Toddlers and Fruit

[wagner36]

I've posted on here about this before (when C was younger), but he is 18 months old and he still hate fruit. I can occasionally get him to get a bite or two of applesauce before he starts gagging, and he'll eat fruit-flavored yo-baby (he used to just eat the vanilla...leaving the other flavor for me, yum yum), but that's it.

For about 5 months we've been quietly presenting two fruits at every meal, as well as eating a ton of fruit around him at all times. We do normal fruits (apples, oranges, bananas, melons, etc.), more exotic fruits (pomegranate, papaya, starfuit), canned fruits (manderin oranges) and super sugared-up fruits out of desperation. The parentheticals are just examples, we actually have tried every fruit available in the greater Chicago area. I've even tried juice and smoothies.

I've mixed apples into mashed potatos, tried to let him dip the fruit in yogurt, eat it with toothpicks (usually a winner), but the child HATES it.

We had stopped stressing about it, but yesterday at the ped they still thought it was really weird. Now I feel a bit guilty again, since I suspect the reason why he hates fruit is because i had a HUGE aversion to it during pregnancy and refused to eat it.

Does anyone have any ideas? The ped suggested vitamins, but is fruit that important?? He eats vegetables like a champ (even yucky ones).

Thanks Ladies!

[C99]

Fruit leather? Fruit snacks?

Nate loves Fruit Leather from TJ's. Just be thankful that he eats vegetables; Nate won't *touch* anything green except to feed it to us. Tonight at dinner, he was handing out edamame pods to my husband and me!

[brigmaman]

Tara,
Brig eats about 3 different foods and refuses to try any others. He won't eat fruits (except applesauce) and he won't touch a vegetable. I did eat lots during my pregnancy with him, so I'm not sure that's it in our case. If Charlie is eating a variety of different colored veggies, it seems like he'd be getting enough of the vitamins he needs. Does he eat yogurt with fruit pieces? (Brig has some odd texture aversions and won't eat yogurt with fruit pieces.)

I know you've tried this already, but
Here's a link to another suggested smoothie.
http://www.simplynaturalbooks.com/tips.html

[wreckgirl1]

First of all, if he loves vegetables, that is great! I'd much rather DD eat vegetables than fruits, and you can get pretty much all your vitamins out of a variety of vegetables. It is not that weird, and it is not horrible that he doesn't like fruit. But I understand wanting to continue to expand his food horizons.

My DD has started resisting any new or non-favorite foods, and here is what has worked for us. We usually take _all_ meals and snacks at the table. But if I'm having trouble introducing a new food, I'll bring the food into the living room and start eating it myself (preferably around snack time when she is likely to be a bit hungry). Not offer it to her until she expresses interest, but eat it at her level right next to her toys. Also, if it is a fruit, instead of cutting it up into pieces I keep it whole (eat the apple off the core, peel apart the orange as I eat it). The novelty of it all is more than DD can bear, and she wants a piece of the action. Using this method I can at least get her to try things. I can't make her like it, but at least she gives it a few bites before she decides whether she likes it or not (we have about a 50% success rate). If she doesn't like it after trying it, I can try again in a few weeks. I'd only introduce one new food at a time, maybe only one every few days (and maybe lay off it for a few days - it sounds like it might just be a battle of wills and have nothing to do with the actual fruit).

I've found the form of the fruit to be a big factor, as DD really seems to like taking bites off a bigger piece rather than pick up little pieces of something. She refuses to eat little pieces of apple, but if I take a couple of bites off an apple and hand it to her, she'll eat it for 20 minutes. If I cut a grape in half and hand it to her, forget it, but if I hand her one whole she'll squish the guts into her mouth with glee (else squish the guts onto the table with glee).

HTH

Cynthia

[jd11365]

I thinks it's a question of the vitamins fruit provide. As long as he's getting vitamins from other areas, I'd think he'd be fine IMO. It's like Kayla who doesn't drink milk. I have to just serve other foods/drinks that have the same amount of calcium and vitamin D. So instead of milk, she gets OJ w/ calcium, goldfish w/ calcium, lots of cheese and dairy, broccoli, etc. I also give her vitamins from the health food store...by Schick, the one with no added sugar. You could probably do the same and Charlie would be just fine, but maybe ask the ped for suggestions too.


Good luck!

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
May '03

[miki]

How about the dried fruits from www.justtomoatoes.com ? They are dried until crispy. Maybe he'll think it's a cracker.

But if he eats veggies, you shouldn't worry.

[houseof3boys]

Ryan is particularly picky about canned versus fresh on some fruits. Have you tried the canned versions of stuff (like pears, mandarin oranges, peaches) too in addition to trying the fresh he wouldn't eat? Ryan wouldn't touch canned pineapple with a ten foot poll but devours the fresh. How about oj mixed with milk? That was how we got Ryan to drink milk in the first place (Lori's method :)).

How about frozen fruits like mango and he can just pick them up by himself like a popsicle?

Raisins (does that count?) are a favorite as are dried cranberries around here.

It really does sound like you have tried everything under the sun though. I wouldn't sweat it but just keep offering it or have someone else offer it to him and see if that works. Sometimes if Ryan sees another kiddo eating it, he is more apt to at least try it (of course he spits it right out but at least he tried it).

You're doing great though and that's awesome that he is a veggie lover! :)