To think that kids like fruit?

[BrittaPerry]

Fruit is sweet. Kids like sweet things. So, kids like fruit.

Yes?

Just sick of people being 'amazed' at children asking for fruit, and saying they are really good.

Of course my children nag for apples! They are tasty! If anything, I have to stop them eating too much as it gives them bad bellies.

This isn't boasting, it's just a fact.

I'm just a bit baffled. I'm a bit pushy in other ways, but this doesn't need pushyness because, well, who doesn't like sweet stuff?

Tethers but do you buy organic crack?

I think the pediatrician who saw DS a few months back summed it up well when he said "I don't believe parents who say their children won't eat any fruit or veg, they are all so different it is impossible to dislike them all"

I am lucky in the sense DS will eat pretty much any fruit or veg and can often be found walking around town eating a pear as his snack of choice, but even the fussiest eater can normall be persuaded to eat some sort of fruit/veg

For those of you who have children who won't eat fruit, can I ask why?

What do they have as alternative? Genuine questions, not a wind up. Promise.

I have never had anybody react in amazement to my children requesting fruit, or other healthy options (DD loves salad leaves, olives, raw carrot, cucumber and is known to nag for these too). I am a bit surprised at how many people express surprise that my children like water.

They honestly do - they drink gallons of it, icy cold from the fridge, so I don't keep fruit juice. I have encountered a lot of people who are surprised by this?

Horses for courses.

There's not much fruit I like. I eat it because it's good for me, but if I never ate fruit again I wouldn't be that bothered. Both offspring eat a wide variety though. But.... choosing an apple over chocolate (if it's a free choice) is just odd!!!!

As I said, DD doesn't eat fruit. She tend to take yoghurt in for lunch at school (I know it's fruit) or a couple of digestives.
I've just remembered, she will eat mango. Unfortunately for her, they don't grow on trees in Warrington, but now we've moved back to SE Asia they do. She can have as many as she wants.
She doesn't drink pop or squash, she only really drinks water.

Ds1 is 17 now and the only fruit he likes is pineapple or strawberrys.

Ds 2 is 9 and likes grapes, apples and bananas

Ds3 is 18 months and likes all fruit apart from melon

Ds1 and 2 are fussy with the veg they like too now. I'm always surprised at little ones that don't like any fruit but not older children.

iMoniker - DS2 has Autism, and has texture issues with fruit. He literally ate NO fruit for eight and a half years. However, give him a plate full of any vegetable, and he would eat the whole lot. He eschews tomatoes and cucumbers because they "feel fruity", hence doesn't really 'do' salad, but any 'dinner' veg is fair game. A full head of broccoli? Fine. A plateful of peas? Fine. An apple? Disgusting to him.

He just doesn't have a 'sweet' tooth. He voluntarily chooses savoury food over sweet, and always has. Plateful of sausage rolls, or a plateful of party rings, and he will choose the sausage rolls every time. Plateful of mixed fruit, or a plateful of mixed veg, and he'll choose the mixed veg every time!

I think you are boasting, just a tiny bit!

I have one child who loves fruit and one who hasn't touched any fruit at all since he was 18 months old - he's 11 now. No idea why, he just says he doesn't like it. Which I think is bizarre- I love fruit, and I just don't understand how anyone can not like all fruit- there are so many different types. But he is adamant.

And inhale to say that I have come across far more people who are amazed to hear about ds's fruit aversion than dd's fruit addiction!

I just give him extra veg at dinner time compared to the other DC's, to ensure that he gets his 5-a-day as he doesn't eat fruit, unlike his two older siblings, and his younger sibling.

3/4 of my DC's eat fruit like there's no tomorrow, 1/4 doesn't. So it's not down to them being fed crap, or fruit not being available, it's purely down to individuality.

DD hates peas with a passion, yet the rest of us will happily eat platefuls of them. She has sweetcorn as she eats that.

DS1 will not touch rhubarb, even in a crumble, with a bargepole. Any other fruit vanishes if it in the same room as him.

DS3, well, I've yet to find a fruit he won't eat, and the only vegetable he isn't keen on is aubergine.

All children are different, and all have different likes and dislikes, so I think YABU, not every adult likes calamari, or snails, or oysters, not every child likes fruit!

I am a fruitaholic.

I don't really eat vegetables - Peas, sweetcorn, carrots.

I have always given my DS a wide range of veg including broccoli, cauliflower, swede etc.

I never have let him know that I hate vegetables. However - he only like carrots and sweetcorn. I have tried to make him eat veg.

Fruit however - he can't get enough of. He LOVES it, just like me and would be quite happy eating only fruit.

