Baby won’t eat any fruit or vegetables.

[ProfessorSaf]

My baby is 14 months old. Despite offering her fruit and vegetables every meal, she won’t eat any. She has tried some in the past, but now point blank refuses anything green or anything that grows in the ground! Her dad is exactly the same, he only eats ‘beige’ foods.

My older child, though fussy now at 9 years old, used to eat everything as a baby so this is totally new to me.

She will eat fruits and vegetables if they are disguised, such as pasta with a tomato sauce, or yoghurt mixed with fruit puree. But offer her a tomato or a strawberry? Nope. She just chucks it on the floor!

Has anybody been through similar? I’m worried about her nutritionally.

Yes - both i out g live were fussy at that age but I got the veg into them via tomato sauce which we batch cooked at home.

Our tomato sauce contains tinned tomatoes, puree, passata - plus celery, courgettes, red peppers, carrots, onions. Blitz it up and they have no idea.

Keep giving her the hidden fruits and vegetables as this will get her palate used to different flavours. And keep offering fruits and vegetables at every meal, don't make a fuss if she rejects it and don't make a big fuss if she tries it either. Just persevere and try not to worry about it, she's still very little. Sit and eat with her and let her see you eating a wide variety of fruit and veg. Most importantly, don't make food a battleground.

Mine is as fussy as the day is long, but will eat anything puréed! We have red sauce, orange sauce, green sauce, red soup, orange soup, green soup…. You get the picture!! I was a very fussy eater as a kid, my parents were always patient and relaxed with me, no pressure, and now I eat every fruit and vegetable under the sun! Taking the same relaxed approach with my DC - as long as nutrients are getting into them somehow, it’ll be ok! I also add vitamin d drops to water for them. Is it a texture or taste thing for your child do you know?

DD1 ate everything as a baby.

Dd2 refused all solids until she was about 9 months when big sister fed her a chocolate button. then she thought she might eat.
She had days she ate nothing, and days she ate a small amount. The only thing she consistently ate well was tinned sweetcorn. I think her diet has probably gone downhill from there 😆
She's now 20 and tall and slender - and still has a dreadful diet but at least she feeds herself now.

Just give her what she'll eat. There's no point stressing about it. I ate nothing but eggs 🫣 for years, and grew up to be ok.

My child was like that and I used to make tomato/veg pasta and cauliflower/broccoli cheese a lot.

I wouldn't blend sauces up so the veg is completely hidden, just because my son still recognised bits of pepper and courgettes in pasta and now at 8 he eats raw pepper chopped up, for example. I'm not sure he would have transitioned to eating stuff on its own if he never saw it in the sauces if that makes sense.

One of mine was like that. He must have gone the best part of 3 months refusing to eat anything but pasta with ketchup once. He's a chef now..... & 6'2" at a healthy weight..... & fit as a fiddle. Don't worry

My youngest son till he was around 13 months would eat anything going, then he decided he didn't like food, for a whole year he only ate his cereals at breakfast , yoghurts and bacon even putting the bacon in bread didn't work he took the bread off and only ate the filling, then he went to a new childminder don't know to this day what she did but he started eating all foods again, Today he is still a beanpole but eats nearly every food going except prawns

If she'll eat it disgused just keep doing that.

"Her dad is exactly the same, he only eats ‘beige’ foods."

She is copying the behaviour that he is modelling.

I eat a variety of foods around her, as does my son. But she does adore her dad, he’s her definite favourite, so it wouldn’t surprise me!

Thank you everyone. I will continue with my hidden fruits and veggies regime, hopefully she will start to eat them properly in the future.

Keep doggedly offering a wide variety. Its a long game, it can take months for them to (for example) leave it on then plate,then more time before they consider touching/licking etc.

You have to do it now so they actually eat some when 5.

At 14m DD was terrible. I just kept offering and offering and offering.
Now shes 5 and eats broccoli, peas, courgette sometimes green beans & asparagus. Spinach in sauces.

She will eat carrot, red pepper, yellow pepper, beetroot, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes, cucumber

She will eat bananas, pears if peeled,apples, strawberries, raspberry, mango, melon, blackberries

If you had told me this when she 18m old i would have cried.

My child is similar (better with veg than fruit) but only through us being very very insistent she tried things from about age 4. You can't really reason with much younger children. We modelled excellent habits and she was offered fruit daily, often twice or more, and would not let it pass her lips. The advice people give is often to just keep offering it and eventually they will try but this was definitely not true for our child. I'm glad we persevered though because I feel at age 5 she eats at least some variety.

All you can do is keep offering it and don't make any comment on whether it gets eaten or not. Make lots of fruit and veg a normal part of every meal and eat together so they see you enjoying it. Also avoid snacks so they are properly hungry - that makes the biggest difference to what mine will eat.

Banana is beige

Pears are beige