My teens barely eat any fruit/veg. Normal?

[Balaur]

Dd16, ds13. Dd is asd and has always been fussy but it's reached a new low! I have plenty of fruit and veg available but they just choose not to eat it. Dd is practically vegetarian but barely eats vegetables . I suppose I'm just looking for solidarity from other parents of teens. They're both normal weight etc.

Needy bump. I'm really feeling a bit down about this.

I limit other sugars and let them have a child size smoothie a day. Would that help? Multivitamins are important too.

Normal for boys on the spectrum to be particular about food.
As a teen I hated boiled veg but are Mediterranean roast veg and ratatouille. Tell them you are happy to pander and provide the veg they want so long as they eat some.

Mine don't eat much fruit unless it's prepared for them

Veg works better - they love things like stir fries which I overload with veg. Pasta sauces, bolognaise etc are easy to shove loads of extra veg in too.

Our two are the same. Hardly eat any veg. But I do make a veg loaded tomato sauce which I put into whatever I can, and they have multivitamins and a tiny bit of actual veg. One is one of the tallest in the class and both very healthy so I don't think it's causing them harm.

I used to work in a country where a platter of fresh fruit is often served after dinner in a restaurant, or at home. Everything was peeled and uniformly chopped. Displayed beautifully. I can honestly say I tucked into that every time, whereas barely ate an apple for years before. I was an occasional banana or tangerine with breakfast type of girl. The same for chopped fruit salad in hotels. I always have that for breakfast with yoghurt, but am too lazy to do it at home.

Yes they take multivits.

It's my dd who's on the spectrum Love51, but I take your point.

Doesn't help that neither of them like the sake thing EVER so finding family meals is actually virtually impossible.

I also got a load of frozen fruit for dd, but she goes through phases of making smoothies then gets bored/lazy and stops. I'm trying to encourage her in particular to take more responsibility for making her own food, partly because she's so bloody fussy, but the payoff seems to be she eats a load of processed "vegetarian" crap. I can't win.

Mine is now 15 and, I'm afraid to say, eats anything. However, 9/10 ish were her awful years so I resorted to shameful bribery. We kept a list for a month of every new fruit or veg she tried and the deal was I gave her £1 for each one. She got £17 and discovered a love of aubergine, broad beans and kiwi.

It’s such a worry isn’t it. I have one DC who happily eats fruit and veg and the other, whom I have to present it beautifully to and plead with them to eat it.

My two (including one with ASD) love dried and tinned fruit. It's not exactly the same nutritionally but it's better than not eating it. It's much more consistent for people with sentitive taste and texture issues.

DS1 ASD 15. As well as texture, temperature is a thing with him, so he will eat an apple if it's really cold, ditto carrot. I know your DD is vegetarian but DS1 will only eat meat that's hot.

He recently started going to the shop and I told him to get stuff for his lunch and came back laden with fruit and vegetables to try.

He won't entertain sauces so I generally will be doing something different for him. but I periodically put a small bit on a plate to try. More to make me feel better tbh!

Obviously the temperature is irrelevant with chocolate and biscuits (!)

There are some "processed" vegetarian foods that are better than others. You get a lot of veggie burgers/sausages etc that are filled with actual veggies so if that's her thing, I'd be doing those.

DS (much younger) went off day-to-day fruit for a long time but would happily eat little pots of berries and grapes. Can you make these up and leave in fridge for kids to snack on? He still has these but is back to eating apples, bananas etc too.

Who makes breakfast? I do breakfast smoothies once a week or so. And sometimes buy Innocent smoothies in big bottles and give kids really small glass with breakfast every day.

Also agree with others - there are ways to cook so that lots of veggies are consumed. For DD (much younger, but fussy) we do the standard thing of extra veggies in bolognaise/meatball/tomato pasta sauces. She also loves a roast dinner and will eat the side veggies so we pretty much do a roast chicken every week - often just with new potatoes rather than the faff of roasties.

Not sure on DD's view on health but will she eat salads?

Fajitas are great way to get extra onion/peppers/tomatoes/avocado into a kid.

A friend's kids love eggs so she makes quiches with chopped up veg and leaves in fridge for kids to snack on - broccoli, tomatoes, corn etc.

If you are worried about not getting enough nutrition, then you could look at hidden veg dishes. Fruit and veg are generally better unblitzed but if blitzed gets it into them then better than nothing.
If your dd is eating a largely veggie diet I’d look at making your own falafel and burgers.
Could you make list what they eat and people can offer suggestions for how to sneak veg in. Remember, fruit juice can count for one portion, baked beans, raisins. Even apple in a crumble.

Ach I agree with the laziness point below. It's annoying having to set about peeling, slicing, arranging on plates for a big lump of a 17 year old but they usually eat every scrap. The other sure fire way of getting them to pounce, is to sit down in front of the telly with a plate, a knife, a napkin and an apple or orange, and start preparing it for yourself.

For veg : roasted vegetables are sweeter. You can whizz them up into a sauce for pasta too. My teen likes chickpea/veggie curries and veggie burgers too. And sweetcorn fritters and mock vegetable samosas baked in oven using supermarket fill pastry. Pea and ham soup home made with a ham hock (usually hide celery and courgettes in that). Home made vegetable pizzas as well. Pesto pasta with smoked bacon lardons, peas, broccoli - tastes nicer than it sounds - although it is very green in colour. Shepherd's pie made with lots of lentils and hidden veg.

The veg and fruit averse should love Jan & Feb

DS is fussy. Eats pineapple (fresh), tomatoes (whole), satsumas, apples (if thinly sliced by me), raspberries (off our canes), red grapes (on occasion), and bananas (in a smoothie only). Likes roast cauliflower but no other roast veg. Loves falafel. Eats almost anything in a chilli/curry/bolognaise so I make sure dinner has three serves of veg. So he gets enough but I have to buy what he likes.

If your DD likes processed veggie food then does she like falafel? I buy DS the beetroot ones from Tesco so they have two different veg in them at least.

I still treat them like babies for this. They're very sensible and selfsufficient in many ways, but apart from the one meal a day I cook for them, they'd rarely eat any fruit or veg left to their own devices.

If I ask them if they'd like a fruit snack, they'll say no thanks. If I cut up an apple or some carrot sticks and leave it next to where they're sitting, it mysteriously disappears. Likewise a glass of smoothie.

DD (16) is not a fruit lover (apart from on holiday abroad when she’ll try all sorts at a breakfast buffet 🤣🤣). However she loves veg and always has. Part of this is my ‘dislike’ of fruit so I don’t buy a lot. We do all eat veg and/or salad every day.
I have however purchased a net of satsumas for Christmas just so I can traditionally throw them away in January.

Mine are ok but I do agree about veg loaded pasta sauce. Try also roasted veg past bake or lasagne as that has good flavour and texture.
WOuld they eat grated carrot? Its quite nice raw/mixed with soy sauce. can also be used in cake.

Ds is 14 and has ASD. He’s not a big fan of fruit and veg at all. He’ll eat carrots but only raw, cucumber batons, grapes and apples and tinned mandarin oranges. I make sure he gets a good multivitamin and blend/hide veg in sauces etc. It drives me crazy sometimes as I’ll eat pretty much anything, but have to cook to accommodate him (no lumps of onion in things etc), but I figure he’s healthy enough and I can hardly pin him down and force him to eat stuff. Smoothies are a good idea though.