How should I manage my fruit and veg refusing toddlers meals?

[sharond101]

DS will be 2 in May. He is averse to fruit and vegetables of every and any form (except dried fruit - which I don't want to overload given the added sugar) except if its mashed or pureed to it's indistinguishable within a meal. I therefore use pureed fruit in his weetabix in the morning, give a tbsp raisins as a snack, puree a meal for dinner then allow him to eat some of what DH and I are having afterwards and usually I give him some custard with more pureed fruit or I had bought some Harlteys jelly pots which had pureed fruit in them (they are finished now). I reckon from this he gets roughly 4 portions per day but really I shouldn't have to puree at his age. I have tried every fruit and vegetable I can think of and if it's lucky enough to get to his mouth it is discarded. I've roasted, boiled, steamed added flavourings but nothing works. He likes to pretend to eat bananas because he sees DH eating them and will ask for an apple if he sees me with one but if any enter his mouth he coughs and splutters it out. What should I do? I continue to offer them as finger foods but no result, I love to see little kids munching on strawberries or grapes or brocolli even.

Honestly don't worry this is a very common problem. Disguising vegetables in bologneses etc, using dipping sauces and making fun faces out of veggies may not be the ideal but if it gets them eating fruit and veg why not? Try not to make a massive issue of it as this will give her a complex but make sure that you always serve vegetables with meals so she recognises that they are a normal part of the meal and lead by example - let her see you eating them as you are doing.

Sometimes it helps if they can help a bit with the preparation of the food too, or to pick fruits themselves. My dd wouldn't eat tomatoes but then one year we grew our own and she was picking them off and eating them! Sometimes they just need it to be made interesting. Try not to panic, keep doing what you're doing without forcing the issue and in her own time she will grow to like some fruit and veg.