Fruit and veg for 9 year old

Most importantly, don't stress too much. My brother ate five foods as a small child, my Mum despaired of him. He ended up the tallest in the family and in his 40s is a really good cook.

So there are two ways to go. Firstly, hide fruit and veg in things. So, as well as the smoothies and soup you can blend or grate things into a tomato sauce for pasta so he's eating more veg than he thinks. Or make things like meatballs or fritters with different grated veg. Or you could bake with sweet root veg, you can find recipes for cakes and muffins made with beetroot, carrot, sweet potato. Or old fashioned banana bread might go down well. All filling and a healthier option than the processed food he eats. Loads of sugar and fat but if you're concerned about weight it's a way to get calories in.

The second option is to get him involved in the cooking. Have a long term project where you choose a vegetable he's not keen on cooked in three different ways so he can pick which way is his favourite. Work your way through the alphabet or something. Since texture is an issue then e.g. roasted peppers with the skin removed might go down well (or you could liquidise and make into an alternative pasta sauce which might be even better.).

If he likes chips will he eat potato wedges? What about sweet potato wedges or chips?

Blend veg in to all sauces. Peppers, carrots, toms, spinach, lentils etc etc. Hide it all as best you can.

If he drinks milkshakes put a scoop of protein powder in them.

Try him on HUEL

You can also sneak fruit and veg into cake. Beetroot and chocolate brownies. Or courgette chocolate cake. The trick is to not put much veg in at first, and increase it gradually once he knows and likes the recipe.

Banana bread made with almond flour and dark choc chips, with fresh OJ drizzle icing on top. Carrot cake.

Is he diagnosed with Arfid or just extremely fussy?

How about a banana and blueberry or raspberry milkshake with a scoop of vanilla protein powder in it and whole milk? Blend the ingredients until smooth. Then, if you have to, put it through a sieve to remove any traces of blueberry skin or raspberry seeds.

I even used to peel strawberries so DS would eat them as he hated the texture of the seeds. They outgrow it eventually if you keep offering variety.

I used to puree a lot of veg into spaghetti bol sauce: onions, red and yellow peppers, courgettes, small amounts of spinach, celery and mushroom. With plenty of tomato passata to keep it looking red.

Try petit pois if he'll eat corn. Like peas but smaller so easier to swallow.

Can you get fruit and veg smoothies or make your own? That’s what I do for my picky son. I know picky kids until their teens / adults

I would be a bit worried that it's a lot of processed food and not sure if there's enough calories in there. I would grate cheese onto everything and turn that smoothie into more of a milkshake.

Do you think he would be more keen to try other stuff if he helped you to cook it? Could start with a homemade version of the breaded chicken.

Can you get some veg into the smoothie?

Also ginger, turmeric, garlic - all anti-inflammatory, how can you get those into the foods he does eat?

And keep offering a range of foods so there's always something he will eat and something he can try at mealtimes.

Homemade soup? A stick blender makes it really easy to make it smooth and you can include a huge range of fruit, veg and pulses.