Kids who are obsessed with playing with fruit and foods

[HoneyBunnii]

Hello everyone got a bit of a problem as a first time parent and hoping someone can relate..
I got a two year old who absolutely loves those toy fruit and veg sets (the ones that you can cut in half) and he also enjoys watching vids on youtube of these as well.. but recently it has been getting alittle too much to the point where my toddler raids his grandmothers fridge to take out actual fruit and veggies to play with.. he also cries if he sees fruit and veg at a supermarket because he wants to get out of his pushchair and play with them 🤦‍♀️ is this just a phase and should i let his creativity flow hoping it will just pass? Or is there a way that i can stem this behaviour? I was okay with the toy fruits but i now hate taking him anywhere where there is any kind of fruit or veg/ fruit bowls because he is so obsessed! Has anyone else had this experience? And how long did it last?
I suspect it started from his love of that you tube channel (hey bear sensory/dancing fruit) when he was a baby and ever since he realised you could cut and slice these fruit he has been wanting to literally collect and play with whichever fruit and veg he sees! He will start daycare next month i wonder if that will take his mind off things and help him move onto other toys? I bought him a farm animal toy set which he plays with for a while but then ultimately goes back to the fruit and veg 🙈

Hello anyone? 😶

Hi, it sounds like probably just one of those things kids focus on for a while before moving on to the next thing. If he has toys and screen time and other things in his life all about a particular topic, it's not surprising that he's interested in it. Although it can still be really frustrating. I'd say to try to grin and bear it and wait for something new to come along and take over.

Can he not play with some at his gran's? You could start getting him interested in food preparation or play shops? If he has his toys there that could distract him from the actual fruit and veg if there's a problem with him touching them.

At nursery he'll encounter lots of things, so something new will probably come along soon!

(My DC's a bit younger but currently obsessed with Bluey books and water bottles...)

@Scirocco i guess you are right about having the fruit toys at his grans so he would not touch the actual fruit, i think i will buy him an extra set that he can play with over there.. it is a relief to know these things will pass though eventually 😄

My son is almost 3 and I have exactly the same problem if not worse and I have never come across anyone who has heard of a child being obsessed with playing with fruit. He has been like it since he was about 1 and a half. He also used to watch dancing fruit but I banned it to try and see if the obsession would fade and it hasn’t. That was about 6months maybe longer ago. He is constantly in my fridge getting all the fruit the fruit toys are not really good enough anymore and if we go shopping he wants everything in the fruit isle especially watermelon and pineapple, when he gets them he is soooo happy, I first started buying them because it made him so happy and I thought why not it’s fruit it’s not like I’m buying him loads of chocolate, but now the obsession is becoming out of control. He wants to watch videos on my phone of his birthday where I made him a dancing fruit cake and he had fruit balloons. Ild be interested to see how it plays out with your little one, I am hoping that it is just a phase but also considering that it maybe linked with something deeper.

@Dinafrances hi, well it isnt as bad now since i sent him to day care where he gets to experiment with other toys.. he does still play with fruit but not as much as i have put up baby gates to keep him out of my kitchen.. also he is more into watching ms rachel now and does sometimes play with other things like farm animals etc. Because she has a variety of videos on different things.
Im just slowly trying to phase it out by reducing those toys and putting them away in the shed where he will never find them.. he doesnt like watching dancing fruit as much and i think its just the music he enjoys. Maybe try to just distract him?
I personally think its just a phase like some kids are obsessed with dinosaurs and want nothing but dinosaurs and some are obsessed with cocomelon etc.
I think the best approach would be to slowly get rid of anything fruit related around him and not to remind him of it.. also you will have to say No alot.. its hard but i have had to put my foot down when he wants to come into the kitchen while i am cooking. I told him the kitchen is for mummy and daddy only and he has had terrible tantrums but they have reduced.
I am also hoping with the arrival of his baby sister in a couple of months time he might also get distracted as well and we might also take him abroad to visit his grandparents for a couple of months so he has a break from all of the fruits etc.
I guess it is all about breaking the habit and unfortunately it isnt easy.
If he isnt showing any other symptoms and just loves fruit and veg then as i said i think its just those phases kids go through which can sometimes go alittle too far where you just kinda have to intervene..
Good luck x

Hi!

I’ve just had to ask my girlfriend if this was her posting what I’ve just read as it sounds just like our son!!

Our son is obsessed with fruit & vegetables. Not eating it, almost like toys. Again, all started from YouTube singing videos. He’s 3 & 1/2 and it’s been going on for about a year. It started off fun, singing and soft / toys you can cut. It’s slowly developed into wanting to hold them, play with them & has gone to bed with them!

He collects them when we go to a supermarket, cries when we past shops if we don’t buy some & made our recent all inclusive holiday difficult with the canteen etc!

He knows ALL fruit & vegetables! More than most adults! His favourites are a pineapple, butternut squash & watermelon. Nursey have had to hide the fruit bowl as once he’s distracted by it, he has to hold/play with it 😂 (he doesn’t eat it)

It was a huge relief to read others have experienced this too. We have thought about having a detox & stopping videos & buying it but it makes him v.happy.

