13:31
8

You mentioned that Green Eggs and Ham is one of his favorite stories. Have you tried serving him green eggs? A little drop of food coloring can go a long way.

I got both of my boys to drink milk regularly by offering it in different colors. I just add a single drop of food coloring to the cup. Now they ask for milk at every meal.

7

I get my 2 year old to eat eggs with this simple "pancake" recipe: Beat one egg in a little container, add 2-3 tablespoons of oats (1minute or 5minute, no problem!), a little dash of vanilla extract. Mix well and store covered in the fridge overnight so the oatmeal absorbs all the liquid. In the morning, heat a bit of butter in a pan and cook as you would a pancake. I serve it with blueberries or other frozen or fresh berries I have on hand and a little drizzle of maple syrup. She devours it!

5

Our solutions after much trial and error:

Texture: One egg scrambled and cooked in a large pan so that it comes out very thin. Can be folded into a sandwich or wrapped around a sausage.

Flavor: Hard boiled egg - sliced and served with salsa and cheese (egg nachos)

Disguise: Scrambled and stir fried with rice and veggies

1
  • It's nach-o ordinary egg. And it sounds pretty daggone tasty I'll tell you that much. I would think that the crepe-like served as part of a toast sandwich would be worth a try. Kids like playing with their food, and he seems willing to try it over and over, so he may be ok with it.
    – monsto
    Jan 29, 2013 at 0:44
5

After reading Ellen Sattyr's book "How to Get Your Kid to Eat but Not Too Much" our policy is: 1. One dinner is prepared, everyone (baby/toddler included) gets a plate with appropriate portions, and they don't have to eat any of it. We make no comments on what they eat, or why they need to eat it. 2. Some known neutral side is presented (bread, tortilla chips, naan) that they can eat if they can't find anything to eat from what we put out. 3. That is all

I learned from the book (based on studies - I don't own a copy so can't cite them) that bribing does not work (they know the food is "less desirable" and will eat it less later), it may take 20 presentations of a food before they'll try it, and that if you force them it will be a power struggle, and not about the food anyway. Also, "obstacle eating" - "you have to eat this before you can eat that" is the same result as bribing.

This has left us with a whole lot less haggling at all meal times, and I highly recommend it (been doing it 2 years with our now 4.5 year old).

4

I scrambled some eggs up and added them to some pancake batter for my son. He never knew! I'm also going to experiment adding breadcrumbs to eggs and see if the texture is different enough for him like that for days I don't want to make pancakes

2

For some reason, scrambled eggs are a lot more palatable than other preparations for MANY kids.

You could also try "soft boiled" dippers. Give toast cut into sticks to dip into soft-boiled egg. There is also something about finger foods and dipping kids really like.

There are also a lot of wonderful ideas that I would have added if they weren't already here, like @mmr's idea to include him in the prep and @KitFox and @Saied - My daughter's favorite has become a scrambled egg sandwich over the years.

2

You can pull my mom's renaming trick - she said, "Oh, this isn't London Broil (which my brother would NOT eat), it's London Chicago." He loved it. Similarly, my sister's tights were too tight, but her leotards (same exact object) were a great fit. Also, Bactine, when applied to my sister's knee, was always called knee-tine. Otherwise she objected...

2

My toddler isn't too fond of eggs either. One thing we do for him is make french toast since toast is often served when we have eggs for breakfast it really isn't that much extra work to make. Another thing we do is finely scramble them and add them to his oatmeal. It sounds weird but you can't taste it at all and the texture is very similar to the oats. Sometimes I make rice pudding for him or vanilla custard using eggs, milk and sugar and vanilla for a dessert.

When my pre-teen was little, he preferred his eggs scrambled or in omelettes. He'll also eat them hard-boiled now but any other way and he won't eat the yolks.

2

I'm 25, and I love eggs, but I hate the texture. My solution is I eat them in toast. I cook them over-easy so the yolk is still runny, and then I mash the whole thing to pieces with my fork. After that I put it on buttered toast and eat it like a little egg sandwich. When I have more time I put hash browns on my toast as well, and sometimes bacon or sausage if I have it. It really helps to disguise the texture of the eggs, which are in my opinion, pretty unpleasant! I've been eating my eggs this way for as long as I can remember!

1

Have you ever tried disguising the eggs (scrambled) in a small sandwich. We found this worked for our toddler as he was not fond of cheese too much, but he would eat it with a piece of toast. I was also going to mention add some food color to the eggs, but not sure how safe that is and then they probably would want you to color every egg every time :)

1
  • He'll definitely eat food that contains eggs, like french toast, cake, etc. Weirdly he's not really into sandwiches other than the occasional pbj, but that's not a bad idea.
    – Bryce
    Jul 2, 2012 at 20:08
1

Before my 1 year and 11 month old son doesn't like to eat eggs, he is also a picky eater. But now, he loves eat only boiled eggs. There are several things that I am doing to make him like other foods aside from the regular stuff that he likes to eat.

  1. I find creative ways to prepare foods, like when he sees it, he would say wow and he will be encourage to eat.
  2. We all ate together, so he can see and follow what we are doing. More often than not, he actually does, what he sees.
  3. It is also a good idea, if he sees children of similar age, eating a particular food together. Before my son doesn't like eating crackers, but when we visited my grandparents home, and he saw his cousins eating crackers, he was also very eager to eat crackers and he was able to consume 2 packs!

There are other techniques that you can use. Just look for the technique that will work for your child. Every kid is different, so it really takes a lot of patience and asking the experts so you can have an idea.

1

I've tried EVERYTHING! I have found 1 WAY to get my toddler to eat eggs. I take two eggs and blend it with one banana and plenty of cinnamon. I then pour and fry (on medium) like a pancake in coconut oil. I began making them when we went grain free for a pancake substitute and they've stuck ever since. I also add some grass-fed butter and OCCASIONALLY raw honey for a treat. :) Good Luck!

1

One system that seems to work is to put a tiny amount of egg (or whatever it is the child doesn't like) and then insist that it be eaten. Then increase slowly from there. The idea is to first get over the resistance to having any of it, and then work on quantity.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. With me it was tomatoes; I couldn't stand them, and every time we had a salad may parents would put two segments (total 1/3 of a tomato) on the plate and insist that they be eaten. I eventually learned to smother the taste with salad cream, and I still can't stand raw tomatoes (paste on a pizza or as an ingredient mixed with other stuff is fine). Probably a whole third of a tomato was too much: maybe a tiny piece would have worked.

0

My 2yr old is going through that a bit right now too. Things that she loved at first she pushes away now. I feel that it's partly just a phase, being picky, learning she can say no, and may also be just realizing their own likes and dislikes. Try preparing the eggs a different way. Scrambled, fried, poached with strips of toast to dip in it. Then there's always cutting a fun shape in the middle of a slice of bread, butter both sides, put it in the pan and fry the egg into the middle of the bread. Whenever she decides she doesn't like something I try preparing it a different way and call it something else.

-1

If she likes cheese, add a lot of cheese and butter to hide the egg taste. My daughter will eat it with a side of ketchup.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .