fussy toddler not eating enough fruit/veg

princess_tinkerbell_3

i have a nearly 2year son and i have always struggled to get him to eat fruit/veg.

he will not touch even the basics like bananas/thinly sliced apples, used to enjoy clementines but has become fussy with them. He enjoys grapes, and that's pretty much it...oh and loves raisins. anything new i try he just spits it out. doesn't like brocolli, only likes carrots if they are shredded.

he likes meals consisting of sweetcorn/peas/potatoes with chicken/meat diet included, likes pasta, loves lasagne, and enjoys curries, he is a fairly good eater...except is fruit intake is concerning me.

both dh and i do try to eat fruit in front of him, apples, bananas, pineapple, strawberries, but to no avail.

aagghh.

any suggestions??

ariba10

He sounds like a very normal boy to me.

LucyB-Bride_to_Be

have you tried giving him fruit as a smoothie drink? you could play it up that its a big boy drink and if he saw you and oh drinking it then he might decide he wanted some? it might be worth a try! Good luck! i know how fussy 2 year olds can be!

ariba10

I have a six foot plus grandson who's only veg intake as a child was Mashed potatoes with salad cream and Lettuce.

Bitsy_Beans

Sounds like my lad TBH. The most I can get down him is bananas and apple (and the latter can be a struggle). He did go through a phase of eating raisins but he prefers them from the little boxes. We bought some candy sticks with Spiderman on the front. being sneaky we put the raisins in there and told him they were spiderman sweets. Might not last long but he ate the whole box!!!
I've tried smoothies but he's not keen.
Luckily he's quite good with veg if its all mixed in with other things.

cte1111

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as he is getting enough calories, and you keep offering him a varied diet, he will be OK in the long run. Toddlers (and older children) go through fads. Try not to show him that you are anxious about his food intake, as that seems to be what really gives kids food phobias.

It sounds like he does eat a few fruit and veg, so that's good for his age. You could alway try chucking different vegetables in his pasta sauce. Fruit juice is also good, my kids like it best out of the little packs with a straw on.

AllyS

Dont worry. I have never liked fruit and I dont think I ever will - it all tastes sour to me. I will eat most veg and salad veg.

As long as he is having a kind of healthy diet, please do not worry. At one point my son would only eat fish fingers, waffles and carrots. His tastes are a little more varied now. Just keep on offering him diff food and he may surprise you one day

Doozergirl

I'd just continue to offer but not make any fuss if he doesn't eat it. Eventually he will start to eat things that are normal to him - not that you can make them like everything, but keeping it available will help increase what he eats.

And just try to up his vegetable intake. You can grate carrot into sauces, especially for curries, lasagne etc without it being noticeable at all but the goodness is there. I don't know if beans count towards five a day but I know they're good for you and packed with protein so I often put different types of beans in food as well and my kids are happy to eat it - chickpeas into curries is nice.

tori.k

my youngest has issues with food (he has reflux) peas is the only veg he will eat, he is small for his age (11 but in 6/7 clothes) the gp has never worried about his eating habits,as his bloods have always been fine, i do give him a kids muilt-vit for my peace of mind and he will drink pure oj, but since you lad is eating veg i wouldnt worry to much his tastebuds will change as he gets older

savingqueen

My 2.5 year is exactly the same. He will rarely eat a couple of nibbles of carrotts but will eat corn on cob and potatoes in any form. He eats bananas, raisins and those little bags of yoghurt covered dried fruit like strawberries & raspberries and drinks smoothies so I'm not as worried as I used to be. Finely chopped veg in things like spag bol, fish pie & shepheres pie also fine, its just plain veg and fruit thats impossible to get him to eat. My eldest son 5 years old eats tons of fruit/veg including salad so that's makes me feel better, that we aren't a really unhealthy family, just have a fussy toddler.

Try not to worry too much and just keep on trying out new things with fruit/veg in and see if he will eat any of them. I didn't want to go down the "hidden" veg route but if my son eats it like that, its better that not eating it at all! I've tried all the "tricks" like making funny faces with fruit, getting him to help me cook eg homemade pizza but he just picks off the veg when its cooked so that didn't work for me.

Good luck!

Amastix

Sounds exactly like my almost 2 and a half yr old son, and most other toddlers I know!!!

We don't make a big deal out of it, but I do like him to eat what I consider to be a reasonable portion of veg with his dinner before he gets a pudding (which normally contains fruit). If he doesn't eat the veg, as long as he's still done reasonably well with his dinner he'll still get the pudding.

We now say to him that vegetables and fruit help him get bigger, and he'll sit in his high chair, chomp a piece of broccoli and say 'mummy, i got bigger', we praise him and agree, and he'll carry on with it then...

For him, peas go down better if lightly squashed, 2 different types of veg with dinner help him make a choice, sometimes he'll even eat both! Ketchup is a compromise that encourages him to eat vegetables, and dinner full stop (he is fussy with everything!)

Fruit is another story - he prefers whole apples to sliced, won't eat peaches, plums, citrus, but loves strawberries, bananas, and melon. Loves dried fruit, so in a normal day he'll have a small handful of raisins or sultanas in the morning, and in the afternoon he'll have a couple of dried dates or apricots. He's often better with cooked fruit - stewed apple stirred in with porridge, or rhubarb crumble, homemade flapjacks with fresh fruit and dried.