Feel free to reach out to me if you’ve any tips or want to chat! (Hoping he grows out of it when he starts pre school next month!

Thanks,

JA.

@JA14 hi, wow yes what you have wrote about your kid sounds so familiar to my son 😄 especially taking the toy fruits to bed with him..

Well he still does enjoy cutting fruit and wanting the fruits from the fruit bowl at grandmas etc. And also watching them online but i am trying to direct his attention to other things too, like i have started making him watch ms rachel and bought him a small ukelele so he can play it along with the songs they sing etc. I am also hoping that the new baby due in december might distract him from the fruit thing too..

It has been going on for about 6 months now so i felt it was time to kind of start shifting his attention to something else because if i keep getting him these fruit plushies etc then when he grows up and starts going to primary school he will probably not take no for an answer when it comes to going over the top with those school fads and trends that literally keep going throughout the whole school year where the kids collects certain toys or cards etc. (We had the good old pokemon cards in my school days 😂) thats why i think its best to not let him get his way for too long at this age because it will be a struggle for him to realise when how much is too much in the future when it comes to toys.

I dont have any tips unfortunately although i wish i did but the best i can advise is like i said above, try to get him interested, even if its for an hour a day, in something else like an animal farm set or painting and maybe he will eventually start moving on 😊

Hello
This is exactly the same as my 2 year old. We thought it was just him! He's obsessed with all fruit and veg. Will watch anything on TV involving it. And loves to play with realt fruit to, rather than eat it.
Honestly so glad it isn't just my son. He sometimes drives me mad with it haha but it is cute.

I’ve been going through the exact same thing with my son.I was wondering if your child grew out of the obsession or if his still interested in fruit n veg?

@Noreexox hi, well.. this is gonna be a long post... he does play more with other stuff now.. like tools or pretending to clean the house etc. he still does like playing with fruit now and then and has an interest in cooking overall (sometimes he likes to gather stuff like a banana or apple along with a few small tins and bottles that he pretends are flour and salt etc. and puts them on the table and calls it his supermarket lol) i still dont take him to the supermarket because the last time i took him a few months ago he stayed quiet for around 5 minutes and then saw a pack of ice lollies and started crying over those and then when i told him no he saw a lady with strawberries in her cart and started crying for them but not because he wanted to play with them but because he wanted to eat them 🤷🏻‍♀️ i put a pack in our shopping cart and he just ripped them open at the checkout and started munching on them lol

I think he just generally likes the idea of cooking because he likes watching cooking shows too. Nursery hasnt said anything about it so i assume he plays with other stuff there and i know he loves playing in the mud kitchen and outdoors there.

I wouldnt say he is obsessed with them as he was before.. although he still loves pineapples the most out of all the fruit and it will always catch his eye but as long as he is playing with other stuff im not as worried anymore.

Every kid has something they like i guess like dinosaurs and fairies and i guess for my kid its cooking and food.. i guess thats why you find so many toy foods etc. Because some kids are into that..

One thing that worked for us when we visited morocco where there is fruit and vegs everywhere outside was that when he pointed to any fruit or veg and told us for example a tomato cart, we said "oh yes, that is a man selling tomatoes, good boy" and we would carry on and hr didnt sulk or cry. The first two days were difficult because he wanted everything but once we started doing that it worked but i just keep him away from the supermarket until he is older while in the UK because i would never get my shopping done 🤦🏻‍♀️

Im hoping once he starts primary school in 2026 he will move away from all that

This whole post thread is my son right now, his almost 2 1/2, he loves fruits and vegetables. Again watched hey bear fruits from young, now moved onto the educational videos of them and has learnt things such as fennel, rocket, dragon fruit (like harder ones). Loves the wooden and plastic ones you cut. Loves watching me cut them, but not keen in trying them. Supermarkets he has to pick them up, look at them, tell us what they are. He has a real interest.
truthfully I love it, I feel proud as his so intelligent with them. Maybe he wants to be a chef, maybe he loves the colours, smells, shapes etc. He attends pre school and they write on his development he has a keen interest in fruits and vegetables. It seems normal to me. If anyone wants to follow us on insta it’s 1sttimema if you want to connect? Be nice to speak to others where their children have the same interest. :)

Any update? Going through this now with my 28 month old

@Mommaofboys45 he is 4.5 now and he does enjoy other toys but he really likes to pretend play "supermarket" where he will get toy fruit and random other stuff (like an emtpy crisp packet and pretend its a bag of flour etc. lol) and prop them on the shelf but he doesnt do it with real fruit anymore like he used to, we can take him out shopping too without him throwing tantrums over fruit. Now he just walks past them and will shout out their names as he walks by or just be like "oh look, these are mangoes etc."
He was recently diagnosed with ASD but that was because of his social and communication delays which he initially had. He enjoys watching kids shows that have anything to do with baking or cooking but isnt restricted to them and is open to watching other shows too. Im just glad he doesnt do it to real fruit anymore even when it is literally sitting there in a fruit bowl infront of his face (he would rather eat it instead) and that i can take him out without him going crazy over fruit 😅