Why won't my 2 year old eat any fruit or veg?

[MadDad92]

I'm sure this question has been posted before but I'm at at loose end. I can't get my 2 year old boy to eat any fruit or veg. He doesn't have a great diet all round, it's not for lack of trying, we give him veg with every meal and even tried just giving him fruit and veg with nothing else, he sat for 2 hours and refused to touch it. We've talked to a dietitian and health visitors who say it's just a phase and we're doing everything right but that doesn't make our situation any better. He can't even do a poo without pain because he's not getting the nutrients he needs. Has anyone else had these problems?

Veg & fruit refusenik, hell yes. It was torturous and it was a phase

can you add hidden veg,purée it and add to pasta sauce.blended soups etc?
Veg fingers he ate them,they look like fish fingers
Will he eat Smoothies?
We got him involved in cooking and made pizza

We stopped talking about fruit & veg,wasn’t a topic. Removed all other snacks. And just keep it light & breezy

Will he eat Cereal with fibre Eg coco shreddies, weetabix, to make it easier to pass a stool

Kids have iron cast will and yes they’ll sit for 2hour refusing. Because they can because in a bizzare way it’s a game. Alright let’s see who lasts longest....

I made up a guess what colour I am game. Put on sleepmask and sample the foods that were in bowls diced up so sweet peppers, tangerine,broccoli,mushrooms etc. So we’d shout out daft answers like it’s purple! It’s blue! He’s laughing along and we’d all try it

And I used star reward charts, he’s competitive wanted to win so that helped.

Btw My kid attended nursery and ate fruit & veg there

There's a website called my fussy eater that have some good recipes on for kids who won't eat their veggies. I tried a recipe the other day cheesy pasta and you blend onions with it and courgette (but she gets you to take the skin off the courgette so it all still looks yellow) I'd still have a side of veg or fruit so they can still have a choice of trying that too as you never know one day he might surprise you and pick it up and eat it! But atleast this way you've got some recipes where you can hide the veg too!
She also has a page on Instagram myfussyeater worth having a look

Have you ever tried stewed fruit, eg apples / rhubarb / blackberries etc cooked down with a bit of cinnamon and honey in? Mine enjoys that. Also unusual fruit like passion fruit she likes. Or a mango blended up and stirred into yoghurt. dried fruit eg apricots are good.

Sometimes she will enjoy gnawing on a whole apple, whereas she would not touch slices of it on a plate.

I give her a raw peeled carrot or cucumber while I’m cooking dinner - she’s at her hungriest then and she chews it while watching a bit of tv while I’m cooking. Whereas if I put the carrot on her plate at the meal she wouldnt eat it.

@MadDad92 the answer to your question "Why won't my 2 year old eat any fruit or veg?" may lie in the food he has been eating instead of eating fruit and veg if he has been given ultra processed artificially engineered food with extremely high palatability. Any snacks, sweet or savoury that has the perfect bliss combination of sugar, salt and fat to make it irresistible. Does he have crisps regularly ? or chips or nuggets or any food, frozen or not, out of a packet and factory? Was he weaned with pouches made with such strange combination of veg and fruit they taste like nothing in real life (who eats spinach and blueberries mashed together?) . Refined flour and grain, so white toast and white rice, breakfast cereal, all of which favour gut bacteria that influence the brain choices and so on.

Trying to hide a quarter of a zucchini makes little sense even in desperation. What you need to change is the other food that he eats and really abandon all ultra processed food which cultivates an artificial preference for crap, so instead of chicken nuggets (if he has them), make your own home made chicken finger, even your own fries because the majority of the frozen one have sugar in some form (maltodextrin, or some starch ) .
At the same time, you need to involve your son in the cooking process from A to Z, Go to supermarket with him and have him pick, the most beautiful zucchini, the darkest broccoli, the reddest tomatoe and so on. At home, put a chia against the sink and have him wash the veggies, then move the chair next to you and let him watch while you cut, slice, dress the veggies, have him mix the dressing, brush the zucchini slices before you put them in the oven and so on.

Learn to cook veggies that taste amazing, don't buy frozen, with the exception of peas, they taste horrible . At two, he can have his meals with the family, and everyone has the same food on the table. DOn't talk about the food, never say "see if you like it" because it implies that he might not like it.

But as important as offering is removing the food that inhibits his taste . If the only fruit he knows if the one in bars coated with sugar, he will never find any pleasure in real stuff.