Getting DD to eat fruit....

[newg]

DD is 14 months old and is eating all finger foods now.....but the only fruit she will eat is bananas! I can put any veggie down in front of her and she'll eat it....but strawberries, peaches, pears..forget it.........I thought maybe she didn't like picking up slimy stuff...but she doesn't even want it in her mouth if I try to feed it to her...
Now...if I blend it..put it on a spoon...she will gobble it down....so I'm still feeding her some jar fruit so she'll get the nutrients from it....

I know it can take up to 10 tries before a baby/toddler will like a food.....and I know textures can be an issue for some........but she likes to pick up and eat bananas, which are slimy....and she'll eat veggies, some of which are slimy......and she likes the taste of the fuit if its mashed up!

anyone else having this problem?

[DebbieJ]

Have you tried watermelon? I used to crush up soem cherrios and then coat the pieces of fruit so they were easier to pick up. My ds LOVED it.

[wendibird22]

I can remember DD going through this stage and I did try the crushed up cheerio trick with some success. It was a phase that she got over and now loves fruit and despises veggies. :duh:

[JBaxter]

IF you dont want to mess with crushing cereal use infant rice ( or similar) cereal to dust your fruit. It makes them less slippery

[CiderLogan]

I also tried the rice cereal trick, but we usually used wheat germ for the coating of the fruit pieces. Worked great!

[SnuggleBuggles]

You can try one of the mesh baby feeders too since she won't have to touch them.

Beth

[hillview]

Maybe offer that first? I usually offer what I want them to eat first.
/hillary

[newg]

I got her to eat one piece of strawberry at lunch and then later on at snack.....gave it to her first.....she ate one, then she threw it and then threw a fit 'till I gave her something else......I think I'm going to try coating it with baby oat celreal (what's in the pantry at the moment)...I now remember doing that in the beginning with the bananas...

[o_mom]

What about apples? Will she go for those? I usually peel raw apples and slice very thin at that age. You could also grate the raw apples. What about cooked fruit, like applesauce? You can buy a big jar of unsweetened applesauce for a fraction of what the 'baby' applesauce costs, BTW.

ETA: Have you tried any freeze dried fruits? TJs and Whole Foods both carry them - usually strawberries, bananas, etc. Gerber has some too and Walmart in the baby food section has a generic version.

I will say, that fruit is not a 'must have' if she is eating plenty of other foods, including veggies.

[zag95]

Maybe try dried fruit? My dd (15 mos) loves to eat dried cherries, frozen blueberries, dried plums, fresh pears, peach and apple.... along with banana.

She has also had strawberries.... and a little kiwi-

Has she seen you eat the fruit? Maybe you need to model how "yum yum" the fruit is!!!:wink2:

I'm hoping to introduce more soon- we are coming into melon season!

GL!

[tiapam]

DD is 14 months old and is eating all finger foods now.....but the only fruit she will eat is bananas! I can put any veggie down in front of her and she'll eat it....but strawberries, peaches, pears..forget it.........I thought maybe she didn't like picking up slimy stuff...but she doesn't even want it in her mouth if I try to feed it to her...
Now...if I blend it..put it on a spoon...she will gobble it down....so I'm still feeding her some jar fruit so she'll get the nutrients from it....

I know it can take up to 10 tries before a baby/toddler will like a food.....and I know textures can be an issue for some........but she likes to pick up and eat bananas, which are slimy....and she'll eat veggies, some of which are slimy......and she likes the taste of the fuit if its mashed up!

anyone else having this problem?

I wouldn't classify this as a problem. For one thing, she is still very young. A lot of parents would think your kid is a great eater. And even after you try 10 times, or a dozen, she *still *might not eat what you want. I don't see anything wrong with still feeding her jarred fruit if she will eat it and that is what you want her to eat.

[newg]

Thanks for all the tips!!
I think I have tried just about all of them at one point in the past months...except the dried fruit...I think I will stop at whole foods tomorrow and pick some up.
I love fruit...so I'm always eating/sharing her fruit with her......but I am going to make sure I model it more......especially now, she loves to "share" with me...so maybe we can share fruit.

I did some cheerio dust and that worked a little bit........I've also tried frozed and fresh fruit in the mesh bags........

I'm not too concerned that this is a problem.....just wondering if this was a common thing at this age........and wanted to pick your awesome mommy brains for some new ideas......
so thank you thank you!!!

[srhs]

Just had to chime in that my 12 mo is the opposite! Gobbles down all fruit but throws most veggies overboard--veggies that he gobbled up back in puree-time. I just keep putting a variety on the tray.

[sste]

For some reason we had great luck with blueberries but ONLY if they were cut in half. Other fruits I can get DS to eat some but not alot. Sometimes having the fruit on my plate first helps and then "sharing" some with DS. Also, I try to serve fruit first, then veggie, then DS's favorites of chicken or ravioli. Maybe you can aim for one serving solid fruit per day and one serving fruit puree, unsweetened applesauce, or baby yogurt and fruit puree.