is this going to work? being tough about DD eating, please advise...

[been33]

DD is 19 months and is a picky eater but totally refuses to eat fruit, she happily eats pureed fruit but has never eaten a piece of fruit. I desperately want this to change so have tried everything to get to eat fruit, with no luck. So as a last ditch attempt I have taken the tough approach and have given her no snacks at all since breakfast and then offered her little pieces on fruit for lunch, she ate none and has now gone down for her nap with no lunch:( so my plan if to offer her more bits of fruit for the rest of the day in the hope that she will be so hungry she will try some and then if by supper time she has still not had anything, i will give her normal supper, is this going to work do you think or am I just making her really unhappy and making the problem worse, please advise asap!!

I think this is not a good idea!!!! You will have a tired and grumpy baby/toddler.

I would just keep offering the fruit- all different types, and eat fruit in front of her and offer bits of yours and should think she'll eat it soon enough.

You can't force a child to eat something and it doesn't matter in what form she has her fruit, so long as everything you offer her to eat has nutritional value.
I can sort of feel your pain - when DD1 was this age she would eat nothing but yoghurt and I was terrified she would end up on one of those freaky eater shows, but the phase passed and she is now 6 and eats everything (excepty bananas which she loved as a baby).

You need to take a step back from this. Battles over food are draining and pointless, especially for babies. Imagine you REALLY didn't like the taste/texture of custard and someone told you you could only eat custard - you couldn't face it so went to sleep with tummy pains from feeling so hungry. Would that make you want to eat the custard when you woke up??

Does it matter if she doesn't eat fruit? She won't starve without it.

I wouldn't stress it, she will not become malnourished. It takes time but they get there Just keep it on offer. Please don't let her starve rather than feed her something she'll eat

What's wrong with pureed fruit? She can have that for pudding surely?
If you don't like something, you don't like it and this is one battle you will lose.
You really don't want this to escalate into an 'issue' so if this is the worst of her picky eating (and there is much worse out there!) I would leave it alone.

Does she see you enjoying fruit ? How about making a colourful fruit salad and letting her pick out fo your bowl if she is interested . You could blend her some and offer a few pieces whole on the side with yogurt to dip in .

Agree with above advice. My 2yo dd went through an incredibly picky phase a few months ago and I just kept offering her everything and taking it away if she didn't want it.

I once found myself thinking in utter frustration, 'For god's sake, she can't live on bananas, porridege, yoghurt and bre... Oh, actually, yes, she can!'

If she sees you're anxious over it, it will become a way for her to exert control in a negative way, and let's face it, toddlers don't have much control over their lives. I think the only answer is to keep persevering with offering her a wide variety of foods.

With dd, I would prepare whatever we were eating, offer her some of that, and if she really didn't want it the options were yoghurt, fruit or toast, not an alternative meal. In the last couple of months her eating has improved hugely, I just think the only thing that works is time and patience - and sometimes seeing other children eating, too.

Sorry, I hope all this doesn't sound like a rant - I feel really strongly about this, because I ate hardly anything as a small child (not picky with what I ate, just tiny quantities) and my parents were very patient and calm about it, and now I eat like a horse. I just dread to think what would have happened if they'd forced me to eat more.

OK - you have wound yourself up in a right storm about something that really doesn't warrant it.

It doesn't matter that she doesn't care for fruit in it's natural state yet. Don't even give it to her, just eat it yourself around her and eventually she will want it as it's yours in the meantime just let her have it how she likes it (pureed or whatever).

Your DD will go through all kinds of food phases, if you get this invested in every single one of them you will make eating/food a nightmare for you and for her.

Whe I was forced to eat food I didn't like (mainly vegetables) I either spent the meal crying, or heaving or both.
I still don't like them...

I think she is very young for such a harsh approach, I would relax about it a bit more and hopefully she might start to try it a bit more gradually? keep it available and eat it in front of her etc. If you go to stay and play they normally give fruit in the snack time and seeing others eat it may encourage her to copy

DS1 loved fruit from day 1 and at 3, still loves them though no veges. Argh!

DS2 would have those pouches of pureed fruit now and then but never seem to really have taken to fruit. He's now almost 18 months and have finally started to eat some fruit but usually only when someone else is having them. Even then, I can see he isn't going to be a big fruit eater like his brother. Luckily, I am always offering DS1 fruit so DS2 always gets offered it though I will be lucky if he has some 1 out of every 4 times I offer and usually the smallest amount.

I wouldn't stress about it too much. Give her pureed fruit and just keep offering cut fruit now and then.

I know it's hard as I love fruit and I cannot conceive how someone can not like them but DS2 is obviously taking after his dad in more ways than one!

Let it go. Pureed fruit is fine as part of balanced (ish!) diet.

ooof don't worry about it. She'll be fine. Chill out, pureed fruit / smoothies / other stuff will be fine don't worry. In time she will learn that fruit is nice.

I agree. As long as you keep on visibly enjoying fruit whilst in her company, she'll want it eventually.

DS (now 15 m.o.) went through a three months or so of refusing all vegetables, either as side dishes or as the main dish e.g. veg curry. We just kept putting it on his high chair tray, eating it ourselves and ignoring him throwing it on the floor. He's just started to try some types of veg again - occasionally at least.

My three year old has never in his entire life eaten a piece of whole fruit. He simply will not even physically touch it, much less pick it up and mouth it. This also goes for all vegetables too apart from sweetcorn on the cob, and he will eat extremely small amounts of mashed potato from a fork. Seriously, that's it. He will however eat any kind of pureed fruit/vegetable from pouches and on very rare occasions will eat virtually liquid home-stewed apple, and will eat dried fruit. So he gets at least one pouch, one portion of dried fruit, and one glass of apple juice a day. We also eat a lot of sweetcorn cobs with our meals! My other trick is berry 'ice cream' twice a week - equal quantities of mixed berries and whole yoghurt, pureed and frozen - brilliantly simple and quick, and very tasty.

I feel for you I really do. I've had to learn to let this go too, but it's so very draining and worrying. But you simply cannot restrict all her other food in the meantime, that's cruel.

My DD didn't each much fruit at 18 months that wasn't puree. Now she asks for apple or banana or grapes in preference to other puddings. I offered the fruit often (even if she didn't eat it)' mainly cut in little chunks and served with a toothpick in each chunk, called fruit lollies. She found it more fun like that and when she grew out of the fussy phase, started eating it.

So I reckon there is no need to force it but you do need to keep offering, which is hard when lots of fruit is wasted (or eat it yourself)

I sympathise! DD1 was a total fruit avoider.

Here's how I got her to enjoy fruit...
When she was 2 1/2 we started a reward chart- she helped me decorate it and we bought some pretty stickers to put on every time she had a bit of fruit. We often have fruit before breakfast (when we are all rested but ready for food)- the DDs each choose a fruit from the pretty fruit bowl that we keep on the table and I or DH prepares it on the table in front of the kids. The fruit is cut up and put on a big pink plate and decorated with a few raisins. Then we can all take a few bits. It's visually very satisfying and we are all involved- so it makes a nice moment. Dh and I make lots of encouraging noises etc! DH, I (and DD2) are very enthusiastic about choosing our fruit bits and DD1 gets a lot of fuss for trying things. We often have berries- they go down better than crunchy apples, as do ripe juicy pears and ripe mangoes.

DD1 still isn't crazy about fruit but she eats it as part of the range of foods that's on offer and will sometimes choose a juicy pear just because.

Your DD may be a wee bit young for this. And the whole fruit experience has to be fun and happy and lovely. HTH