Couthy - tomatoes and cucumbers are fruit, your ds is right to think they're 'fruity'

imoniker my non fruit eater is because of texture/sensory type issues with the fruit i think (he does have some sn) what does he have as an alternative? well since he will eat banana, then loads and loads of banana, and yoghurt.

I have one child that would eat her way through the whole fruitbowl and several punnets of strawberries and then ask for more. I have another child who is a fruit refuser and will eat only a very limited selection of fruit, grapes and strawberries and an apple with bribery. He will however request a bowl of peas instead!!

YABU

It's very straightforward. The parents of children who happily eat fruit won't comment or think it's impressive that your kids eat it.

The parents of kids who won't eat fruit are impressed, because in all probabililty they have been trying in vain to get their kids to eat it for years. Like me, they have probably presented their children with innumerable different types of fruit in a multitude of different ways, to be met with either a flat refusal to even try it, or partially chewed fruit spat out in disgust, or one mouthful taken and pronounced vile.

I love fruit, always have done, and I always have loads of different fruit in the house. The kids see me eating it, and I have offered it to them from the weaning stage onwards. Whilst they will both tolerate fruit purees, smoothies, that sort of thing, neither of them will countenance eating a piece of fresh fruit in its natural form.

Now I know that those of you whose kids like fruit will secretly think this must be my fault, something I've done wrong etc, but I can assure you I have tried every possible angle on this. As have most parents with picky eaters. And that is why we are impressed (and downright envious) when we see kids who will choose fruit over chocolate.

Anyone who says kids can be made to eat things if presented in the right way, told it's all there is, given positive examples to watch etc etc has never looked after a fussy eater. So, think yourselves lucky and enjoy having one less thing to worry about!

I, like the OP, get this.

We have to hide the fruit in the house in the highest cupboards - which is a bloody pain with out this and we get fed up with the whining and even if we stand that the younger two will sneakily help themselves despite this being discouraged.

People go on about how lucky we are.

The ares is a socially deprived one with a lot of people on very poor diets so I assume it that. It is worry though how many 'professionals' seem to think eating fruit = health eating - ignore the high sugar content and the need for all the other food types.

for ImagineJL. Are you me?

It's quite common to be amazed where I live. My mum is all 'xxx is amazing always asking for fruit and not sweets!

I'm like well it is pretty sweet and maybe it's because her mother didn't use chocolate as 'chocolate medicine to make all pain go away' mother dearest

munches on a mars bar

Excellent post by ImagineJL
iMoniker *For those of you who have children who won't eat fruit, can I ask why?

What do they have as alternative? Genuine questions, not a wind up. Promise.*
I have no idea why my middle one one eat fruit, except she is, and has been since out of toddlerism (when she ate everything presented, same as her siblings did) a very fussy eater. She doesn't have anything as an alternative, she just says 'No Thankyou'. However, she only eats about 2 types of biscuit, about two types of cake, it's not that she's choosing something "bad" over something "good". She's fussy with veg, with main courses, with puddings, etc.etc.etc.

On one point I do sympathise with none fruit eaters, is that I only like my fruit when it's "just right" - so often fruit is either not quite ripe enough, so a little bit hard, or the whole punnet ripened together, so the stuff in the bottom has gone squidgy, or it's bruised (apples, pears, bananas, etc) or wrinkled (grapes, cherries). I can see it's quite off putting if you aren't that bothered in the first place. Then there's the 'mess' angle. I rarely eat an orange as it's just not practical to eat on the go, even though I like the taste, so I reach for a ceral bar or something instead if I'm working or driving or doing anything else I might be doing when I fancy a snack.

I had issues for a while with younger two that spread to eldest with plums because I took them to a playgroup that as a snack gave them exceptionally tart plums as a snack. I tried them - they were so sour I wanted to spit them out - in fact I discretely did.

Took them a long while before they'd try them again - then a slightly different looking type was needed. So I can relate to the 'just right' thing.

I've had a few of the "well trained" comments. TBF my DCs do seem to like fruit more than a lot of their friends (in particular they like a wider range), but I don't know any child who refuses all fruit.

Mine probably eat too much crap as well though. So I can't be too smug :o

All the sugar from all this fruit isn't that great though.... Veg is better!

with ds it is a sensory thing I think, he has poor oro motor skills and is very fussy about textures.

He has fruit purees though, in yoghurt on cereal and the pouches of puree.

I have actually been berated by an interfering old bag older lady in a coffee shop for giving my kids carrot sticks, celery and hummus to snack on (which they asked for!) instead of a cake or cookie. Apparently that made me "mean"

Oh, bloody hell, smug "oh, my child just loves fruit- I don't say she can't have sweets, she just doesn't like them" and the casual agism of "interfering old bag" on the same thread. Can I call "House!"?