To think most kids hardly eat any fruit and veg

I work in a nursery. For snack, the children eat watermelon, apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries, cucumber, and pineapple.

Most of them only eat sweetcorn and peas for veg though.

My youngest loves almost all fruit. Much less keen on veg though will eat salad veg like cucumber and carrot sticks- hates most cooked veg except peas and corn. I think that's fairly common though her bestie won't eat any veg and the only acceptable fruits are apples and grapes. She does have lots of sensory issues .

My eldest would eat pretty much all fruit or veg but if crisps or biscuits were on offer he'd make a beeline for those first. I think I would have done as a child too.

I think it's natural for kids not to be keen on veg as a lot of it has a bitter undertone which humans are programmed to be suspicious of initially. In my day we were made to eat our veg which I don't agree with, though I think kids should be encouraged to try and retry as their palate develops. My eldest was astounded to find he suddenly liked olives in his mid teens. But a lot of parents now will accept the first no as permanent. I'm not saying that's right or wrong but it may explain a higher rate of veg refusal these days.

My DD is 21 now and eats pretty much anything but when she was little she wouldn't eat fruit at other people's houses. She was really fussy about varieties and optimum ripeness. She's still more of a veg person than a fruit as an adult.

She did spend a lot of time at her best friend's house as a kid and as a consequence eats much hotter curries than her siblings as bf's Dad didn't hold back on the spice in his cooking - even for tiny tots. She ate those curries but would definitely have politely declined an apple!

I wouldn’t think a play date was a prime example of what kids eat. All of mine eat a decent variety of fruit and veg (fussiest one eats the most). When their mates come round they usually go get their own food and it’ll be pizza or nuggets which we don’t typically eat a lot of.

Last time Dd had a sleepover they ate loads of fruit.

ND children may have aversions to fruit and not have afrid. My ND child won’t eat fruit that doesn’t look perfect (tbh I’m similar) and if she has eg a strawberry that tasted bad it’ll put her off them
for a while.

Dc1 will eat 5 a day naturally. Loves both fruit and veg. Dc2 will eat it if put in front of them but wouldn’t choose fruit themselves over a bag of crisps. Dc3 I ensure eats fruit with breakfast, has a snack plate when they’re back from school with some fruit and veg on and then has 2 different types of veg with dinner. They would also have some fruit after dinner (and then an ice cream 😂).

My DS2 eats mountains of fruit. He is also vegetarian. I have stopped buying berries because the punnet is finished before it comes out of the shopping bag and it's too expensive. I don't think its great because of the sugar content so I've tried to restrict him to 3 pieces a day which he has never stuck to. His immune system is some kind of miracle though so now I let him get on with it!

Most kids seem to love fruit.
I had a punnet of cherries yesterday and they were demolished by kids here on a play date, even the one that asked me what they were. Veg is more hit or miss. But most kids seem to eat cucumber, cherry tomatoes or peppers.

My son has some dietary needs which means he can only eat very small portions of fruit and veg and has to completely avoid some such as berries, broccoli & grapes.

He can eat apples, bananas, carrots, cucumbers.

Generally, I feel like fruit is a popular choice with kids but veg, not so much.

Always have a fruit platter out for play dates always gets demolished. I remember one DC when my eldest was little absolutely demolished my fruit bowl, she just would not stop eating the fruit.

That's really odd... I wouldn't buy berries for playdates, way too expensive for us.

At the moment, a single watermelon cut in slices is perfect. Quite cheap and plentiful.

Maybe that was my mistake then but he did say he doesn't like fruit. I'm a bit of a beige eater myself and find the textures of some fruits a bit wrong, citrus fruits in particular. I love the taste of citrus but the textures are gross to me.

My child wouldn't eat fruits that had been mixed together, but he might eat them separately.

i can see why fruit and veg is avoided you can’t guarantee what you are going to get. In one punnet of strawberries you can get so much variation. Sweets and chocolate are consistent

I've met one kid that wouldn't eat any fruit but most kids will eat most fruits. I made a fruit salad with about 5 diff fruits and the kid wouldn't eat any of them. 😂
I find if you give them fruit first and sweets/chocolate later they will demolish the fruit. Give them sweets first and they don't want the healthy stuff after.

All my kids and foster kids eat loads of fruit especially strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and the red seedless grapes. I buy a punnet of grapes and it's gone the same day. Same with raspberries. I have to buy 2 punnets of them if I want any. They have frozen fruit smoothie everyday too. They eat vegetables too. I think if you have always given them from when they are tiny they will eat them.

I disagree. Most kids I know who are fussy eat a lot of fruit. Fruit is obviously sweet and full of natural sugar so it's not common that children turn it down. I have a toddler who is picky. Conversations at toddler group are all about how the kids will eat fruit but not much else. Vegetables are indeed harder to get into my child!

Sorry, my kid loves both fruit and veg, and so do the majority of her friends. She goes through phases with both, obviously, but doesn’t exclude them entirely.

This is the complete opposite from what I've experienced, especially with young girls. We put out choices of foods and they always go for the fruit platter, which we have to continually top up.

Not to be sexist, just again my experience, the boys do tend to go for the hot dogs, crisps, which the girls to too but only one!

Have a ND child who refuses fruit and veg so I have to grate it into meals, he will only ever go for the burgers etc.

Honestly, put out out a huge platter of so many fruits and crudités and the girls gasped in amazement and ate them all! Xxx

I haven’t noticed this. Good consumption of fruit and veg (esp fruit) in our house and respectable with guests. What I will say is, I wouldn’t judge what a child eats as a ‘guest’ as what they’re normally like. My children would lean towards treats in other people’s homes as I don’t have many in our cupboard. For some children being at a play date can be a bit like a party where they may overdose on some of the good stuff when their parents aren’t around.

But what else did you have on offer, OP? If these kids come from households where chocolate bars/biscuits/cake are seldom to be had (which is increasingly likely), they will opt for what they don't have at home.

It's likely those kids have fruit and veg all the time at home. If 'treat' food is given as an option, they'll take it.

I had 3 3 year olds here at the weekend and they ate about £12 of berries in about 45 seconds and then ate an entire water melon.

In my experience everyone dislikes a thing or two but will eat a range of other things. My small people for example enjoy peppers, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and lettuce/spinach. We recently went to a friend's and were served courgette, celery, olives, beetroot and mushrooms which had limited success with my children. But I've had those kids at mine and they didn't like the peppers and cucumber. It's probably a little of what you know/are used to.

I usually have a plate of veg out whilst I'm prepping dinner so if anyone comes in hungry they can snack on veg sticks to keep them going. They feel like they got a sneaky pre-dinner snack, I got additional veg into the smalls. Win.

Saying that to agree with someone up thread, if my two are at a party or someone else's house they're usually far too busy to eat properly unless I'm there encouraging them. They often come back so hungry!! So may also be a bit of that?

We regularly meet with friends! Today for example there were sweets, biscuits, ice lollies as well as peppers, cucumbers, melon, apple, blueberries & strawberries. Of course they all had a sweetie or two or 5 (haribo) but ALL apples, strawberries, peppers, cucumbers and blueberries were demolished. Some had a biscuit, some didn’t!

We always always bring fruit because it’s the thing most of them eat!

My 3rd child absolutely loves his fruit and veg! He could probably go vegetarian if necessary. My older 2 not so much...

My DD11 doesn’t eat any fruit, and the only veg she tolerates are peas and baby corn (she hates them but will eat them).

My DS7 adores fruit and veg. His favourites include brocoli, cauliflower, green beans... and pretty much all fruit!

They were raised the same way but DD has ARFID and DS doesn't. DD can't eat/touch fruit or veg. DS eats them before anything else in his meal!