To think most kids hardly eat any fruit and veg

[Mummabear04]

I've just noticed that when I have kids round for play dates that loads of them will not eat any fruit or veg snacks. I understand not everyone will like everything but there are so many kids who will refuse apples, strawberries, grapes and I just find it mad. None of these kids have AFRID or any other needs. They always ask for sweets and chocolate which is fine and I don't mind giving them some but AIBU to think that most kids don't really eat any fruit or veg?

My eldest only eats strawberries and grapes fruit wise but she likes all types of vegetables. I can't think of any veg she won't eat.
My other two DC love fruit and vegetables. I have to restock on fruit every couple of days.

Mine cost me a fortune in fruit and veg 🫠😂

They’ll eat the standard fare like apples and bananas if that’s all that’s in the bowl…..but they’d much prefer the pricey fruit like berries and watermelon.
It’s also not unheard of to find my DS munching on a whole carrot like a donkey 🫠😂
When they have friends over, I usually set out a party tray with all the usual things my DCs would eat for a snack - grapes, blueberries, apple slices, carrot sticks, breadsticks etc

One of my DC would eat fruit all day long and likes a wide range of veg.

My other one has texture issues so won't eat any fruit, veg or salad with a skin on. He won't eat peeled fruit either. This is since weaning when he used to pass his brother the peas and berries! He loves steamed broccoli, carrots and cauliflower though and has just discovered mushrooms. He will drink a smoothie and loves pasta sauce so I do a lot of blending. I've tried to branch out with sweet potato etc but he doesn't like it.

I struggle to think of portable snacks for him though as easy fruit and veg like cucumber, peppers, apples and bananas are all a no.

So when he goes to someone's house he won't eat a plate of cucumber, peppers or cut up fruit but he will drink it in a smoothie or have it in a cooked sauce as part of a meal.

This has never been my experience...but then as soon as they were back from school (i.e. ravenous), I would make a plate full of crudites and chopped fruit/nuts. Sugary stuff after dinner only.

@TeeBee I did that too when mine were young and it worked brilliantly to encourage them to eat a wide range of veg. Wouldn't work for all children of course.

There was a thread on here a while back with responses saying don't bother with fruit for a party of 1-3yo, and I was just baffled. All the toddlers I know demolish fruit, especially strawberries and melon.

I've got a bramble producing lots of blackberries in this weather, but will I get to make a pie? Bollocks I will, my son comes home from nursery and shouts BERRIES at the garden.

One of my DC eats basically anything, the other is fussy. The latter one has never eaten fruit that I can recall. They get given the same food, sat the same food as us…I eat a lot of fruit, so does DH (he eats essentially anything). Said DC just doesn’t like it.

I was (am?) a fussy eater over certain things and if there’s one thing I know it’s that trying to force food on kids doesn’t work and creates negative connotations around food.

My DD 5 seems to live on cucumber and strawberries but then I nearly fainted on Monday when my DS 11 actually helped himself to an apple!

Same!

Until recently my 3.5 year old wouldn’t touch melon, now she will nibble on watermelon but I certainly wouldn’t she likes it. However she would turn into a strawberry if I let her! 😂

My Gdcs eat loads of bananas, strawberries, blueberries, melon, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sliced peppers (red and yellow) and carrot sticks if with hummus. And mango, though that’ll be less often.

Of course they like crap like Haribos, too, if, anyone offers them.

I think it was worse in the 70s and 80s, kids lived off sugar then. At least there are vitamins and fibre in fruit, (even if it is still mainly sugar!).

Veg maybe not, but fruit tends to have gone down very well with my DC's friends. Last playdate I did a rainbow fruit platter (inspired by Megan herself!) and this was a huge hit - they fell upon it like jackals.

Maybe you should have kept your snout out?

I think at parties/play dates when kids think stuff like cake/crisps/sweets on offer they tend to eat that rather than healthier stuff. Mine eat loads of fruit/salad/veg but at parties i don’t force it they can eat what they want as i know they eating healthily rest of the time. So maybe the children you invited round are thinking at home we get healthy stuff let’s wait for the stuff Xs mum will offer?!

Sorey but i always laugh inside to mums who make comments at parties of if i feed my child healthy things etc and i just think well if usually they eating healthily a random party food day will not cause any harm!!

My Gdcs, Gds especially, will devour almost any number of bananas, and grapes don’t last long, either. Cut up red and yellow peppers (not green ones) are popular, too.

The DC I know eat fruit and veg. However if a request for sweets or chocolate results in that being given, they will request it over fruit and veg. As has been the case forever and will no doubt be the case forever more.

My kids eat fruit and veg, one of them doesn't really eat much fruit but loves veg like carrots and broccoli and one doesn't eat as much veg but loves fruit. I guess it depends if they are given it much at home but some kids just might not like it

Mine don't eat enough and it's a huge battle. I've tried hiding things in sauces but my youngest knows and then won't eat it. The only vegetable he will eat at a push is carrots, he will eat apples and strawberries but no other fruit.

He won't eat rice, eggs, jacket potatoes, tuna, pork, lamb, duck, brown bread, fish apart from the chippy fish. The list goes on and I dread marking dinners every day because he eats the same crap every day. He also won't touch any multi vitamin!

His brother is similar but he's got better as he's got older. More willing to try new foods, will eat a bit more variety too.

I don't have a clue where it went wrong, I made all of their food as babies, they used to eat everything I made from all kinds of fruit puree to chunky homemade things like risotto. They ate salmon, mushrooms, eggs...now there is no chance.

My husband is as fussy as my youngest and they are very similar. The eldest is more like me and I can see him growing out of his fussiness as he gets older. I eat most things, I won't touch mushrooms, some kinds of seafood and I can't stand olives no matter how hard I try.

It will pass, probably. I have a fussy eater and I was a fussy eater. I got better from around 12/13 onwards and from 18 ate almost everything.

If it doesn't pass... well, no one really cares about what adults eat. I don't look over at my friend's meals when they're out and "police" their food intake. It's up to adults to look after their nutritional requirements. And I find that the present generation of teens are more clued up about health and eating than I was at that age.

Rather than a problem to solve, it's really about surviving the next few years without wanting to gouge your eyes out from boredom every time you step foot in the kitchen.

In other people’s house things wrapped up in packets can seem safer than chopped up things that might be dirty or unripe or off