Eating fruit/vegetables seems to be against DS (17 months) deepest held beliefs <<baffled>>

[PacificDogwood]

He is my Nr 4.
He was BF to 13 months.
Weaned on my usual haphazard combination of purees/lumpy food/finger foods at 6 months.

He will take smoothies (commercial or homemade) or banana milkshake if offered in an open cup with a straw which means I have to hold things for him as I'd have to redecorate if I left him to it... Also smooth yoghurts sometimes work.

He will (sometimes) tolerate tomato sauce - either Dolmio kind of stuff or baby jar stuff or spaghetti hoops type crap

He has never ever taken a strawberry/raspberry/grape/piece of banana to his mouth - he has mashed them/thrown them/decorated the room with them, but that's it.

He used to allow me to spoon feed him, but no more - he is Mr Independent.

I am not too worried about him as he is the picture of health and is thriving just fine.

But I don't understand what's going on?? And is there anything that has worked for you if you had a colourful-stuff-refuser?

BTW my other three (8, 7, 3 years) were fed/weaned pretty much the same way and are all pretty good eaters - they have their foibles but are easy to cook for. I fully expected DS4 to be sharing family meals by now, but no....

Honestly, he is not getting any attention for it. I promise! I am an advocate of ignoring fussiness and everyone trying everything and no pressure and lovely family meal times but he is extraordinarily stubborn and if I let him get down he will just throw everyone else's food around. When I said earlier that he sometimes makes me cry with his fussiness it is NEVER EVER in front of him!

DS (just 3) won't eat vegetables (well, maybe sometimes, you know, after he has seen that herd of pigs flying past the window) and DD (20 months) does.

Every time she sits eating a bowl of salad I look at her and think "you strange child"

LMAO at lwfhinba's 'strange child'!

Get a carrot and let him play with it for awhile then let him watch you peel and and cook it. Then put it on a plate and make a face with it so it looks funny. And see if he wants to try it.

Ive been luck my lo eats anything. Sometimes he will get fed up with what I give him and says not again. His nearly 3 now so sometimes i put little bowls on the table with different foods in and his happy again.

What made me start this thread, was not so much worry rather that bafflement: my other 3 eat most things just fine, so I agree with the sentiment of "strange child" !

He has gummed a carrot and may have accidently swallowed an atom or two of it at the time.

What gets to me is that he will not try: how can anyone resist summer fruit??

Strange child....

And well done, shringkingnora, sounds like things are moving in the right direction.

The very reason I replied, Pacific! I did everything exactly the same with all 3 and yet ended up with a fussy eater. The not trying is so annoying especially when they just glance at it and refuse it. I sit there thinking "You haven't even checked what it is"!

In his defence he likes having sunblock put on, his nails being cut and his hair being washed

Ok, shrinkingnora, your DS is weirder than mine .

He is an evil genius at climbing though

Yes! Evil climbing genius here too. He looks like he has been duffed up - although if they were real climbing geniuses they wouldn't fall so much maybe.... He also likes having his teeth brushed - apparently the hideously string toothpaste is fine (he even likes grown up toothpaste). He put a grape in his mouth today!!!!!! I am so excited

He bit his tongue again - pool of blood in cot this morning .
This is the third time he has done this in the last 3 months or so and it is clearly related to teething.
I have never, ever known any child to teeth like he does. Blood?? Actual blood - what on earth next?
I have had him looked at by the dentist and he was at hospital when his mouth got so horribly infected in June.

So, surprise, surprise, he had next to nothing to eat today, but did take a banana milk shake with a straw - the straw thing seems to help.

Fingers crossed it does not get infected abloodygain .

Havent had time to read all of this and really want to go to bed. But:

My dd (22 months) has a tiny appetite. The No Snacks At All rule really helps.

She loves to pick and eat rasberries and blackberries apples and plums directly off a bush/tree. Despite not liking any expensive fruit nicely packaged from Ocado

There is a "thing" on the vertbaudet website, a sort of container that you can slurp/suck thick drinks from that acts in the same way as the pouches with shop bought stuff. It goes floppy if they put it down half way through drinking and makes a bit of a mess if they dont finish it in one go. But I do like it and often give a smoothies to dd in the bath so I dont have to spend ages cleaning and washing.

Someone asked me if dd preffered wet or dry food and when I established she preffered dry food that helped a bit too. God, that just made her sound like a cat [laugh]

Oh no, Pacific! Fingers crossed that it heals quickly. DS2 has started eating pasta again. And he can say marmite very beautifully!

Cottonreels - DS2 definitely prefers dry food too.